Episode 2. Rob Hill recalls his Dad's company cars. Citroen BX GTI, Toyota Celica and Boring Grey Cars!

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Welcome to My Dad's Car, a podcast discussing a personal relationship in automated. And you know what? It doesn't even have to be about your dad's car. It could be your mums, your grand, your parents, your guardians, or even a neighbour's. If it made an impression, let's talk about it.

Welcome along. Thanks for having me. Hi Rob. Hi John, nice to meet you. You too.

We are here to um discuss dads, mum's, parents, aunts, grands, cars.

Um do you want to talk about your dad's car, Rob, or do you want to talk about I I mean can talk about a few of my dad's cars. I have fond memories of a couple of them and um not so fond memories of some others.

So if we wind the clock back as far as you can, what's your first memory of his cars?

First memory of my dad's cars, he was always had um company cars when I was a kid. And so he just got whatever he was given. Sometimes they were horrific estate cars that looked like a hearse.

First memory of company cars

He had a run of Peugeot, I think 405 estates, and it literally looked like we were going to a funeral every time we went out. Um it was horrible. But he did for a little while have a Citroen BX GTI, which was an insane car.

Nice. That's probably a fridge now, isn't it? I'd imagine.

But

Citroen BX GTI

yeah, it's definitely not going anymore. But it's probably a fridge. Um I remember a lot of times being in these horrible cars, driving to who knows where for various family days out or visiting.

When when you went out in them, did he wear a top hat and a coat and tiles?

No, I mean it was encouraged, but no, sadly not.

He um Rob just walking very slowly in front of the uh the 405 down the down the road. Tear in the eye as he looks back at the the Peugeot badge.

As mum gets the shopping out the boot in a big wooden box, yeah, yeah.

Safeways. Did your dad have the choice of the car? Obviously, he seemed to have a bit of a thing for French vehicles.

Um sometimes he had the choice. It was never it was normally uh this is the car you've got, what colour do you want? And he'd get a little brochure with colours, but a lot of them he'd have for a couple of months, and then the company had sell them and he'd get given a new one.

I think they hit like a mileage threshold, don't they? And then the uh the people sort of say, Oh well, let's get rid of that.

Yeah, yeah, that's it. That one's got a go now, off you go, and that goes. I mean, the the constant car of my childhood, as I'm sure Andy will remember it very well, was the beautiful Citroen AX salsa that my mum had.

Very nice. What a what a great name that was, as well.

The Citroen AX Salsa

The salsa.

Yeah, it it danced down the street, it really did. Lovely car. Oh, it was yeah, many road trips in that car.

Very nice. So presumably, once the um the company car phase ended, did he then go and sort of make his way to a dealership or a or a He did.

He did, and yeah, secondhand dealership. Normally he had a thing for Toyotas, old man. Uh RAV 4s in particular, he had at least three of them, I remember. And uh I remember being pulled over driving one of them. Should you have been driving it? I don't remember that. Uh that's exactly what the policeman asked me. I was driving it down to pick my sister up from somewhere, I think. And I was pulled over, and the policeman said,

Pulled by the Police

Is this your car, sir? I said, No. And you see his eyes light up. I was like, quickly followed that I was it's my dad's car. And he says, and uh, you know you were speeding. Yeah, a little bit, sorry. I said, and would your dad know you were driving like this? I said, he's probably got some fair idea. I'd be driving it this way.

And was it just a slap wrist you got away with?

Yeah, yeah. I've to be honest, I've been pulled over many times for speeding, and I've never once had any points on my license to touch wood so far. I don't know how I've got away with it. Wow. Just lucky, I guess, so far.

Always slapped wrists. Must have away with words the officers obviously uh take to you.

Did you ever get involved with picking the cars?

We we'd we'd sit down and look at the colours sometimes and sort of what colour do you like? What do you think of this? Um for the for the company ones, yeah. With uh with the the sort of the dealer ones when he when he stopped getting company cars, I'd go with him and pick them up.

Did he actually follow your uh sort of colour preference, or did you just sort of say that's a nice idea, Rob, and then turn up with no hundred percent no.

It was just yeah, there's oh no, sorry, the company said I couldn't have it in that colour or or some yeah, they'd they'd run out of uh silver. Sorry. Yeah, sorry no, yeah, no silver this time. Yeah, I always anything but black. No, no, sorry, it's got to be a black one or gun metal grey, sort of metallic gunmetal gray 405 estate. Brings back some horrible memories.

