My first was a late 1940s sit up an beg Eord 8 van which somebody had put windows in the back and an old bus seat for a back seat, cost me £70 in 1960, steering wheel had near half a turn play, it jumped out of second gear, unless you held it in, tyres were near smooth, and only one brake worked properly, the petrol pump packed up after 7 miles and you had to wait 20 minutes while it cooled down enough to do a few more miles. set of seals sorted that; I passed my driving test in it, then drove it home from RAF Cosford to Poole (about 150 miles) overnight!
Father was stores manager at the local Ford main dealers, he took one look and nearly had a fit, it went straight to the "works" and used it as instructional material for the apprentices, it was there for 3 days and cost me £30, father was very good friends with the local scrap merchant so spares were no problem, including part worn tyres.
I had that nearly a year then the mother in law (read dragon) stumped up deposit for a 2 year old Ford 100E estate ex some petfood company rep (the original Escort). I kept that until after the dragon passed on leaving money which financed a new Ford Cortina Mk1 (£722/10/8)
With Father working for Ford dealers what make would you buy? I went through most of the models, Classic, Corsair ("friend" rolled it into a telegraph pole!) Bedford Dormobile (for 2 weeks) Prefect, 3 x Consul Mk2, Zephyr M3 and Mk4, Cortina Mk2 and Mk4 estate, Capri Mk2, Escort Mk3, Fiesta. After father died in '74 I did have a few other makes among the Fords, an Opel, Citroen BX 19RD estate, then in '93 found a 1962 Classic and kept that 10 years, I had a cousin who did the mobile mechanic bit, he did most of the major work. Finally gave that up when I reached age 70, no longer fun to work under or over it!
Favourites out of that lot, Consul Mk2 375 (the last of the Mk2s with disc brakes) Citroen BX, excellent for towing the trailer tent, the later Classic, and the Mazda 2 (the 2003-07 model)
Wife had a few cars around that time, Fiesta, Peugeot 205D, Then we both went to Mazdas, the 2 pictured above - which step daughter bought, a 323 saloon, Demio estate and I now have another 2.