Your Previous Cars

keefysher

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Hampshire
Your Mercedes
W166 GLE350AMG Line 3.0 2017. BMW Z3 2.8 1998.
Have you ever wondered what happened to a car you may have owned at one time?

In 1991 I had a company car that was used purely for mega miles on business, so wasn't bovvered about it. When it came time to change it was always my retort 'blue with front fog lights', unlike some precious people who had status cars.

My neighbour at the time had a lock up under the arches in Perivale where the police stored stolen recovered cars of interest. I wanted a toy. On offer were a Quattro Sport, Senator twin ram, Lotus Carlton and this:

Astra GTE 2.jpg

An Astra GTE MkII 16v Leather. It had been lifted off a driveway at 3 weeks old and was recovered 3 moths later. A couple of trim bits were missing. The tow eye flip down bit in the front spoiler, the button trims on the door cards and a steering column cowling was cracked.

I used it a lot to go skiing / kayaking to Austria. It was stored on steel blocks when I was away on business a lot.

I sold it in 2004 with 37k miles on the clock as it wasn't getting used and my storage space had other toys in it. Sold it to a couple of kids.

I did get a letter from a guy who had bought it and intended turning it to concors standard, but no return address. I still had a drivers seat base trim and roof rack.

Roll on to this morning and I got a couple of message about it.

It was featured in a Total Vauxhall magazine article in 2014 after being resprayed. Some interesting artistic licence in the journey wording.

Astra GTE 3.jpg

The current owner who restored it sent me this image

Astra GTE 1.jpg

To tell me it was alive and well and to get in touch.

Lets see if I get to see it again.
 

A.J.

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May 31, 2015
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Location
Norwich. UK
Your Mercedes
UnMerc - 2020 VW Polo 2.0t GTi Plus, DSG. Flash Red, Traditional VW GTi Tartan seat trim.
Have you ever wondered what happened to a car you may have owned at one time?

In 1991 I had a company car that was used purely for mega miles on business, so wasn't bovvered about it. When it came time to change it was always my retort 'blue with front fog lights', unlike some precious people who had status cars.

My neighbour at the time had a lock up under the arches in Perivale where the police stored stolen recovered cars of interest. I wanted a toy. On offer were a Quattro Sport, Senator twin ram, Lotus Carlton and this:

View attachment 45839

An Astra GTE MkII 16v Leather. It had been lifted off a driveway at 3 weeks old and was recovered 3 moths later. A couple of trim bits were missing. The tow eye flip down bit in the front spoiler, the button trims on the door cards and a steering column cowling was cracked.

I used it a lot to go skiing / kayaking to Austria. It was stored on steel blocks when I was away on business a lot.

I sold it in 2004 with 37k miles on the clock as it wasn't getting used and my storage space had other toys in it. Sold it to a couple of kids.

I did get a letter from a guy who had bought it and intended turning it to concors standard, but no return address. I still had a drivers seat base trim and roof rack.

Roll on to this morning and I got a couple of message about it.

It was featured in a Total Vauxhall magazine article in 2014 after being resprayed. Some interesting artistic licence in the journey wording.

View attachment 45840

The current owner who restored it sent me this image

View attachment 45841

To tell me it was alive and well and to get in touch.

Lets see if I get to see it again.

I had one of those many years ago, mine was White. It had a funny seat set up and I could never get comfortable in it, however in it's day it had quite a respectable performance. :)
 

Craiglxviii

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Location
Cambs UK
Your Mercedes
970 Panamera Turbo; W221 S500L AMG Line, C215 CL500, W251 R350L AMG Line, plus several more now gone
I keep tabs on our old family Land Rover Series II 110”, 2.5 diesel. It’s still on the road, 1975 build date, 95k on the clock now.
 
OP
keefysher

keefysher

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Your Mercedes
W166 GLE350AMG Line 3.0 2017. BMW Z3 2.8 1998.
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
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I had one of those many years ago, mine was White. It had a funny seat set up and I could never get comfortable in it, however in it's day it had quite a respectable performance. :)

The 'Leather' edition was only in the Bordeaux Red in the UK, only 250 were sold in the UK. The Recaro seats in that were superb in comparison to the standard vauxhall version. In Europe they had different colours as the Opel Kaddet GSi

My wife always called it the 'purple' car. She did once reverse it into my company car that was parked on her driveway as me and stepson watched :rolleyes::rolleyes: She automatically reversed the full length of the drive, just couldn't figure why not on that day. Fortunately no damage.