Quite a boxy car, wasn't

Peugeot 405

it? The 405 estate. Uh the saloon as well. I remember a friend of mine, I think his dad had one. It wasn't that old, but it it picked up a major sort of like a lacquer peel on the bonnet. It basically looked like the vehicle had been out in the sun all weekend, and then you know, and someone gets like a really peely forehead, and yeah, yeah, it was it wasn't nice, but um a good car for them by all accounts.

I think it happened to a lot of them, to be fair. Even the ones he had not for long had the the old lacquer peel on them.

Yeah, my dad had a couple of 405s actually, had an estate and then a gold 405 saloon for a short period of time.

You could get some quite sporty ones, couldn't you? I think the uh the saloon versions. Was it the M16 or something? The engine.

Yeah, MI16, I think. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So, Rob, have you got any first memories of a journey with with your dad or your mum or wherever it might be?

I think some of my earliest memories of travelling with with anyone was my my grandad

Grandad's flying car!

always used to tell me his car could fly. Chitty chitty bang bang inspired, perhaps. Yeah, I it was a s it was a Skoda, so it definitely couldn't. Was he a drug user? Or no, he was an optician. Uh oh, okay. Which is fascinating. Eye-opening. But um, let's just move on from dancing grandad.

He was a legend, he we used to yeah, have parties and stuff at Rob's house, and he'd come round like the prodigy would be playing or something, and he'd just sort of do a little shuffle into the lounge, stick his head around the door, say hello. Top chap. Called him dancing grandad.

They don't make him like that anymore, do they?

So h hypothetically, if you could have squirreled away one of your dad's cars kind of back in the day, what would it be?

Um, probably the BX, the GTI, because I mean it was it was a nice car, rapid. What colour? Um that was kind of light blue, not salsa blue, lighter, the lighter than salsa blue. Oh, okay. They're kind of the metal really light metallic y blue one.

Quite a nice um subtle body kit on those cars, wasn't there, from from memory.

Yeah, yeah, it was. I saw a BX estate this morning or yesterday, actually, kind of knowing we were going to have this conversation and kind of having a hug.

In your kitchen, you're getting your milk out of the kitchen.

Yeah, that's right. It was just in there. Um, no, yeah, I was out on the road, just yeah, BX estate just pulling out of a junction. I was like, I've not seen one of those for yeah, many moons. Wow.

I think that tends to happen. You haven't when you haven't seen something for donkeys years, you'll see two of them in the same week, weirdly. Happened to me only this weekfully enough with a um Ford Granada sort of late 80s, 90s, which

Ford Granada

weirdly, I I was talking to someone about. I don't know if you've seen this program on BBC on called The Gold. No, it's about the gold uh robbery in the mid-80s. Anyway, the cop car that they use in that is the same thing, and lo and behold, I saw two in the last week or so, strangely. So uh maybe people have just been sort of triggered into getting them out of the garage thinking it's acceptable again to drive them.

They've watched the show and just gone, yes, I need to get my grenade out.

Yeah, now's the time.

It's not quite the quattro from ashes to ashes, is it?

It's really not, no, no. I think the inside the grenade is actually really nice, it's got like a nice bit of leather and you know, all the mod cons of that era. Probably not as sporty as the quattro, but um, yeah.

So I've got a poignant motor in memory actually. The first time I recall going over a hundred miles an hour is in a fort Grenada.

Back of a police car, was it?

No, one of our scout leaders.

Um obviously on a track somewhere, not on the road.

It wouldn't be on the road, no. No.

And yeah, I remember sitting in there just watching the needle creeping. He was pushing a ton with us. That's pretty bold, isn't it? When you've got someone else's kids in the back of your card. There must have been a few of us in there, but yeah, we definitely nudged a ton and I was like, oh didn't even have a seatbelt on back then. It didn't matter. Different times, yeah.

I'd imagine you probably know about it as well when you're doing a hundred in some of the older stuff. Maybe not that one in fairness, but it felt fairly good to be honest.

I think it was, I don't know, H-ridge. It was kind of the more rounded Grenada rather than the sort of boxy boxy thing. Um yeah, I don't know what it was. Two two litre, two point eight or something.

It was um yeah, the the this is the one that I saw the other day, actually, the the rounded one that you mentioned. I I never really liked that shape, and even now I don't think it looks particularly nice. It kind of looks like they've taken the Sierra of the same era and just sort of blew it up, enlarged it a little bit.

Yeah, that'll do. Do you remember the Scorpio that followed it, which had kind of like these just massive bug eye lights?

