My first car: Ford Escort mk6

MoneySupermarket are running a great campaign at the moment to collect first car stories and in return they’re sending us bloggers diecast models of our first cars (or as close as possible) which is pretty cool. I wish I had a slightly cooler first car now!

My first car was also the one I modified the most including:

Replacing the green dash lights with blue ones (including speedo!)
Adding side skirts and rear spats to look like a GTi (it was only a 1.6)
Colour coding the bump strips and door handles
New wing mirrors
Adding larger wheels from a Mondeo
Debadging
Changed the front grille
Uprated stainless backbox
Clear side repeaters
Red tints on the rear lights
Uprated speakers and head unit
Added a high level brake light (factory fit)
Added fog lamps (factory fit)
New front bumper, bonnet and wing (accident)
Reconditioned gearbox (died)

Basically loads of mods that actually made it end up looking like a much nicer car than it started without being in anyway boy racer. So here’s what she looked like at the start:

And when I was nearly done with her (wing mirrors still to be replaced):

As my first car, I’ll always have a soft spot. It was pretty quick for a first car being a 1.6 (no 1 litre fiestas for me) and had good space, OK economy, and did a load of miles. I bought her with 76,000 on the clock and when I traded her in she had a bout 136,000 so a good 60,000 miles spent together all over the UK. It was a pleasure, and not one I will forget anytime soon.