By a nose, an Austin Ambassador. The seats were incredibly comfortable, but the steering was terrifyingly vague. Nothing happened when you turned the wheel at a corner, so you'd panic, wrench the wheel round and hit the brakes, at which point the bonnet slowly started to swing in the required direction like an ocean liner. Terrifying. When I queried the handling, the salesman at the Austin Rover dealership murmured "Ah yes, the Anbassador. What a f***pig."
Close behind it was a Volkswagen Passat estate which drank oil, had a whimsical temperature gauge with a mind of its own and also stuttered to a halt on occasion before springing back to life as if it just fancied a rest.
Of possible interest is what started as a impulse, panic buy - a 3 year old Volvo 240 estate with 63000 miles on it in 1991 at Brighouse auction for £3250.
I sold it for scrap in 2000 because its valves and cylinder head were shot along with the seats.
It had 240,000 miles on. It took our band gear around the region for 9 years, P.A., guitars, keyboards,, everything, 3 nights a week. Treatment that trashes a Transit in 18 months. Never needed a repair.