Oh, they were horrible, yeah. Around

Ford Scorpio

mid-90s. Funnily enough, there's a chap near me who's got one. I haven't seen him for a while, so it's probably um blowing up, but he used to drive it around, and yeah, just really strikingly ugly car, isn't it? It's it's amazing that they finished that up and thought that's that that's absolutely lovely.

Well that's that's the future.

We'll get that one out, yeah.

Yeah, to be fair, the the team later delivered the KA.

So they made some lovely cars and then they made some real shockers. A tough era, wasn't it, for them on the on the looks front. It was, yeah.

So you're gonna keep keep the BX Rob.

Oh, yeah, I'd keep that.

So it was it was blue, a um hatchback or estate, was it? It was a hatchback.

Nice little spoiler on the back. Do you think your dad had a dream car? I mean that um if money was no object or practicality was no object.

I know for one my dad'd have an e-type if money was no object. No, I get that. I think he he's

E-Type

of that age where that's probably the majority of their dream car. It's the the e-type jag or or an Aston of some kind.

My dad had an E-type. Uh, he had a Primrose Yellow Roadster, and um it was left-hand drive. So I must have been eight or nine, ten perhaps, and we used to drive down country lanes, and I'd sit in the right side of it, and people would just give me funny looks because it looked like I was driving the car. Um, but yeah, really cool. And memory of that vehicle shutting my fingers in the boot really hurt that. I'll mention more about that at some point. I've got loads of pictures of it. But um, yeah, very cool car. I'd like one. They're they're about like 20 foot long, so it'd never fit in the garage, right?

Yeah, incredibly impractical.

And far, far, far beyond my price range.

But yeah, I think I wouldn't mind one. One of the new ones they've they've basically like rated everything on. They're quite they're quite special. Yeah, hawks. That's it, I think so. Something like that, where it's they've just gone, yeah, we'll we'll keep the body shape and the engine will just make the brakes modern, everything else modern, so it actually stops and and does what it's meant to.

Be good if they could do that on human bodies, wouldn't it, really? When you get to sort of 60-70. And I know they obviously do the hips, that sort of thing, but and the eyes. I suppose they probably are doing it, aren't they? Plastic surgery. Look at Sharon Osborne. Very true, very

Plastic surgery

true. Saiyan Cal's gone a bit over the top now, though, isn't he? He's up rated everything.

Yeah.

There's definitely some 50 to 60 year olds that look a lot better than I do at nearly 40, which is a concern.

Tough paper round

Tough paper round.

Bang. It was tough in them hills. Lots of supplements. Or Sundays were the worst. Couldn't even fit the papers through the door. Those were the days.

Do you think your dad's choice of cars has kind of influenced any of the vehicles you've bought at all?

No, I don't I don't think so.

Kept you out of Peugeot's?

I was kept out of citrons by the fact that the AX that my mum had was passed down to me and then just blew up on me on a on a journey back from

The AX blew up

dropping a friend off at RAF base. Is that what happened to it? Yeah. I was driving back from the one up near Guildford. Odium, Alton. Yeah, Odium, I think. I could be either way. It was on the way back from Guildford. I was pushing a bit on the dual carriageway and I felt it judder and a bit of smoke out the back.

Just a French quirk.

Thought nothing of it because I was a kid and didn't really understand anything about a car. Turned the radio up. Yeah, just yeah, just kept going, and then it suddenly just went, nah, I'm not having any more of this. And that was it. That was the end of the Citron AX. Was it like a flat death or was it a big booming noise death? It was a it was a fairly flat death. I think there was a little kind of a pop as the head gasket blew, and then it just kind of came to a stop on its own about a couple of miles later. And um sad. It was very sad. I was I got my girlfriend of the time's dad to come and tow me home. Humiliating. Very very sick. Sat in the sat in the car while he tows me with his van. It was a bad day for me that one.

Just bringing this back around on topic, um,

Toyota Celica. Mid life crisis?

he had a Silika, didn't he, for a while?

He did have a Silika for a little while. Um a little 1.8 was that a midlife thing? I think it might well have been. Gutless thing. Um, it wasn't the the proper quick one. He had that for a little while and then went back to a RAF 4. I think it was definitely a midlife thing.

He he didn't have a motorbike license, so that sounds as if perhaps he popped down to Toyota and they caught him on the it might well have been. Yeah, well, why don't you try this?

Yeah, look at this. Yeah, oh this will be a nice car for you. Kids are grown up, you don't need the space in the back anymore. Been watching the rallying, have you said? Can we have a look at this? It was it was the nice shape, Sleek of the kind of rounder one in black. It was it was it was a nice looking car. It was just it was just a 1.8 petrol. I didn't really have a lot of oomph to it for what you'd what you'd what you'd kind of want for that kind of car.

