My dear friend has been driving for more than 30 years but has only had a handful of cars. He does a fairly high annual mileage but keeps his cars until they are well and truly worn out. His current one, a large Volvo estate he has had from new is 17 years old and while mechanically sound and religiously maintained under the bonnet, it does outwardly look its age.
It has many a battle scar in its bodywork. A parking ding here, a scratch there, a hole in the rear bumper where he got too close to something or it got too close to him an unremembered number of years ago. Anything which took paint off has been crudely painted over but any dents are left as aide memoirs to be more careful in future. The interior while kept moderately clean by an annual mucking out is also careworn with seat fabrics torn here and there by long forgotten items of luggage or materials needed for some project or other. The drivers footwell carpet has long since worn out. It would never have occured to him to have used a mat and when it tore enough to start catching on his shoes he simply cut out the offending area beneath the pedals exposing the metal floor underneath.
It does get washed but apparently only every leap year if he remembers. As I mentioned earlier, it is kept serviced properly and is never to be seen with a duff bulb or a grumbling exhaust.
This neglect is not a function of wealth. He is a reasonably comfortably off individual and keeps his wife in new BMWs on a contrastingly regular basis. He just doesn't seem to care very much about his own cars appearance and treasures only its functionality.
I know such an attitude to cars is alien to most in the BR but I can't help admiring his pragmatism.
Maybe some of us care too much.
|
Exactly Hump. I have been trying to ease up on it a bit recently - only washed the salt of underneath once and letting the Lads at the hand-wash clean it.
The engine oil is something else of course ;-)
Hard to fight against your personality - I suspect the Gentleman mentioned is equally laid back in other areas in his life - and that it`s `hard wired` and been an obvious personality trait since age 5yrs & perhaps noticeable as a baby.
|
|
I suppose some of that rings true Oily. His previous car was a Peugeot 505 estate which was treated with equal disdain. The only reason he got rid of that was because someone crashed into him and the ins co. wrote it off. In the event of this one crumbling around him which it surely must one day, I wonder what he could now buy which would take the years, miles and aesthetic neglect so well ?
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 24/01/2010 at 17:55
|
The thing to bear in mind here is that Hump's mate has chosen 2 of only a handful of cars that would stand this type of neglect, the interiors of most would have fallen apart long ago.
I doubt there's many cars built in the last 10 years that could take it and maybe only a handful of old school 4x4's and vans too.
Pity that he's quite so neglectful of the interior, i feel rather sorry for his cars..a set of tough interior mats and some Lidl's sheepskin seat covers would have been a good investment.
As it stands i think your mate should think about a Lexus 300/400/430, can't think of any other car off the top of me head made since 2000 that would do.
Maybe a pick up would be a possibility?
|
He`s a `winner` though. I`m at risk of moving pristine cars on - with someone else benefiting from an awful lot of hard work. That, or the scrapyard receiving an old vehicle with pristine subframes and engine bays.
If I could flick a switch and and be comfortable with a greater degree of `neglect`, I would do it without hesitation.
I`ve worked on it with some success this Winter though and been surprised at how I`m relaxed about it. That said it`s been enforced really and I`ve had no qualms in putting health first.
|
I'm at risk of moving pristine cars on
You're right there, I always sell my heaps in better condition than whan I bought them, I always treat them as an ongoing project, but then I fancy a change when there's nothing wrong with the car. I've managed to keep my current car 5 years, thats a record for me!
Those RWD Volvo estates are legendary. I like seeing people doggedly hanging on to their old warhorses. Peter Simpson, the previous editor of Car Mechanics magazine and writing an article about Volvo's said that if you go out for a long drive, you can guarantee seeing at least one old Volvo estate still on the roads being used as an everyday car. And he's right. I still see Volvo 240 estates being used daily. I mean, how old are they now?
|
The description of the Volvo sounds like my daughter's SEAT Ibiza - and that's only just over 5yrs old!
It's been franchised dealer maintained (so not very well then!) but the bodywork is rough, at best! Being metallic black doesn't help and neither does her job as a teacher - the car has obviously been hit by footballs many times, but oddly some of the shallow dents are on quite solid parts of the car. The sides are peppered with carpark door dings, included one very nasty one done, I guess, by the corner of a rear door.
It was also hit on the bonnet by a firework in its early life and another time I looked over the the car to find two spots of acid eating away at the paint! A quick repair was called for as the car was off on a trip so a resprayed a square of the bonnet in 10 mins, masking it off with old quilt covers!
When I can get at the car, clearing it of rubbish is best carried out with a shovel.
She was always very hard on things - her pushchair and car-seat were totally wrecked when she'd finished with them, yet no 2 daughter's stuff still looked brand-new after the same use. Pity we didn't have them the other way around!
|
My mondeo is pretty beaten up now, dents or scrapes on most panels but I really don't care.
Mechanically it's kept in excellent nick but I'm not fussed about it's appearance
|
|
|
