But...it's red !!!
Thankfully, given that I drive like a wanker, as everyone tells me (although I've never crashed, bizarre seeing as how I clock the miles up), I came to driving fairly late. By my mid-twenties I'd had one car, an old Renault that eventually died on me. I'd just started a new relationship, and fancied some wheels.

I walked past a garage and saw it.

It was red.

I went to my girlfriend's.

"I've found a car I'm going to buy !!!".

"What is it ?"

"Dunno, but it's red".

And so the Opel Manta came into my life.

Here's a link to a picture of one very similar to the one I had:

media.photobucket.com/image/red%20opel%20manta/3countiesmanta/kevins%20cars/PICT1088.jpg

Now it's not quite an impulse buy, in that I did get the AA to check it out first. They practically begged me not to buy it - it had at least 80K on the clock, and had been driven hard. Sod it though, it's red.

Within 24 hours of buying it, I was proudly driving it down the motorway to take my girlfriend to France in it.

It died on the motorway after 20 miles.

Meh.

postscript: I had it for a further 2 years, replacing virtually every part of it. Luckily someone then ploughed into it when it was parked, and I could get a car that actually worked. Which wasn't red.
( I_Was_Mordred, Fri 22 May 2009, 8:06, Reply)