I bought my first car in July 1960 from a motor engineer friend who ran a village garage in Ingbirchworth, West Yorkshire. It was a black 1948 Vauxhall 18.

The engine had just been reconditioned so it was a very good runner. The only snag was the bodywork which was beginning to rust so I always kept a fibreglass kit handy. I remember having the hubcaps rechromed then picking out the embossed Vauxhall lettering in red with a very small brush.

I kept the Vauxhall for two and a half years before trading it in at the same garage for a black 1950 Rover 75 ‘Cyclops’, so nicknamed because it had a large fog lamp in the centre of the radiator grille resembling the said mythical creature.

The photo is from one of my first trips in the Vauxhall to Chatsworth House, Derbyshire and shows my girlfriend Teresa (now my wife).

John Deacon, St Albans