Motoring: My Worst Car/Mark Jeffries' Vauxhall Nova

Although I loved it, because it was my first car, the very worst had to be the secondhand Vauxhall Nova. But it wasn't just any old Vauxhall Nova, it was a Special Edition, and called the Club.

On the outside it was as white as the driven snow, and that meant even the bumpers, door mirrors and wheel covers were painted. It got worse, because inside there were truly awful yellow and grey stripes all over the seats. However, there was a push-button radio and a snazzy centre console, and you even looked out through tinted windows, if I remember rightly.

Now, I'm not in the least bit mechanically minded, and I could never work out why I had to rev the engine so much just to make it move.

I think everyone thought that I was showing off, or being a boy racer, because even to change down between gears I had to pump the accelerator.

If I didn't, then the car would stall, which was not only embarrassing, but also very dangerous on occasion. It made driving much more stressful than it really should have been and probably pushed the fuel consumption to Rolls-Royce levels.

The final straw, though, was an incident when I was driving along and minding my own business, and a van pulled out of a side turning without any warning.

Under normal circumstances I probably could have avoided it without too much drama. Unfortunately this was a sub-zero icy morning, so as soon as I hit the brakes I went into a skid. In fact I did the full 360-degree pirouette and ended up banging into the kerb. If it taught me one thing, it was that young people often drive far too fast. I survived the bump intact, and so did the Nova.

After that, though, I pledged to buy a much safer car, if I could. So I went out and bought a Vauxhall Astra which could not have been more different from the little Nova. For a start, the car was brand new and it had unimaginable - for me, anyway - levels of luxury, which meant electric windows and central locking. Most important of all, though, it had ABS brakes. I might have got used to revving that Nova hard just to make it go, but I really hated trying to make it stop in the ice, and spinning like a top.

Mark Jeffries presents `This is Style' on UK Style (starting on 1 November) at 8pm on Thursdays from 15 November. He was talking to James Ruppert.