Did you um did you go to pick up anyone in that one? Any uh police encounters?

No, I didn't drive that one very much to be honest. That was kind of the car probably the car I drove the lease. I don't know why. Maybe you didn't let me. Probably didn't let me, to be fair. Too sporty. Probably too sporty. I think I think it might have been I'd not long past my test either. I think I think you might have had that one I'd not long passed and hadn't been driving a huge amount of time and was generally driving either my car or or mum's car, which was a horrible

Toyota Carina

Burgundy Karina. A Karinerie, that's cool.

That was too bad. That was a vehicle.

It was a hateful car.

I thought it was a very plain car, wasn't it? It was not looking to show off at all. It was just yeah, just get in and we'll get you there.

It's it's just a lump of car. Yeah, just while we produced it, it was just a lump of car. It will fit people in and it will go, and that's all it needs.

And does your dad still um still drive today? Is it what's he what's he got now, if so? He does.

He's got a Mitsubishi SUV thing outlander, possibly. I think of the the back of it now with uh a hybrid job. Yeah. Oh, he likes his his Japanese uh he likes his toys, he likes his little gadgets and stuff, so it's

Dad's current car - Mitsubishi Outlander Hybrid

all all plugs in with his iPhone and all that jazz. Is your dad a wash the car on the drive

Car washing

guy, or was he a car wash? Um he he was uh originally initially a wash the car on the drive guy, and then he evolved into a car wash guy. So it always started off with washing the car on the driveway on a Saturday afternoon, wash the car, get the buckets out, throw a sponge about at it, all of that. And then it evolved as he got older and less interested and had more money and could pay someone else to do it for him, I think.

So is he a Tesco's car park car washer, a proper one, or uh or guy on an industrial estate?

Or oh, it's more of a drive-through car wash, the pay your money, turn the engine off, and let it just whiz through convenience.

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. And how about any sort of habits in the car rob your dad? Can you remember? Or what about musical tastes, that sort of

Music in the car?

thing? Anything that you can remember?

We we listen to all sorts of stuff. We I think the the musical taste was fairly eclectic. A lot of Queen, Bowie, Elton John, very much that era of music.

Have we got the same dad? I'm starting to think we might be brothers.

Um it's possible. Um, no, him and my mum were very much similar tastes in music. So there was a lot of some of the Beatles, uh, a little bit of stones, the Who. Yeah, very much that era of music.

Well, obviously, we're all sort of ballpark same age, us three. And I assume our dads probably are the same sort of ages as well. In terms of music, what they went for, they're all pretty much aligned, aren't they? Really?

Yeah.

It's not like there was much more that they would potentially go for compared to sort of now, for example. Like if you can to compare I suppose the choices were a lot more limited back then.

There's probably only a couple of radio stations. Nowadays, you've plug your phone in, you've got every song under the sun that you can play, but then you had to have the tape or or it had to be on the radio.

Well, I think that the the sad truth is now, isn't it, the kids get to choose what goes on the uh on the radio usually.

So nope, I refuse to let my children choose what goes on the radio or on my phone.

I admire that. I I personally just stick the Disney tunes on and uh just enjoy the the silence of them not and let it go. Yeah, very good, Andy.

Very good. The wife does that, but they have no choice, they have to listen to whatever I've decided to put on. I'll I'll take requests sometimes, but only if I approve the request. Any um steering wheel tapping? Oh, definitely. 100% it was a steering wheel tapper. Sadly, I've inherited the steering wheel drumming and making my children listen to me sing in the car. Uh I do feel sorry for them some days when we're traveling. I think sometimes I would much rather travel with anyone else, but yeah, definitely, definitely steering wheel drumming. Sometimes just general commentary of the song, also. Sometimes you'd be telling you about the the artist, and this song was released in this time, and then little fountain of useless knowledge, my dad.

That's quite nice though. And um, would he join in with the instrumental as well? Give it a bit of electric guitar solo. No, the no, that's that's too much, Andy.

Come on. Irresponsible at the wheel, Andy, isn't it? Taking the hands off a steering wheel.

Yeah. I was just thinking the noise rather than both hands. No, no, no, it was always just the drumming and a and a sort of a bit of singing, a bit of commentary.

Some reason I had your dad down as either a radio four or kind of the cricket. That was kind of what I had pictured him driving along with.

