First car was a J reg FIAT Uno when I was 18, which really lived up to it's "fix it again" reputation. I saved up all my £1350 from my saturday job to buy him. He didn't have a name, but we endured months of being told I'd flooded the engine and it turned out to be a faulty ECU. I learned a lot about cars with that one - it had a manual choke! When the time came to part exchange him for Polo the man at VW put a token £100 on the part ex bit of the form, and I think he probably went to the scrap heap in the sky.
The Uno lasted 3 years and the night before I was taking him in to be part exchanged, I had to take him for a little drive to explain that it wasn't his fault, he just wasn't up to the drive up to university and I needed a stronger car to do all that motorway driving. I even played him that Lighthouse Family song that goes "We are gonna beeee, together, you and meeee." I couldn't look back once I'd handed the keys over, but from then on there was only one car in my life...
Polo! It really was love at first sight. After all day looking at cars, we decided to try VW as it was on the way home. They clearly didn't have anything I could afford but just as we were walking back to the car, I saw his little smiley grill just poking round the corner. "You can't look at that one, it's only just come in on part ex and we haven't cleaned it yet." That was not going to stop me. After a wheelspin out of the carpark on the test drive, we were destined to be together.
I loved Polo - he represented leaving home, growing up and going to uni for me. We survived five years, 80,000 miles and three crashes together, and he protected me through all of them, when traffic officers told me if I'd been in a fiesta or saxo of the same age, I wouldn't be here now. I made stupid mistakes in that car, which have made me a better driver today. When my other half found himself between jobs and without his company car, it was Polo who stepped up to the challenge of driving him round the country to various interviews, and he looked so small next to his eventual companion, the Passat estate.
In the end I got my first job out of university and Polo just wasn't up to the business miles I do. He was also getting to the stage where he was going to need a new gearbox. A very attractive company leasing deal called, and Gunther Golf was the eventual choice. It took me six weeks after he arrived to put Polo up for sale, and I turned down a couple of callers because of where they lived - I wanted Polo to go to a nice area in his old age!
I wasn't expecting the people who came to look at Polo to take him away that day (thought they would pay a deposit, sort insurance and come back, but the man was covered for any car) so we didn't get to do our farewell drive together. When we were filling in the paperwork I made some excuse about needing to check the milage, and went and had a chat with Polo about all the good times we'd had, and how he was going somewhere where he wouldn't have to do all those motorway miles. I couldn't watch them leave - my other half was driving to Scotland that night and he rang me (on the hands free!) and said I'd cried on the phone so long that he had got from the Stoke junction to just past the lake district! I was so sad, and I still get a bit misty eyed when I think about what Polo is doing now... what if she didn't realise he is a boy and has put those stupid "princess on board" and fluffy things in him? :(
I don't think I'll cry when Gunther goes, and I dont love him like Polo, but we have a grown up understanding - he knows he's got a job to do, and I do love driving him.
(And after that post, I think I'd better get my coat while there is a shred of my hard nosed moderator reputation remaining!)
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You really are lachrymose, aren't you :)
AA
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Not normally, no! It must have been love :)
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I think (without in any way being sexist) that being a girl means you can get away with saying exactly what you feel and sounding quite natural about it. PG has expressed better than any of the rest of us how she felt: I felt much the same about my Audi but couldn't have put it nearly so eloquently.
We men have to look for reasons to justify what we say - in fact you can feel affection for something inanimate which is part of your life just as you can for another person, or an animal - and there doesn't have to be a 'why'. In a strange way a car is more part of your life than other inanimate objects - I can't express why but PG at least will understand.
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Hmm, I've only ever truly loved 2 cars out of the ones that I've owned so far (that would be 9 or 10 vehicles).
My 2003 Fiesta 1.4 Zetec, she was baby blue in colour and her face was clearly visible in the dashboard where the air vents, hazard warning switch and the top of the CD player came together in what was unmistakably a pair of eyes, a nose, and a mouth. She took me all over the country, I had loads of adventures in her and she never, not once, let me down. She also protected me from a moronic Newcastle taxi driver and was just generally a little star. I really was genuinely upset when I sold her, although was pleased that she was bought by a lady and her adorable daughter who I hope had as much fun with her as I did. I know they put a private plate on to make her look nicer.
The last true love of my life was my BMW 323Ci, what an elegant beauty she was, she was a few years old, and was starting to show the odd wrinkle, but she aged more like a fine wine than an old piece of machinery. Every time I started her she spoke to me with a reassuring purr, she wafted me about with a sure footedness that no other car ever has. She was comfortable, she made me feel safe, she looked after me when a taxi driver decided to try and drive through me, she was just a genuinely lovely car. Sadly she had extensive damage from a previous relationship that I just couldn't justify putting right, and I part-ex'd her for the TF. I felt like a genuine cheat that day, and yes, I did look back at her as I drove off in my current mistress and wondered whether I was making the right decision.
Now, 6 months later, I know that I wasn't. I just miss her, and I can't ever get her back. If anyone who reads this is driving V390 FCB please give her a polish for me.
