My Life in Cars: Jason McAteer

I’ve always been a big fan of cars, but I was never one for top speed and horsepower – it was always the way they looked that was more of an attraction. Although saying that the first car I bought myself was a Mini Metro. 

I used to play for a semi-professional team called Marine and I lived on the Wirral. I had to get two trains and a bus to training, but I got driving lessons for my 17th birthday and passed my test first time. My dad then said I could borrow the car to go training – so of course I was made up. Only problem was my dad had a beige Rover…

Anyway, after about three or four times driving to training, I crashed it coming out of the Mersey tunnel. A fella drove right into the wing. I blamed him but being a young kid and not knowing the rules of a crash – you learn afterwards that the worst thing you can say when you get out is “I’m sorry”. Course when you’re a kid and some massive Scouser gets out of a car you’re like: “sorry mate sorry it’s my fault I didn’t see you.”

I went back to getting the train and the bus after that, but then my life changed for the better when I signed professional forms for Bolton Wanderers. I was 20 years of age and it was my dream come true. Obviously, the problem then was the journey – a 45 minutes had turned into an hour and a half – and I still needed a car. 

I went to the bank and borrowed £2,000 to buy a second-hand Mini Metro. It had a beige stripe down the side and it might as well have had ‘Taxi’ written all over it – I was in the reserves to begin with and there was quite a few Scousers playing for Bolton at the time, so I basically became a chauffeur for five lads crammed into a Mini Metro up and down the M62 every day. 

One day we had a reserve team game and I picked all the lads up. Now, I was never one for checking the oil or checking the tyres – I just drove the Metro until the arse fell out of it to be honest. I’ve picked the lads up and we’re driving down the M62. We get about 20 minutes into the journey and all these lights come on – there was something seriously wrong with the car. We couldn’t be late for this game because we’d get fined, so the idea was to pull off the motorway, park the car and then my mate’s dad would come and get it the next day, take it to his garage and have a look at it. We’d then get a taxi from where we left the car…

So, we pulled off the motorway and it was quite industrial where we’d come off, and I just saw this car park and pulled in. We got to the game and afterwards I was called into the manager’s office. There were a couple of policemen waiting for me, and they said “is this registration your car?”

Basically, the car park just happened to belong to British Nuclear Fuels – and the five of us had jumped out and legged it as quick as we could, all on CCTV. It looked like we were five lads about to blow up British Nuclear Fuels. That was my defining memory of the Mini Metro. I ended up swapping it for a burgundy Fiesta. I’ve got no stories about a Fiesta. 

A footballer’s life with cars goes something like – the bigger contract you sign, the better car you get. When I signed for Bolton it was for £100 per week, and then it went up to £250 and I bought a Vauxhall Corsa GSi. Then when I signed for Liverpool I bought a BMW 3 Series. 

I had a couple of BMWs, then a Porsche Boxster, and then I progressed on to a 911. It was a Carrera 4S in silver. It was the best car I’ve ever had. I’m waiting for the mid-life crisis so I can get another one.

There were a few flashy cars in the Liverpool car park back in the day. John Scales drove a red Ferrari and brought it up to the training ground at Melwood one day. I remember John Barnes asking him if he could have a go and drive it round the block, so Scalo said yeah and Barnes said to me “come on get in the car and we’ll have a little drive.” 

It was parked nose-first up against the wall. We got in and John put the key in, not realising it was in gear, so it jumped forward and smashed straight into the wall. We didn’t bother telling him because it was only scratched. Still to this day I don’t think he knows. 

I went from the Porsche to a Mercedes SL. That was the car to have around the back end of the 1990s. Then I left Liverpool, and when you leave a football club, if your contract has signing on fees, you’re entitled to them if the club sells you. So, I had a couple of hundred grand that went to me and I thought – I’m going to buy a nice car here. I ended up buying a silver Ferrari 550 Maranello. I had it for six months before I spun it on a roundabout. I thought to myself – that’s happened for a reason. I was driving to Blackburn in it at the time and putting quite a few miles on it, though – so when I got rid I think I lost about £28,000.

I bought a Mercedes CL to replace it, and then when I left Blackburn and signed for Sunderland I ordered an Aston Martin Vantage. If there’s one noise I’ll always remember – it’s that Vantage’s V8 engine. It was phenomenal. 

I ended up swapping the Vantage for a DB7 convertible, and after I sold that I got into Range Rovers. I ended up buying a Range Rover Sport and a little Mini Cooper. That was a nice two-car garage.

I had three Range Rovers, then I got a bit bored and wanted a change so I ended up in a BMW X6, then a Mercedes ML and then an Audi SQ5.

That was a bit dangerous though, the SQ5 – it was so quick. I’ve actually got three points on my licence from it. I was getting chest pains for a couple of weeks, and they were really bad when I was playing golf with Robbie Fowler (he’s one of them that when I broke my leg he said I had cramp). He was saying it would be nothing, but once we finished playing he suggested I go to the hospital round the corner. I drove there and had an ECG and everything and it turned out to just be a bit of anxiety, but about two weeks later I got a letter in the post saying I’d been done doing 38mph in a 30mph. There’s me on the way to the hospital thinking I’m having a heart attack and I get three points. 

Now my missus has an Audi Q8 and I’ve bought a Range Rover Velar. The Q8 is probably the best SUV we’ve had, though. Lovely car.

Jason’s dream three-car garage

Porsche 911 Carrera 4S
If you were going to say to me now – I’ll let you have one car that you’ve ever driven, it would be the Carrera 4S.

Lamborghini Urus
I think that’s the best-looking of the recent SUVs. The Bentley Bentayga and the Rolls-Royce Cullinan are not good-looking cars in my opinion.

Bentley Continental GT
I really like the new Continental and would definitely think long and hard about getting one. 

Jason McAteer’s interview with TopGear was facilitated by Falken Tyre, Official Global Tyre Partner of Liverpool Football Club.