My first car … Joe McFadden
Unbeknownst to me it would take a further five years for it to be implemented and 15 years later I would have to sit it anyway in order to gain my motorbike licence for the TV show Heartbeat.
My dad and I trundled off to the car auction at the Gallowgate in Glasgow and I bought a mint green Peugeot 205 for £1,800. Whoever said green cars were unlucky was right on the money where this banger was concerned. I had to fork out the same again just to make it roadworthy. At that age I naively assumed that dad’s bonnet-bouncing and tyre-kicking must have meant he knew a thing or two about cars – an illusion soon shattered. On the plus side, I got to know all the various parts of a car from the drive shaft to a fuel gasket as they all had to be replaced on this jalopy.
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Hide AdBeing a fair bit older and arguably wiser I now know that there’s a lot to be said for going to a dealer and getting a warranty. After the hassle of constant repairs I vowed, when I could afford it, I’d buy a new car and was over the moon when I fulfilled this wish with a convertible VW Golf which I purchased with my paycheck from the Iain Banks drama The Crow Road. «
Joe McFadden stars in Haunting Julia at The King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Tuesday 9 to Saturday 13 October, 7.30pm. www.edtheatres.com