Anyone drive a MK2 Cortina?

Back in the nineties I drove an XM, it was a real bargain, less than a year old and below half price from the BMW dealer who had taken it as trade in. Marvellous comfy car, miles ahead of its time, but as time passed it became really exciting as the pneumatic system used to let go without warning disabling the steering and suspension and making it squat flat and spin down the road like a squashed frog. My son who practiced his driving in it was so impressed that he has been buying Citroens ever since.
 
Yep remember and drove all of those, I had a lovely yellow 2ltr Triumph Vitesse Convertible with 8 Track, which we cruised around Cornwall in, then moved on to a drop-snoot black Ford Escort RS2000 in 1978 - lovely car that one.....

I also drove my dads Wolseley 6/110 and IIRC it had something like a 4 litre Rolls-Royce engine.

Aaaah those were the days, hardly a parking warden in sight and you could park just about anywhere for free.....
 
jant said:
That's a REAL classic, i had the Safari version in 1978. even by today's standard of modern cars ( which all look the same - bit like modern yachts) the Citroen was miles ahead with technology. I do concede though that the French government of the day poured zillions of francs into Citroen! But i guess our lot did as well with British Leyland?
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I passed my test and went out and bought a DSuper5. DPP 293K. It’s the only car who’s reg I remember and it was a loooong time ago. Bloody superb. Sold when I spotted a leak from one of the suspension cylinders and freaked out. A year later my girlfriend’s mum was going out with a mini cab driver.... who had my car! I said, o isn’t the suspension a bit worrying on them? No, he said, I stick a pint of fluid in every couple of months, no problem
 
John100156 said:
...I also drove my dads Wolseley 6/110 and IIRC it had something like a 4 litre Rolls-Royce engine...
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The Wolseley 6/110 and Austin Westminster had the BMC 6-cylinder engine (3-litre?). It was the Vanden Plas Princess R that had a Royce engine - that's what the R means. All used the same body, similar to the Austin Cambridge/Morris Oxford but a bit bigger.
 
Quandary said:
Back in the nineties I drove an XM, it was a real bargain, less than a year old and below half price from the BMW dealer who had taken it as trade in. Marvellous comfy car, miles ahead of its time, but as time passed it became really exciting as the pneumatic system used to let go without warning disabling the steering and suspension and making it squat flat and spin down the road like a squashed frog. My son who practiced his driving in it was so impressed that he has been buying Citroens ever since.
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The hydraulics are surprisingly reliable, but I did once lose a gallon of fluid through a pinhole in a minute or two on the M6. At night. In heavy rain. Basically you always have to know what's leaking before dismissing a leak as unimportant. On the low pressure return side it normally doesn't matter but on the high pressure side ...

John100156 said:
Yep remember and drove all of those, I had a lovely yellow 2ltr Triumph Vitesse Convertible with 8 Track
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My other old car is a Triumph Herald 13/60 convertible which I have owned since 1985. Currently off the road while I try to work out why it dies whenever I take it uphill or exceed 30mph. Something funny in the fuel supply system, I think ...

gdallas said:
I passed my test and went out and bought a DSuper5. DPP 293K. It’s the only car who’s reg I remember and it was a loooong time ago. Bloody superb. Sold when I spotted a leak from one of the suspension cylinders and freaked out. A year later my girlfriend’s mum was going out with a mini cab driver.... who had my car! I said, o isn’t the suspension a bit worrying on them? No, he said, I stick a pint of fluid in every couple of months, no problem
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That sort of leak is quite acceptable, as long as it's low pressure (see above). Mine get's through about a litre of fluid every 5,000 miles, which I can live with for now, because I know it's coming out of the RH front suspension boot and I'll be changing that next spring.

The DS is a fantastic car. I've just taken it from IJmuiden to Lucerne and back without missing a beat - there aren't many cars of that age in which you can comfortably do day runs of 500+ miles.
 
You either appreciate the design of "classic" lines or you don,t! If your heart doesn,t race when looking at the rear end of a Series one E type or a gorgeous wooden yacht then buy a modern boxy plastic boat. It will likely be a better boat to own so don,t worry that you don,t get or appreciate the beauty of flowing lines or a lovely deep mahogany over plastic. Many don,t so buy a Yaris and some modern plastic boat, you will probably have a lot less hassle and heartache owning them against older boats.

