My First Car - Andy Thurlow

MY first car was not a sensible choice but when I worked at BT headquarters in Martlesham many moons ago I met someone who was selling a limited edition convertible Karmann Golf GTI and I fell in love with it at first sight.

Totally ignoring advice such as: “You really want something reliable and sensible that gets you from A to B,” I bought this car a couple of days after seeing it and getting it checked over.

Having owned this vehicle for all of about 72 hours I drove out of BT on a sunny summer day with the roof down in a world of my own and promptly got pulled over for speeding.

I had this car for about two and a half years and in that time we went to Devon, Scotland and Wales amongst other places in it.

Wales and Scotland were memorable due the fact I got carried away and i hadn’t thought ahead and realised a lowered low profile convertible is not really the sort of car you want for “mountainous” terrain.

Also it was quite an experience driving into a full blown storm in north Wales on the shores of Lake Bala. One moment it was bright and sunny, the next torrential rain to the point the windscreen wipers stopped working, the roof started leaking and I had to do a quick fix at the side of the road!

After many thousands of miles of great driving unfortunately the Golf’s head gasket blew just outside Woodbridge on the A12, caused a massive traffic jam back up to Martlesham and much smoke. After this I finally made the decision to get something more sensible. Since then I have had quite a few other cars but nothing will ever beat my good old Golf.

Tell us about your first car for our weekly feature. Email natalie.hoodless@archant.co.uk