Blue
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Nice stuff, folks! I can't say I've been as attached to a car in the same way as PG (you big softie :-)), though the Beetle came close. BTW, I remember the then Mrs MM and I drove in it to the cinema where 'The Love Bug' (was that what it was called?) was showing. As we were walking back to the car in the multi-storey, we heard a kid say to his mum and dad "Look, it's a Herbie-car!" I felt so proud.
More sensibly... and to echo another post, you've got to love a car in which great gear-changes - including double-declutching down-changes when you feet seem to dance effortlessly on the pedals - come naturally!
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"including double-declutching down-changes when you feet seem to dance effortlessly on the pedals - come naturally!"
Hmm on the Rover 16 if you used the freewheel, gearchanges were clutchless:-)
My first car was a 1929 Riley 9 and there you HAD to double declutch - on account of the 4 speeds being without synchromesh.. by design...
madf
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I wont go all dewey eyed and soft about the cars I loved. The Touran has made me hard and cold hearted about cars.
One single enduring theme seems to exist throughout this thread. Its how our first car made us grow up, learn, a right of passage.
Something to work for and earn money to buy, to keep running. Something we have a responsibility for to keep running and keep legal. Something that can be cruel to us. Something that has consequences following our actions.
But ultimately something that gave us our freedom, to fly the nest, to grow up, and provide fun and experiences. I dont love any cars, but I love the memories they brought.
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I was quite fond of Lola the Laguna tho. She was the first car for ages that I would open the curtains to peek at on the drive and say good morning to. I abused her badly and in return she saved my life. I suppose you gotta love anyone that does that for you.
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< Ex RF, Ex TVM >
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You lot are crackers! How can you **love** a lump of metal, plastic, rubber, and glass? What complete nonsense!
The only hearts truly warmed by this thread are those of the marketing men - their message has clearly been taken up, or should I say absorbed?
Number_Cruncher
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You lot are crackers! How can you **love** a lump of metal plastic rubber and glass? What complete nonsense!
well said NC, I would expect no lesser comment from a computer! (said very TiC of course!)
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< Ex RF, Ex TVM >
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NC - may not be love in the dictionary but there is an emotional buy in, cars/bikes are more than the sum total of their parts.......
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Only car I've owned I loved: Ford Focus mk1 1.6 5dr LX. Build was first rate, despite 100,000miles no squeaks or rattles, it was comfortable, ridiculously fast for a basic humdrum family car, drove like an absolute dream, and just had character by the bucketload. It had its faults, these helped in my opinion.
By comparison the 1.6 TDCi 110 Focus 2 LX I have now is a dog. Rattles. Cheaper plastics abound inside, with less equipment. Feels slow. Rubbish mpg for a diesel. Drives well, but not as well as the mk1. And no character at all. It's a faultless tool, and none the better for it.
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"You lot are crackers! How can you **love** a lump of metal, plastic, rubber, and glass?"
Well, my first wife was a Scouser so anything's possible.
I feel nothing towards most cars, then I'll drive a real car like a Jag XJ or big Merc and when I get back in my 406 and I'll positively detest it.
I have loved Jags since The Saint drove an XJS. I absolutely love them.
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.......She was the first car for ages that I would open the curtains to peek at on the drive and say good morning to...........
As opposed to opening the curtain airbags, to peek out at the emergency services driving at pace?
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Saw a damaged red XJS on the back of a transporter on the M6 yesterday....felt a pang when I saw it...it was a pre HE type.
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Loved my metallic grey 1989, Saab 900 turbo. Didn't have to get in it, just liked looking at it from the window of the front room. Made me smile just sitting in the seat.
Unfortunately, turned out to be a right pile of doo-doo electrically wise, let me down quite a lot and got part-exed when I had a baby and needed a reliable car. Wish I'd kept it and had it sorted out though. I still look longingly at ones that are the same colour.
Also loved a Rover 820 that we had previously. Our first grown up (ie not cheap) car. Fast and so comfy. Impressed everyone. Again, totally unreliable. Had it a few months then got a massive repair bill (out of warranty).
The cars that have been reliable for us (ie Mitsubishi's), I haven't loved.
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While I was a little provocative in the way that I made my post, I really don't think that excessive attachment to cars is a good thing - in fact I think it's damaging, and not something to be celebrated at all.
It's one of the things that is causing quite a bit of strife between my parents in law. He is car mad, and dotes over his Focus. She therefore won't drive it, for fear of upsetting him over some minor mistake. This means that he has to drive, and as his powers are failing, it would be far better if she drove. But, *love* of the car actively prevents this!
Perhaps excessive love of cars has made us view their purpose in a skewed and not all-together healthy way - of course, this is via the designs and constructs of those wicked people who market and advertise the products. Instead of valuing where the cars can take us, and who they allow us to see and visit, we lavish too much thought and effort on something that can never smile back or tell us a joke.
Number_Cruncher
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I will never forget the sense of freedom I got once I had passed my test. I celebrated by driving down to the coast where we had gone sailing for years. The trip was from Hertfordshire to Brightlingsea. For years Dad drove us there and back every weekend, goning cross-country (no M25 in those days), and me not really paying attention to the actual roads ...
So off I set, and within 20 minutes got completely and utterly lost. Bought a map and sorted myself out. You live and learn!
The car? A gorgeous blue well-worn Moggie Minor. CGW330H.
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