Cars of a lifetime - Tell your stories

[Supra_Natural]

I suddenly had the idea to start this thread so everyone could tell the stories of the cars in their lives. Basically, any and all cars that you owned or had in the family, write a post (can be about a single car or about multiple, your choice), the more descriptive the better, and of course put pictures if you have them. The point is so that we all read and appreciate the stories of the cars each of us have had over the years which have grown our passion (or is it insanity?) for the automobile.

Let me know if you think this is interesting, I'll put my first one up soon if so.

[Kavvz]

I don't have pictures (I probably do,I'll dig them up) But I have a story about: My 2004/5 Mazda 3. 

So what>you guys may ask? Its a Mazda-f-three. No big deal, we see them all the time. Yes true, but this car taught me one of the most important life lessons: Living within your means. 

It all started one fine afternoon when I was zooming off to pick up my wife (then fiancee). She had called and asked if I could pick her up after work and I, eager for any chance to meet-up, had promptly agreed. I grabbed my keys, jumped in my newish Mazda3 and zoom-zoomed off. 

The weather was great, the car was on point and doing all the zoom-zoom things it was advertised to do. I was on my way to see my love, things were great and I was in a fantastic mood. So naturally, like for most car guys, my exuberance spilled over into my driving and I started to think I could drive better than I really could: My car was not a Mazda! It was a race car, and I was Schumacher!

It was great for a little bit, but unfortunately no one had informed the general public that they were on a race-track, and driving along at full tilt, I soon had an upstart: I took a blind corner a little too fast (to the car's credit it whipped around the corner just fine) and bang! I rear ended a white Toyota, that was around the bend pottering along at a leisurely pace...I was already into the corner when I saw the car and I had no chance at any sort of evasive action for my instinct was to slam on the brakes. As soon as I got on the brakes, the car started sliding as it was already pivoting around the corner and I slid right into the back of this poor old Toyota that was just rattling along minding its business, and knocked it forward. 

Shit. Shit. Shit. I slid to a stop and sheepishly jumped out from behind the wheel to check on the car in front. Thankfully, things weren't as bad as I thought for it had ended up being a relatively low speed collision. The brakes (and the involuntary slide) had done their job and dulled the impact down to a fender bender situation and it was not the full on shit-show that it could have been.

I assessed the damage to the car I rear ended, and made my way to front of the car fully expecting an earful of choice words from the driver as the fault was irrevocably mine. Thankfully, the driver was an easy going sort of uncle who was more bemused than angry, and even seemed to think that I had rammed him because my brakes failed or something. Little did he know my brakes were working fine and that it was only because they did such a spectacular job of slowing me down that he wasn't Schumacher-ed from the rear harder!

We sorted it all out: I took pictures and quickly agreed to pay for his rear fender that had dented in and then sort of popped out from the sides. I was appropriately apologetic, and the gentleman who was modestly dressed, seemed to take it well. Thinking to reassure him I was a bit expansive, and effusively promised him that I would do what it takes to fix his car for him. Looking at his older car that had a bit of rust and general wear & tear, I promised him it would look better-than-new by the time the paint guys were done with it etc. He seemed relieved, and by the general state of his car, I assumed it was because he would finally have a rear bumper that didn't have multiple dings and scrapes in it. 

Well the cars got repaired, and while I paid for his repair at the garage of his choice, I also wanted to meet him again so I could apologize and thank him in person for being such a gentleman about the whole affair. So I called and made arrangements to meet him and rolled up as arranged. Pulling up, I was a bit surprised as the bugger lived in a fancy neighborhood. One that was much, nicer than the area I lived in ( I was renting at the time I think too) and I was a bit surprised. I did a double-take but no, it was the right place, for I spotted the old Toyota sitting pretty (sans a bit of rust and looking shiny around the rear-end, but still looking tired around the front). I pulled in, rang the door bell and there was the old boy himself beaming, happy to welcome me into his home etc.

So I palmed him the little gift I had for him, expressed regret for my actions and did the whole: "Thank you for being such a Gentleman" bit I had rehearsed. And being the crafty bugger I was; before I left, I worked around to complimenting him on his house and told him (frankly now) how amazingly beautiful it was. And get this: The bugger looks me dead in the eye and tells me: "Yes, Thanks! I live in this house because I have been careful with my money. I've invested most of my money, and putting it into this house, was part of my investments. Look, I bought that car outside AFTER I finished building this house and see, while this house is as beautiful as ever, the car is hardly worth selling in that condition". 

Feeling a bit bemused, I drove away feeling I had learned a number of lessons that day: Mainly not to judge people by how they are dressed or by the car they drive, as the guy I rear ended was a solid chap - morally as well as financially! But I also reflected on how I drove a nice new car, while living in a rented house, yet this smart bugger did the complete opposite. The lesson hit hard, as I pretty much cleared out my savings account to pay for the repairs on both the cars; yet this chap driving an old Toyota, was obviously much more liquid than I was...It was an interesting day, with lots of little life-lessons for me. 