I drive a mint 1998 SAAB 9000 Aero as my daily as it is over engineered doesn,t have all the consumer led rubbish like tyre pressure sensors, boots that close automatically etc and goes up in value rather than down and it is simple. My seventies car is a SAAB 96 V4, one owner 70K miles. I could drive it daily but would ruin it. They were perfectly alright 40 odd years ago so why not today... Because the revs don,t increase when you put it in first to stop it stalling because the milenials cannot drive!
My 96 plus a few other classics I have owned, (over 30 SAABs, never broken down in one yet) the LandRover I used for three years as a daily drive about 8 years ago.
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My daily drive below
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Last daily drive, great fun on the school run!
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JumbleDuck said:
Good point. My house is 200 years old (at least) and I have absolutely no desire to swap it for some foul, pokey little box with a design life of forty years.
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Our house was build in 1680's, but it has been fitted with all the goodies of modern technology; similarly to a old yacht fitted with up todate technology; sails, mast instrumentation etc thus taking advantage of old and new.
 
Zagato said:
You either appreciate the design of "classic" lines or you don,t! If your heart doesn,t race when looking at the rear end of a Series one E type or a gorgeous wooden yacht then buy a modern boxy plastic boat. It will likely be a better boat to own so don,t worry that you don,t get or appreciate the beauty of flowing lines or a lovely deep mahogany over plastic. Many don,t so buy a Yaris and some modern plastic boat, you will probably have a lot less hassle and heartache owning them against older boats.

I drive a mint 1998 SAAB 9000 Aero as my daily as it is over engineered doesn,t have all the consumer led rubbish like tyre pressure sensors, boots that close automatically etc and goes up in value rather than down and it is simple. My seventies car is a SAAB 96 V4, one owner 70K miles. I could drive it daily but would ruin it. They were perfectly alright 40 odd years ago so why not today... Because the revs don,t increase when you put it in first to stop it stalling because the milenials cannot drive!
My 96 plus a few other classics I have owned, (over 30 SAABs, never broken down in one yet) the LandRover I used for three years as a daily drive about 8 years ago.
View attachment 74088
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My daily drive below
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Last daily drive, great fun on the school run!
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Good choices!

We've had Saabs for over 20 years now. The wife still has a 93 as her daily, and this is my one.

my900t.gif
 
I think I feel the same about "classic" cars as I do about wooden boats. They have a certain style and, in most cases should be preserved, but I would never own one until I'm rich enough to tell my man to take care of that bit of varnish/leaking carburettor.

Yes, modern cars are boring, but I drove the best part of 1000 miles last week, including over 250 miles on the M25. Boredom with climate control has many advantages on a trip like that compared to the excitement of breakdowns, dodgy wipers and heaters in a "classic"
 
JumbleDuck said:
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Not mine. Mine's even nicer. Dark blue with a cream roof.
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Beautiful old car. When I was a student we bought one of these for £300 at a car auction then drove it from Newcastle to Athens and my Greek friends drove it back again. The incredibly complex hydraulic suspension started to go wrong and nobody in Newcastle could fix it. Sadly it eventually bounced its way to the scrapyard.
 
Stemar said:
Yes, modern cars are boring, but I drove the best part of 1000 miles last week, including over 250 miles on the M25.
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Over the last two weeks in October I did IJmuiden - Nuremberg - Augsburg - Munich - Freiburg - Mulhouse (for the day) - Lucerne (for the day) - Utrecht - IJmuiden in the DS. Over 2,000 miles in total. I do now take it to a specialist for an annual check-over and titivation.

Malo37 said:
Beautiful old car. When I was a student we bought one of these for £300 at a car auction then drove it from Newcastle to Athens and my Greek friends drove it back again. The incredibly complex hydraulic suspension started to go wrong and nobody in Newcastle could fix it. Sadly it eventually bounced its way to the scrapyard.
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If only you had known about Centreville Garage in Newcastle, the best hydraulic Citroën place in the UK ...
 
My first 2 cars were the only ones that have not had to get towed in to a garage from the roadside. My first was a 1959 Morris Minor 1000 (948) with 250k on the clock when I bought her, and the second an old Vauxall Cavalier with 100k on the clock (mid 80's).

Perhaps OP has the reliability analogy right after all?
 
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Pye_End said:
My first 2 cars were the only ones that have not had to get towed in to a garage from the roadside. My first was a 199 Morris Minor 1000 (948) with 250k on the clock when I bought her, and the second an old Vauxall Cavalier with 100k on the clock (mid 80's).
Perhaps OP has the reliability analogy right after all?
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I couldn't afford to have my first cars (Hillman Imps and variants) towed to a garage!
 
Pye_End said:
My first was a 199 Morris Minor 1000 (948) with 250k on the clock when I bought her, and the second an old Vauxall Cavalier with 100k on the clock (mid 80's).
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You must be a youngster then. I can remember cars that had to reverse up steep hills because it was the lowest gear ratio and others with spare cans of water for when they boiled - something not often seen these days.
 
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