Today my last two cars were dragged out of the bushes onto a low-loader by a nice old chap, perhaps younger than me, and taken away to be thrashed into small pieces by a special machine and shipped off to supply grist to some emergent economy's steel mills. The Skoda hasn't run for six years, the Ford for six months. The Ford is undoubtedly still a runner with a straight body but some rust under the sills.
The nice old chap gave me 80 quid in readies, and we had a short conversation about the young and how they can't set contact breakers or adjust valve clearances. But they clearly have their uses, as he told me his son had obtained a bargain Lexus for him and my nephew and niece-in-law kindly bunged me their Cruiser when they didn't want it any more.
Their absence makes the shrubbery look a bit better, but I feel sad and sentimental, as if I had sent a couple of faithful but lame old horses to the knacker. Liking cars is a bit of an affliction sometimes. But I still don't envy the people who look on them with a cold, practical eye. It must be so dull to be like that.
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I know exactly how you feel.
That's one reason I'm running an old Kia Pride I don't really need.
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I can't sell my old Mondeo diesel estate for similar reasons. Too many memories. It has got me and mine to many far flung places and has never been a moment's bother in nearly 200k miles.It is 8.5 years old and is now serving time as temporary transport for Mrs D'b until we find her something she wants and still hauling all of us and our mountain bikes around at weekends. It's still a great drive actually, nicer and more responsive than my much younger Qashqai. I'd keep it forever if I could. In fact I might.
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I know exactly how you feel comrade Coussine, I had to get rid of 'old faithful' a few years back,
Red Volvo 240 GLT automatic.
It failed the MOT on some rust underneath so I donated it to a friend up on the moor who had the same jamjar.
He savaged it - like a Pitbull Terrier.
I still think of the ole bus now :(
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So estelle went with her escort to the great gig in the crusher
farewell o faithfulls..............................
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Ah the Estelle!
adios and good ridance. Now perhaps we wil have less of this "it handles just like a porsche" rubbish.
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You are a sentimental lot! It's a tin box on 4 wheels and as long as it starts in the morning that's all that matters. When it doesn't, it has to go:)
I hope you have the same sentimental attachments to your wives!
Pat
I'll ge me coat now!
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>> I hope you have the same sentimental attachments to your wives!
I do actually, to the three who still look all right. The other has to go soon though, sour old biddy that she is. Then I'll get another young one, rigorously tested for obedience, passivity and general usefulness.
I'll get me jellaba.
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>> You are a sentimental lot! It's a tin box on 4 wheels and as long
>> as it starts in the morning that's all that matters. When it doesn't it has
>> to go:)
>>
>> I hope you have the same sentimental attachments to your wives!
>>
>> Pat
>> I'll ge me coat now!
I just told the wife. "Pat says the day you dont start in the morning I have to get rid of you"
She wants to know where you live?
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I've just moved:)
I think AC has more to worry about than me though if Mrs AC sees his post!
Pat
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>> I hope you have the same sentimental attachments to your wives!
My car can bring me great joy for hours, days even years on end and never complains. My wife, however.....
:-)
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Thu 8 Apr 10 at 17:31
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>> we wil have less of this "it handles just like a porsche" rubbish.
You have never, ever heard that from me Zzzzero. The swing-axle ones suffer from lift-off oversteer, the later double-CV joint ones don't really. That's all I have ever said about the perfectly good handling of Skoda Estelles.
I don't appreciate people dancing on the graves of my old nags. Damn good mind to give you a boo rating.
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>> I don't appreciate people dancing on the graves of my old nags. Damn good mind
>> to give you a boo rating.
>>
You can try old man.
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mmmm - perhaps I just have bad taste, but I've never really been that sad about seeing the back of an old motor if there was a new one on the way.