It was a flying machine. I often used to drive out to Prutz in Austria overnight, in under 7 hours from Calais. Once got clocked at 143mph/230kph on the autobahn when they were determining wether to apply speed limits. The digital dash was just a turn of the stalk to show mph/kph. In my ownership it did more miles in Europe than at home.

I had an earlier metallic blue MkII, but the 2litre 8valve with the std vauxhall seats, nowhere near as comfortable.

And an airfix kit white MkI 1.8 with Recaro seats, again very comfortable.
 

Craiglxviii

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Your Mercedes
970 Panamera Turbo; W221 S500L AMG Line, C215 CL500, W251 R350L AMG Line, plus several more now gone
I’m still drooling over that Panzer Mk.V Manta on the magazine cover. What a beast!
 

thebiglad

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Aug 15, 2018
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Location
Central France
Your Mercedes
2005 CLK 270 cdi
Unfortunately because it was a long time ago I have no pics (just found some on Google) to make the post interesting, but through my life I've had a couple of interesting motors :

1. 1970 351 Mach 1 Mustang (electric) convertible. Black with cream soft top, sidewinder exhausts and a wonderful noise;
Imagine in black :

$_61.JPG


2. 1987 Porsche 3.2 Carrera 911 convertible. Guards red, black leather sports seats and wide (turbo) body, fully electric drop top.

Imagine in Guards Red :

1986-porsche-911-carrera-32-wide-body-cabriolet.jpg
 
Last edited:

John Laidlaw

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Nov 15, 2013
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Location
Wirral
Your Mercedes
Land Rover Discovery 4
B8A2BB89-EC0B-45EA-BD42-18A3F4CC7D3F.jpeg Tried to trace this one a few times and thought i had in Birmingham earlier in the year, but turned out it was another of the same rare colour....
 

SmartAmg

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May 19, 2018
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Your Mercedes
2011 E class coupe 350 CDI
John, you had a BMW !
:):D
 

John Laidlaw

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Location
Wirral
Your Mercedes
Land Rover Discovery 4
John, you had a BMW !
:):D
Yup, one and only time....kept this quiet for years like a guilty pleasure! It was a beast in a straight line but wasn’t overly fond of corners in the wet or slippery stuff- and this in Scotland in the days before mamby pamby winter tyres!
Also a thirsty bugger - 8mpg averaged....loved it though and let it go too easily and for the wrong reasons...that’s another story though:p
 

Yugguy

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Mar 4, 2016
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566
Location
Rugby, UK
Your Mercedes
C220CDI W204 Elegance Comand
Would the DVLA public site state if a vehicle was scrapped? I traded in my lovely Clio 172 in 2007 shortly before its first MOT but it never had one. So I'm wondering if it was exported.
 

Chrishazle

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Joined
May 25, 2009
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Location
Nr Ashford, Kent
Your Mercedes
S204 2008 C220CDI Elegance Estate Auto, 2008 R171 Facelift SLK280
I recently tried to trace my 1994 968 tip coupe, Guards Red with a grey 1/2 leather Porsche script interior, I bought it in Nov 1998 as second owner, 26k on the clock, sold it 7 years ago to the owner of a Porsche specialist garage near Gatwick with 64k on the clock. Saw it a year later on ebay from a dealer in Buckingham, as luck would have it we were in Buckingham a week later, went to the dealer and saw the car, but lost track of it after that. Recently tried the reg in askmid and the MoT site, no joy. Either it's now on a private plate or (God forbid) it's been written off. Much as I love my 968 tip cab, I still miss the coupe - at the old house I had garage space where I could have had both, winter and summer cars, and financially I did not need to sell the coupe, but here that was not an option.
 

V6Matty

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Aug 1, 2012
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Location
Newark, Nottinghamshire
Your Mercedes
S212/2010/E350 (His) W246/2016/B200 (Hers)
Would love to trace my old V6 Clio, although I bet I couldn't afford to buy it now even if is still in one piece.
 

John Laidlaw

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2013
Messages
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Location
Wirral
Your Mercedes
Land Rover Discovery 4
F805ED80-6E8C-474E-88FE-633B697A3FF4.jpeg Wonder if this would be a future search?;)
 


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