Do you love your car to bits even if it spends a lot of time actually in bits?

We’ve all had that special motor– the one that becomes part of family legend. Maybe it was your first, maybe it’s the car you carefully put away in the garage now.

We want to hear all about that car and its adventures, whether it’s vintage motor kept in pristine order or an old jalopy that’s seen better days.

Like many new drivers in the early 1980s my first car was a hand-me-down Austin Mini. It was more rust than Mini and what wasn’t rust was dark blue. We called it Blue Meanie and on one memorable occasion it carried seven people to the official opening of a new street in my home town.

I loved it. The fact that it was a little like a Tardis, the fact it was nippy in town and easy to park. I loved the cute chuggling noise it made when it was idling and I loved the little leather bucket seats.

I didn’t love the fact that it needed regular welding and being able to lift the carpet in the driver’s footwell to see a glimpse of the road underneath was slightly alarming.

My family’s Labrador also loved it and would insist on riding in the front passenger seat. He was a big lad and from the back it often appeared there were two people in the car, until he turned and licked my ear.

It was on the drive back from a walk in the country with the dog that I fell slightly out of love with the Mini. Its little wheels were both its downfall and its saviour. Unknown to me the brake lines were damaged when I drove down a rough track. I only discovered this as I approached a roundabout at some speed. The handbrake slowed us a bit and luckily all the little wheels managed to grip the road as I went round, praying hard.

Blue Meanie was sold not long afterwards and since then I’ve enjoyed or suffered a lot of cars.

There was the bright yellow Suzuki Alto with a habit of farting clouds of exhaust at inopportune moments, the racy little MGF with the wiring fault that once meant I had to drive 100 miles without braking and indicating right at the same time and the beautiful Audi that usually smelled of my youngest child’s spectacular car sickness. And let's not even go there with the Land Rover.

But decades after its demise Blue Meanie still has a special place in my motoring heart.

If you have a vehicle that means a lot to you why not share its story with Adver readers in our new Me and My Motor feature?

It doesn’t have to be a car, it could be a tractor, a camper or even a truck.

Simply fill in our easy online form at swindonadvertiser.co.uk/my/ccn/questionnaire/ghpZSC3p/ or email me and don’t forget to include photos