Cars

[mundens]

beagl mentioned something about danjite and cars. I've never been one to care too much about transport, as long as I could get some, but I have had cars.

The person who actually owned cars when I was a teenager was v_folds, so I just tagged along. I did get to work on a 1910? Fordson tractor of his, as well as a PA Velox (I think). Then my girlfriend owned a 1965 Karman Ghia 1200, so I rode in that a lot. I used to hitch-hike to see her over the weekend as she lived in the next town, if one can call Shannon a town.

The first car I actually owned was a 1952 Morris Minor 850 side-valve which I bought off of Warrant Officer Palmer, at the time disciplinary head of Number 2 Technical Training School which I was attending. I drove it for a while before tearing it into tiny pieces and never putting it back together again.

Then there was the 1300cc 6-volt VW. I actually replaced the cylinder pots and main bearings of that myself, following the instructions in the classic How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive : A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot by John Muir. It was a lovely book. Full of stories and philosophy. In fact, it was the stories in that book that rescued me late one night on a long distance trip to Picton to meet a ferry, when the car suddenly died completely in the middle of nowhere, and I remembered a story from the book about broken earth cables, and, lo and behold, that was the issue and a little time, the ubiquitous 13mm spanner and some speed tape, and I had a temporary earth cable that got me to where I needed to be.

Next was a 1956 International Harvester AS110 Ambulance with a 5.1 HEMI in it. But it guzzled the gas (it had dual fuel systems and gas tanks, as well dual brakes and anything else you could duplicate, because it was an ambulance), and was really only useful for road trips. But man, could it power up hills! Cars would get away form me in the mountains on the downhill parts, because the ambulance was a little hard to steer safely and top heavy. But when the fancy modern cars were struggling up the grades, the 5.1 would show it's power, and we'd be right on their bumpers up the hill.

But the gas usage really sucked so it got replaced with a Brazilian-made 1980 VW Kombi. This became my main ride for several years, as I only needed it to go to work on the days I had stuff to carry, biking being the main form of travel for me at that point, with my wife driving the 1991 Holden Barina we'd traded in the VW for, coz 6-volt cars don't handle Christchurch winters all that well.

Then we moved north and got richer and picked up a Nissan Prairie similar to the one danjite & khaybee have, only dark green. When my wife left, we swapped cars. She took the Prairie and I took her Barina, which has now served the family well for nigh on thirteen years, as well as taking seraphs_folly and I round the North Island very economically. Still I've had to get a rear wheel bearing replaced, and I'm beginning to think the diff is going to grind itself to pieces soon, so it's probably about time for a change.

Another thing to add to the planning budget. I'll probably just get a newer Barina, I don't think I could park a large car any more. Though the usefulness of something capable of carrying large items, like the old Kombi we had, also appeals to me.

Comments

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I have a recollection that those older Barinas were rebadged Suzukis. Later ones are based on a Daewoo platform. If you were planning to upgrade in the same line then bringing Suzuki into your calculation might give you more choices without changing the basic parameters.

[mundens.livejournal.com]

Yep Holden Barinas of my car's vintage were also Suzuki Swifts.

[cha0sslave.livejournal.com]

Barina's are still a womens car, you should consider a Toyota Corolla, the biggest selling production car in history, and any model is a good one, there are spare parts raining from the skies, they're cheap as hell to buy maintain and run and Ian would happily do work on it for you for a little extra cash.

I can't believe you had a car with a Hemi in it though, serious envious drooling here, but these days that'd cost you about $15 just to get to the SS train station.

My first ever car is my lovely VAN, I never wanted a vehicle because of all the associated costs, and now it's hurting big time, I'm up to $1000 a month in Diesel now.