Uh Saturday afternoon was always the football to listen to the results or or you know, five live. Yeah. But yeah, when when that wasn't on, it was normally a cassette of some kind or radio two, possibly. But no, definitely not radio four.

Any recollections of cassettes being either stuck in the vehicle or found in the vehicle when you bought it? Yeah, we had a really weird one.

Like, oh, what was it? Definitely a thing, isn't it? It's definitely a recurring theme that this used to happen.

Cassettes found in the car

And we don't know whether it's the person leaving it as a goodwill gesture or it's uh I hate that artist, and I'm gonna punish the new owner of this vehicle and make them listen to it for the next three years before it blows up. Could be a real treat or uh absolute disaster. I think you've I think you've painted a very good picture of your dad. Thank you very much, Rob. No problem. The cars that he drives, very uh loyal to his Japanese vehicles, occasionally strayed, which is quite nice, but still with the Japanese uh Michibishi.

So would you play him this interview? Are you happy to uh uh yeah?

I'll I'll I'll play him that at some point. Wonderful. I'll introduce him to the podcast and and let him listen. Maybe he would like to come on. I'm sure he could say some things about his dad's car. My granddad had some stonkers, I think. Okay, I'll follow up. But I I only have vague recollections of what I've been told various old Ford things and lotus things and that were leaking oil and all

Rob's Grandad's cars

sorts of stuff. How it should be. Oh yeah. Granddad never had an accident, never, caused thousands, never had one himself though. I think my dad used to say that, never had a crash. Apart from when he drove it through the garage, just didn't open the door. No, the door's open, he went through the back of the garage. Whoops. And he wasn't allowed to drive, he was just being in the garage for a now.

Doesn't count when it's on your own land, does it? No, exactly. What was behind the garage? Garden or a kitchen? The garden and the greenhouse. If you passed it in the kitchen, it'd be next to the BX, wouldn't it?

Perfect. What a place to leave it. Thank you very much, Rob. Very good of you to join us. No problem. Thanks, Rob. Take it. So yeah, a BX GTI.

Jon and Andy wrap up

Very nice. We're not gonna hear many of those, surely, I don't think.

No, I I can't imagine there'll be many more people. Um I'd imagine if you start that into that little search of how many are still living, there's probably gotta be single figures, isn't it? I'd imagine.

There's not gonna be many, and and in some sort of light blue metallic, yeah. And I mean on the road as well, not in kitchens or yeah, repurposed into yeah, Morphe Richards, Splendors, and Kenwood toasters and stuff. So um you don't see many old citrons, do you?

You don't know. Um, and I think that probably relates to Rob's story about that AX just blowing up. I think they probably just that is that was always the risk, wasn't it, with the French car? It was just it was never gonna quite go on like a uh VW equivalent or something like that. It was there's always that chance that even if you're sort of maintaining it, one day it might just suddenly go all French and and just end itself.

Yeah, I think just the feel of them is a little bit disposable and they're made out of tin foil, it's that's what you wrap your sandwiches in. When you're finished with your sandwiches, you throw your tin foil away. And the same with Citron AX, isn't it? Really, it's kind of lightweight, it's sort of a few steps up from a skateboard. Yeah, it is pretty much, yeah.

Probably a downside uh more expensive than a skateboard as well.

But uh To be fair, when it worked, that car whizzed along quite nicely, but um yeah, obviously it meant a sorry end and um not worth reviving.

Disappointing to hear it didn't properly blow up though with a loud bang. Sort of a the equivalent was just sort of dying in your sleep, really, isn't it? When it's a quiet one rather than I think amusingly or coincidentally, ironically, a surrender. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think you'd always prefer the the huge bang, wouldn't you? To kill the car, because then you know it's gone. That that's like having a big heart attack, really, isn't it? And just going there and then rather than the sort of slow death. Because he probably took it to the garage and spent money on seeing if they could fix it or not, which they they definitely didn't.

So yeah. I think a little bit like the old Monty Python knight who shouts I'm not dead yet. Yeah. It's just a flesh wind, he's got no arms, no legs, and hopping around. Very much so. Um so yeah, that was um episode two, our kind of first proper interview, and um Yeah, thanks to Rob um for for coming on.

I think it was a a good sort of first proper guest to get on. And yeah, it's good to get the second podcast under the belt, isn't it?

Roll some credits, I suppose.

Yeah, let's do it.

Cool, thanks, John. Thanks for tuning in to my dad's car. We're new at this and really appreciate you listening and supporting the podcast. If you enjoyed it, please click subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Give us a follow on social media and tell your friends to tune in too if you think it will be up there street.