How long do you keep a car for?

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Sat 1 Oct 2005 20:36
How long do you keep a car for? - Steptoe
I bought my Rover 90 for £50 in 1973 as a companion for the 3 litre I was just reminiscing about in the first love thread. It had one owner before me, he was selling it cheaply because the clutch was slipping again less than 1,000 miles after a garage had replaced it at some exorbitant cost.

Some of you may know that the clutch on these models can be changed whilst sitting in comfort on the front armchair so job was soon done. Wont mention garages name but they were a Rover main dealer,hmmm.

Anyway I used and abused Auntie for a few years until I got a job with a company van; in those halcyon pre HSE days I was able to construct a wooden bench seat in the back and sit the kids on that, so poor old Auntie got put in the shed.

About twenty years ago during a visit to a steam fair I was admiring the line up of classic cars, in the middle of which was an immaculate P4, it was like one of those Road to Damascus experiences; hang on havent I got one of those somewhere?

To say I dragged it out and restored it would not be strictly accurate. The local garage welded sills and B-posts to MOT standard, chassis is of Land Rover quality so was OK, and a little filler and lots of brush painting made Auntie fairly presentable again. Just after I had finished the great hurricane of 1987 loosened the shed roof which collapsed on her. The very nice man who came round sent me a cheque for, I think, about £300 to get her repaired. I hope hes not a member of the backroom because I pushed the dent out and bought an aerosol, the remaining marks are on the roof so only tall people can notice.

Auntie has an easy life now, like myself, (but still running on the 1973 clutch) at about 18mpg she is lucky to have a life at all!
She has a non-standard hole under the back seat where daughters car seat was attached, some 25 years later I used the same hole to secure granddaughters seat.

With a total annual running cost of about £200 plus petrol Auntie is going to hang on in there until either great granddaughter materialises or someone takes my licence away.


Surely someone can beat 32 years...
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