Then again, of the assorted collection of Hillman,Leyland,Yugo !,Citroen,Renault, Saab Skoda and VW, it was only the brace of Saab 96's that had any real character, but they were both serious rustbuckets by the time I got rid. (then again, one was a serious rustbucket when I bought it, but now I know if you look under the carpet and see tarmac, that's not good, and I can now distinguish between (a) the sound of a 2 1/2" Jetex stainless steel exhaust and (b) the sound of an exhaustpipe that has snapped prior to the back box where it is routed through the rear wheel arch where the wheel arch itself has a 2" hole rusted through it - oh, the mistakes of youth
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Pat - should we change the title to 'domestic appliances' ??!!!
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My wife keeps a list of the 35 cars I have owned.
I can happily say I would not want any of them again...
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Ive not had many cars long enough to become really attached. Prob the only one that I was sad to see go was the Reliant, I really loved that thing. I guess it will be wrench when the Charade goes as ive really looked after it and Im certain that the next owner will be the start of a decline for it.
I do rather want my next car to be something I can love though.
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>> I do rather want my next car to be something I can love though.
Be careful not to get your hopes up to high, stu. You could be setting yourself up for a massive letdown if you are not careful.
I've had loads of good luck with cars because I've not expected too much from them and not gotten attached to them. Therefore, they have mostly exceeded expectations, and I have been pleased with them.
Still not been sentimentally attached to any of them though, which is a bit odd because I can get extremely emotionally attached to other things.
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Maybe it's because you're a Londoner........:-)
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blimey, if you can love a reliant then any old shed has a chance.
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I loved my Westfield to bits. It had to go though. One reaches an age where one not only looks a plonker in such a thing but fairly inevitably actually becomes one. It was sold for a different reason, that of having too few seats for our then expanding family but was sorely missed and still is. Where we live now it wouldn't be much use anyway. Too many cameras and other traffic. Given an empty B road and the almost midnight sun of a late evening in July in northern Scotland, I can think of few better experiences involving four wheels and an engine.
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>>I loved my Westfield to bits.
What! You had a Westfield, I never knew that. You'll have to tell us about it one day. ;>)
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Why thank you BT. I'll spare you that though. I may have mentioned it briefly in the passing before.......
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>> blimey if you can love a reliant then any old shed has a chance <<
Quite the opposite. You can love a car despite or even because of its shortcomings - if love was entirely rational, very few people would ever get married as the perfect woman in terms of stats doesnt always make the best partner.
Same goes for cars. Thats why I would never buy a Mondeo or a Focus - it has nothing whatsoever to do with the ability of the cars. The Reliant was 'alive'. It had a soul.
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>> The Reliant was 'alive'.
What...like it had fleas or something ?
:-)
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>> >> The Reliant was 'alive'.
>>
>>>>>>>>> worn out shockers duff balljoints and the steering connected by an elastic band
thats really alive ;-)
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May well have done :-)
By alive though, I mean it had an urgency driving down the road, legacy of weighing just 450 kg.
It may all kinda of noises, gearbox whine, the barely silenced exhaust. The direct steering, unassisted brakes, everything had so much feel - a totally different experience to todays dulled, over assisted, drugged driving experiences.
I lived near the town centre when I owned mine and it was fantastic in the town traffic being so narrow, plus very quick off the line which suprise many wannabe traffic light racers. It just made me feel good driving it.
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>> It just made me feel good driving it.
You can't ask for anything more than that.
Game, set & match to stu.
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Have to admit I tend to view cars as tin boxes. Interesting tin boxes and nice to drive tin boxes, at least when I have the readies to treat myself to something reasonable, but tin boxes none the less. I get bored, I sell them, I get something else. Or alternatively the company car lease runs out, I get something new and shiny and great.
My VW Golf Mk2 GTI 16V was something else though. I sold it after 3 years thinking I would find something nicer or at least better. How wrong I was and how I still miss it after 13 years and an ever rosier tint to the memory.
Might have something to do with the girl I was with at the time, but that's a different story...
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>> Game set & match to stu.
>>
>>>>>>>>> he can have a swan vestas any day off me for his blight on the roads ;-)
i always remember inheriting one of these after a head gasket repair had failed due to the liners having warped,i couldnt get a breakers yard to take it even when i told them there was no rot in the doors ........
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Putting them out of their misery - bathtub tom