The moral of the story: Drive a Mazda. It's totally zoom-zoom. And even if it zoom-zoom's you into rear-ending someone, you'll still end up learning something.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2020 by Kavvz

[fiat fan]

2 hours ago, Kavvz said:

Well the cars got repaired, and while I paid for his repair at the garage of his choice, I also wanted to meet him again so I could apologize and thank him in person for being such a gentleman about the whole affair. So I called and made arrangements to meet him and rolled up as arranged. Pulling up, I was a bit surprised as the bugger lived in a fancy neighborhood. One that was much, nicer than the area I lived in ( I was renting at the time I think too) and I was a bit surprised. I did a double-take but no, it was the right place, for I spotted the old Toyota sitting pretty (sans a bit of rust and looking shiny around the rear-end, but still looking tired around the front). I pulled in, rang the door bell and there was the old boy himself beaming, happy to welcome me into his home etc.

So I palmed him the little gift I had for him, expressed regret for my actions and did the whole: "Thank you for being such a Gentleman" bit I had rehearsed. And being the crafty bugger I was; before I left, I worked around to complimenting him on his house and told him (frankly now) how amazingly beautiful it was. And get this: The bugger looks me dead in the eye and tells me: "Yes, Thanks! I live in this house because I have been careful with my money. I've invested most of my money, and putting it into this house, was part of my investments. Look, I bought that car outside AFTER I finished building this house and see, while this house is as beautiful as ever, the car is hardly worth selling in that condition". 

Feeling a bit bemused, I drove away feeling I had learned a number of lessons that day: Mainly not to judge people by how they are dressed or by the car they drive, as the guy I rear ended was a solid chap - morally as well as financially! But I also reflected on how I drove a nice new car, while living in a rented house, yet this smart bugger did the complete opposite. The lesson hit hard, as I pretty much cleared out my savings account to pay for the repairs on both the cars; yet this chap driving an old Toyota, was obviously much more liquid than I was...It was an interesting day, with lots of little life-lessons for me. 

The moral of the story: Drive a Mazda. It's totally zoom-zoom. And even if it zoom-zoom's you into rear-ending someone, you'll still end up learning something.

 

 

Oh boy. I learnt this the super hard way. Cars, Technology, bad relatives, shit friends and ugly relationships can make you broke and hate life super fast. The struggle is real.
 

My theory now is- build your preferred amount of cash, invest it and splurge on the dividends. I used to splurge from my paycheck. Baaad baad idea.
 

I realized this after I got myself out of the daily grind- The world is running a big rat race.

People are following the Jones’s 100%. I myself was in this position and struggled badly.

 

YOU WILL HATE EVERYTHING YOU BUY ON CREDIT. 

(I too have many interesting car stories, will post after I find some pictures.)

[AVANTE]

6 hours ago, fiat fan said:

Oh boy. I learnt this the super hard way. Cars, Technology, bad relatives, shit friends and ugly relationships can make you broke and hate life super fast. The struggle is real.
 

My theory now is- build your preferred amount of cash, invest it and splurge on the dividends. I used to splurge from my paycheck. Baaad baad idea.
 

I realized this after I got myself out of the daily grind- The world is running a big rat race.

Now now If it wasn't for cars, we wouldn't have learnt all that, am I right bro? 😏

Might not even have come across each other! 

As for our issue of struggling with cars. I think, it's not a matter of the flashiest car or the best car out there. It's a matter of 'the right car'. Such a love-hate relationship we end up having with our cars, so it's a matter of time, skill and luck until we end up settling for the right one.

Same applies to everything else in life. 

Strangely though, I have had more incidents and learnt more life lessons with motorcycles than cars. Met some gold-hearted people, lost a close relative. That's life I guess.

But the lesson of not judging a book by its cover and not trusting people too easily came from cars, similar to what@Kavvz said. 

Edited December 23, 2020 by AVANTE

[K.o.N.o.S]

So I have been away for some time and was sweeping through the forum. And found the perfect thread to share my story with my car. A Big thanks to @Supra_Natural for starting the thread.

(Spoiler Alert!!- not a happy Ending).

 

As some of you may know I drive a 2008 lancer ex GLS which is a bit modified to look like a lancer GT/ evoX hybrid. I bought this baby in early 2019 and have taken care of it with absolute care and to be honest I have treated her like my 2nd born daughter. Also my father who is the main character of my story also loved and cherished the car as much as I do.

