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Wheels On Fire
Aug. 18th, 2019 10:04 pmChange is afoot at WaitingManor...
Getting a new car has been an on-again, off-again discussion for the last couple of years, usually going off again as we continued to pay down various other debts, handle the usual domestic issues & emergencies & deal with other priorities that leapfrogged to the top of the Do It NOW!! list... We've been a 2 car household for a few years & have actually been a 3 car household for the last year & a bit, as I've been driving a company ute to & from work & all over town as part of my general dogsbody duties. We don't really need 2 cars any more (& certainly don't need 3!!!), so we've periodically wondered what we'd get to replace the little hatchback runabout & my beloved Ford V8 OBluV8
The recent weekend in the snow & mountains has brought the conversation up again, as poor old OBluV8's suspension didn't like the cold, or the occasionally bumpy roads up there & bounced along more noisily & less comfortably than in the past, making me wince every time, like I was hurting the old boy... OBluV8 is 16 years old now, has done well over 200,000 kilometres &, even though the engine is as powerful & smooth-running as ever, there are bits that aren't aging as well. The time has come to decide whether to commit a large sum of money to restoring the old boy to former glory, or trade him in as a package deal with the hatchback - given that OBluV8 on his own, isn't worth very much these days, probably $3-4,000 for private sale, or less if traded in. Having ridden the roundabout of fuckwittery that is private car sales a few years ago, we are reluctant to ride again &, even if we did, there just isn't the air of style & auto-romance about the 2003 Fords, as there is for the late 60s/early 70s models. I don't think we can afford to wait for the zeitgeist to catch up...
I've never owned a car for this long... I'll miss the old boy
Photo by L-SP. Taken as I crossed the finish line at the Mount Panorama race track, home to the annual Bathurst 1000. Obviously, this was not a race day!!! Nice panning technique though...
Getting a new car has been an on-again, off-again discussion for the last couple of years, usually going off again as we continued to pay down various other debts, handle the usual domestic issues & emergencies & deal with other priorities that leapfrogged to the top of the Do It NOW!! list... We've been a 2 car household for a few years & have actually been a 3 car household for the last year & a bit, as I've been driving a company ute to & from work & all over town as part of my general dogsbody duties. We don't really need 2 cars any more (& certainly don't need 3!!!), so we've periodically wondered what we'd get to replace the little hatchback runabout & my beloved Ford V8 OBluV8
The recent weekend in the snow & mountains has brought the conversation up again, as poor old OBluV8's suspension didn't like the cold, or the occasionally bumpy roads up there & bounced along more noisily & less comfortably than in the past, making me wince every time, like I was hurting the old boy... OBluV8 is 16 years old now, has done well over 200,000 kilometres &, even though the engine is as powerful & smooth-running as ever, there are bits that aren't aging as well. The time has come to decide whether to commit a large sum of money to restoring the old boy to former glory, or trade him in as a package deal with the hatchback - given that OBluV8 on his own, isn't worth very much these days, probably $3-4,000 for private sale, or less if traded in. Having ridden the roundabout of fuckwittery that is private car sales a few years ago, we are reluctant to ride again &, even if we did, there just isn't the air of style & auto-romance about the 2003 Fords, as there is for the late 60s/early 70s models. I don't think we can afford to wait for the zeitgeist to catch up...
I've never owned a car for this long... I'll miss the old boy
Photo by L-SP. Taken as I crossed the finish line at the Mount Panorama race track, home to the annual Bathurst 1000. Obviously, this was not a race day!!! Nice panning technique though...
