1959 triumph herald was the first car I ever bought. £80.
Front bumper was steel but body coloured. Although mine was very rusty so I covered the bumper in a stick on marble effect material called contact. My parents were not impressed with the car. Mine had a reserve petrol tank thing, sometimes got you home....in those days I could only afford £1 petrol a week which was exactly 4 gallons. Mine was not really a good car, it had been well thrashed before I owned it, and after a few months it was replaced by a Sunbeam Rapier.
Fond memories of it though, it was freedom for me
I had a Herald in the mid 60's. Mine was in quite good nick and was a reasonably enjoyable drive for the day, though a little underpowered.
Unfortunately it came to a very sad end. A speeding motorcyclist on a suburban back street hit me right in the driver's door, first inpact was a tyre mark just ahead of the door. Technically I should have given him right of way but with parked cars and the speed he was doing there was no way that I could have seen him approaching. In fact a truck had stopped to give me right of way and even he did not see the bike approaching from the opposit direction. In NSW you must give way to the right unless otherwise signed with give way or stop signs.
The car looked as though it had been wrapped around a telegraph pole and I had to be cut out of it. I was virtually unconcious and was only slightly aware of what was going on. The motorcyclist did not die on the spot but was brain dead and died about a week later. I spent the next 10 days in hospital and had two operations to get my face back in shape; broken cheek bone, dropped eye orbit, broken jaw and broken teeth. I could only eat soft foods for a month or more.
When I saw the car I could not believe it. The impact of the motorcyle helmet on the edge of the roof just above the driver's door had even pressed the stud marks of the helmet into the metal. The car was a write off and I just left it to be broken up for parts.
I would have been still in shock but I remember crying when they told me about the condition of the motorcyclist. The fact remains that all of my acquaintences, friends of friends etc, who died in that period, were speeding on suburban streets. It was a big lesson for me and made me slow down a lot when on a bike approaching intersections.
When I later became a riding instructor I used to always impress on the learners to ride at the speed at which they could stop within the distance that they could see. That applies to curves, crests of hills and intersections. Unfortunately there is always the idiot who will turn or do a U turn in front of you, but that is another story.
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