On my 4th
First was a 200tdi L-registered rot box... bought it for about £500 BIG mistake buying it, but good fun off road. When MOT time came 6 months later, I was faced with a long list of jobs that needed doing and no facilities to do any of it myself. Decided I was better off selling it and investing in a 300tdi in decent condition. Managed to sell it for £495!
Picked up a dark blue 300tdi (P-reg) with SD Roof Rack, lots of lights, and in a high spec level and ran it for a couple of years. Brilliant car, needed a little bit of welding on the sills, and had to replace an alternator and a window motor, but other than that was sound. But my then girlfriend convinced me to sell it and buy a boring car (astra estate). Always regretted selling the car, and really regret selling the roof rack!!
When I split up with the aforementioned female dog, I went out in a hurry and bought an N-reg 300tdi. I was obviously in too much of a hurry as I bought an absolute heap. Ran out of patience and money, and at the time I had access to a fleet of 4x4s through work so sold it and bought a 2.5 litre petrol mondeo for the daily commute, which was then replaced with a Volvo XC90 when Scouting commitments meant I really needed something that could shift a trailer or be loaded up with kit. Kept the XC90 for 4 years, put nearly 100,000 miles on the clock and spent remarkably little money on it, and enjoyed every minute of driving it right up to the point where I spent a weekend as event manager at a Scout event and borrowed my friends TD5 Disco to drive around the site in. Within 2 months the fast, reliable, powerful, comfortable XC90 (although with temperamental part time 4 wheel drive which led to some embarrassing towing incidents!) was gone and the current TD5 "Adventurer" Disco was on the drive.