With a professional career and money to spend on buying a nice Ford car, it's easy to forget about the cheap little run around that many of us had after passing our driving test. As these cars took the first scrapes and carried all our learner friends to college and back, I thought it was high time we paid respect to our first cars.
When applying for Ford car insurance these days, we (slightly) older folk can easily smile about cheap premiums because many of us have got years of no claims bonuses to give us an even better deal on our policies. But back in the day, we youngsters searched the internet frantically trying to find the best motor insurance quote around, because lets face it, at seventeen you're seen as a bit of a risk.
Money aside, the best thing about passing your test is the first moment you get into a car by yourself and head out onto the open roads, with a very empty passenger seat where your supervised driver used to sit. Most of us would have done this first drive in our mum or dad's car and had our name put on their motor insurance policy but some of us saved enough money from our Saturday jobs to buy a second hand Ford Fiesta.
For me I remember the day clearly, I picked up the latest Autotrader and turned to the section where the cheaper cars were advertised and there she was, a pale blue B-reg Fiesta. Seven months MOT, three months tax and a full service history, what more could a girl want in a car. I made a phone call and snapped her up straight away for £350. What a bargain!
I looked all over the internet for a good deal on Ford car insurance and after getting several different quotes I found a good premium that would last me for the rest of the year. A number of people I knew at the time bought Ford Fiestas, some even managed to get their parents to buy them brand new ones.
Me, on the other had, I was quite happy with my little old car and even though there were a few miles on the clock, she purred like a kitten. I call her a she because I decided she looked like a Marjorie, a car just wouldn't be right without a name to go with it.
Unfortunately, as the years rolled on and I bought even more Ford car insurance premiums, Marjorie got older. Before I knew it I was travelling further distances in the UK and the miles just added up.
When I went to university in Nottingham, I knew that I would have to make a decision about keeping her. As a full time student, I no longer needed a car on campus and so I decided to sell her. It was a difficult decision to make but it had to be done. I placed an advert online and a young woman came forward to take her on, I felt that she was going to a good home but yet I couldn't help but shed a tear when the woman drove her away.
As the years passed, I finished my degree and found a good job with a half decent salary. More recently, I decided to treat myself to a 2004 Ford Focus model - a car that wasn't advertised in the under £1,500 section of a trade magazine but still gets me a really great deal on my Ford car insurance.
I'll always remember my first car and the laughs that we shared. Whenever I'm with my brother, who's a mechanic, and we go to a scrap yard, I can't help but look at the old forgotten Fiestas lying there and my heart goes out to them, left alone with no owner. I just hope that my little Marjorie is still being passed down from generation to generation, from one learner driver to the next. God bless you Marj!