The Capri was replaced in early 1996 by a 1989 Vauxhall Cavalier 2.0 GLi, it had pace, it was comfy, boring as sin and a awful front wheel drive chassis that suffered from terrible torque steer, overly light power steering, and jelly handling. I've driven the very latest Vauxhall Vectras and I'm afraid to say the only thing they've fixed is the torque steer, and the chassis is even less communicative nowadays.
I did at least during my time with it manage to give it most of a later spec facelift, much to the dismay of the insurance companies involved with slowly replacing most of the panels on this car, it my time it had a bonnet, 2 bumpers, 3 headlights, a grill, 1 wing, 1 rear quarter, two doors, 2 windows, 1 wing mirror, and 2 engines. Anyway the less said about that car the better, finally in 2000 I got rid and got something fun.
In 2000 with the Cavalier on deaths door with oil consumption nearly as high as the fuel consumption, and having had a second engine go on me, I set out for the hunt of a cheap low mileage car, and came back with a 1987 Mk2 VW Golf GTI 8v. Yes, it did fit the search criteria in amongst all the dogs, rotten Fords, and various other cars on offer, I managed to find a 2 owner from new, unmolested Golf GTI with all of 62,000 miles on the clock, full history, every MoT from new, and all for £1500. Bargain. Not only that she was quick and great fun to boot.
She was my 'baby' for 6 years and was a bloody good car, as a testament to the build of the Golfs the top picture was taken in 2005 with the speedo showing closer to 140,000, I sold her in April 2006 with 148,500 miles on the clock, and the engine was still original. I put the Hockenheim style wheels and tyres on the car shortly after purchase, as it was due a set of tyres and it worked as cheap replacing the set and alloys, as it did getting the just the tyres, plus of course freshening up the car a bit. Brake improvements featured heavily on this vehicle. It lacked heavily compared to the Cavalier so always ran performance pads, and after been quoted £100 to fit 2 shite rubber hoses at the front, had Goodridge stainless hoses fitted all round for less cash. When the front shockers went at around 120,000 I had the complete set up renewed with a German FK Ultra kit, it was meant to be a reasonable 30mm drop, but once fitted it looked more like I got the 50mm drop. It was also a bit firm for some of Derbyshire's worst surfaces, and with hindsight I should have probably used OEM shocks with just a slightly shorter and firmer spring. To the rear I had fitted the obligatory M3 style rear lights and while having a small amount of rust corrected on the NS rear corner, had the boot panel smoothed and later mk4 chrome badging fitted.
Early 2006 and the Golf was unfortunately starting to show her age, and a sudden lists of faults coming up, I started a hunt for a new car. started looking at E36 BMWs then realising how many rotten ones there were, so started looking back at the galvanised VW Audi group, and more specifically Audi 80 Coupes which I'd always liked, especially the V6 versions. Somehow though I ended up with something with two doors too many and two cylinders too few, a 1992 Audi 80 2.0E Saloon. It did however feature what I do look for in a car, just one owner from new, unmolested, a very complete history, and a reasonably low 82,000 miles on the clock. It had never even had a radio fitted, and all the tool kit etc were complete too.
It was however compared to the GTI that preceded it, a bit, well, 'old' and 'frumpy' for a 30 year old, though at least it has a much better chassis than the old Cavalier, for what looks a bit old barge, it handles shockingly well. The tyres had also seen better days so a good excuse for the 17" alloys and tyres cheaply replacing the old alloys and the oddball (and therefore expensive) tyre size, and the factory wheels fetched more than I expected on eBay, so the 17's owe me about £50. The big bus like plastic steering wheel has been replaced with a smaller leather Momo item, I'd have liked the an original Audi Nardi leather steering wheel, but even though the newest ones would be about 13 years old, they are still fetching £100 on eBay, so 2 year old Momo for £30 it was. So besides grabbing a cambelt and a few service items that takes us up to 82,000 miles. Next on the list besides a general service, is a genuine boot spoiler and some de-badging. Oh in case you are wondering, it is dark metallic green, really nice when the light hits it
