I’m from england originally , and in the years leaving up to my emigration little 1.3/1.4 diesels where coming on strong .
Sisters had them as you got free insurance ( a killer in the uk on top of fuel prices) and my mother was a professional driving tutor and used Peugeot 106 and Citroen diesels .
Disposable cars .
But cheap to buy , cheap to insure , and cheap to run . And pretty fun having that much torque in a barely clad shopping cart
A couple of things I remember :
1: One of mums cars had a burnt out clutch (erm ...
) I went with her to peeogeot , or may have been Citroen) dealers to talk about it .
While service manager was working out if it’s warranty covered or payed for , sales guy offered her a new car with better spec , for basically a strait trade ...
It seems if the ashtray is full or it runs out of diesel (whichever comes first) you just dump it and get a new one
2: a friend had a family car auction , and my buddies older brother wanted to take his son there for his first car .
Bear in mind at 17 , just passed , first car , cost of car would be about 25% of insurance costs if you’re lucky
Looked at fiat pandas etc (terrible car , only redeeming feature other than being cheap is the front screen is same as back screen . So you have emergency options should you hit something) and other cheap baked bean cans .
He made a list and we decided to go for lunch while he phoned for insurance ..
I directed him to Citroen where he got a brand new car with free warranty , servicing , and insurance for LESS than the insurance on an auction car would be .
30something dad was pi$$ed that he’d never had a new car and sons first car was new
3: me and my friend was going for a weekend in London with dodgy accommodation in Sheppard’s bush near the empire with street parking only .
I had a porsche , and iirc their option was a rangerover .
Used one of mums 106 oil-burners .
What a trip !!
Blasted there around 90mph and @300 miles later still had enough juice to get home
4: after I emigrated I went back to uk .
bought the cheapest car on autotrader on Sunday night to drive from Manchester to Great Yarmouth the next morning .
It was a Peugeot 106 derv ..
Cost me more in oil than diesel on the trip , and the cost of the oil was more than the car cost !!