 

In late 2019 my father was diagnosed with stage 2 bladder cancer. So we decided to go with chemotherapy/Radiotherapy treatment and he had to stay at cancer home in Kandy for 2 months to receive treatments. I drove my father there, drove to see him on a daily basis while I was having the ABS sensor issue in my car. So naturally speaking I drove the car for 2 months daily in highly congested Kandy traffic without ABS. Car had no trouble is stopping even without ABS and of course I had to learn to drive without ABS. Luckily by the time when my father was released from the hospital I was able to fix the issue by fitting a new ABS wheel sensor and we took him home after treatments feeling happy. Hmmm happy ending right? ‘NO’

 

8 months down the line and I still remember the day when it happened. 8th of Aug. So I got on to the car with my father on the passenger seat to go to get his quarterly checkup results. When I turned the ignition key the car did not start. No crank noise from the engine and car stayed silent. A bit Strange, This has never happened throughout my ownership and car always managed to start at the first attempt. So I took a long pause took the key out and gave it another try and this time it did start flawlessly. I strongly believe that car knew the danger was coming before all of us. She was giving me an indication that danger was imminent. Well she was right .On the same day we got to know that my father’s cancer had resurfaced.

 

So this time around we decided to go with bladder cancer operation called Radical cystectomy. For those of you who do not know, Radical cystectomy is the golden source of treatments with regards to bladder cancer patients. In a nutshell this is a highly complex surgery which involves the removal of the entire bladder followed by creating an alternative method of urine passing. However there are certain risks associated with this surgery especially for older people like my father.

So my father underwent operation on the 2nd of Oct and it was not quite successful. Then came the 2nd and 3rd operation. After the 3rd Operation my father went unconscious and he was immediately transferred to ICU. During these difficult times on a daily basis I got up early, drove the car to see my father. I used to park the car either at Bogambara car park or at KCC. My daily routine was to go see my dad in the morning, took care of his daily necessities came back to the car with my breakfast, Slept in the car, Had lunch in the car. Went to ICU to see my dad again, back in the car,Cried in the car, prayed to god to save my father and REPEAT.  I spent the whole day in the car and it was pretty much my second home to me. However nothing could stop my Dad’s destiny. My loving dad left this world on 30^th Oct 2020 leaving me and my family into tears.

 

My take of my own story- There’s is an unexplainable bond between the right car with the rightful owner. Your car understands you. Your car can feel you. More importantly she understands the danger that’s coming your way before anyone else. And she gives away warning signs. If you truly madly deeply love your car then you would know that it’s not just a machine with 4 wheels. For me she’s one of my kind. My lancer is more than a lancer to me.

Here’s is a pic of my loving father with my beloved lancer.

Gone with the wind. But DAD I will see you again.

Edited December 27, 2020 by K.o.N.o.S

[kush]

Hear goes

Interesting bits are too many to share

Austin A40 Farina (Fathers)

Renault 12 (Mothers)

Morris Mareena (Fathers)

VW Golf (my first)

Toyota Sprinter CE100 (Mothers)

Toyota Corolla II (Fathers)

Toyota Caldina (my second)

Nissan Sunny (Mothers)

Lancer CS1 (my third)

Nissan March (Wife’s)

Lancer EX 2007 (Wife’s)

Corolla 141 2007 (Mothers)

Suzuki Swift 2008 (my fourth)

Honda CRV 2013 (Wife’s)

Honda FIT 2015 (my fifth)

Nissan Leaf (my sixth)

Kia Picanto (my seventh)

Current Stock

Porsche Macan (Wife’s)

Suzuki Wagon R (my eighth)

Corolla Sport (my ninth)

[JayZ]

Just now, kush said:

Hear goes

Interesting bits are too many to share

Austin A40 Farina (Fathers)

 

Renault 12 (Mothers)

 

Morris Mareena (Fathers)

 

VW Golf (my first)

 

Toyota Sprinter CE100 (Mothers)

 

Toyota Corolla II (Fathers)

 

Toyota Caldina (my second)

 

Nissan Sunny (Mothers)

 

Lancer CS1 (my third)

 

Nissan March (Wife’s)

 

Lancer EX 2007 (Wife’s)

 

Corolla 141 2007 (Mothers)

 

Suzuki Swift 2008 (my fourth)

 

Honda CRV 2013 (Wife’s)

 

Honda FIT 2015 (my fifth)

 

Nissan Leaf (my sixth)

 

Kia Picanto (my seventh)

 

Current Stock

 

Porsche Macan (Wife’s)

 

Suzuki Wagon R (my eighth)

 

Corolla Sport (my ninth)

Somehow your wife manages to secure the sweeter ride. 🤣

[kush]

2 hours ago, JayZ said:

Somehow your wife manages to secure the sweeter ride. 🤣

Her money and permits, me being beneficiary.

[Hyaenidae]

On 12/27/2020 at 12:46 PM, K.o.N.o.S said:

Here’s is a pic of my loving father with my beloved lancer.

“If one does not attach himself to people and desires, never shall his heart be broken... but then, does he ever truly live?”

-Lu Yan, The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)-

Take solace in knowing that your father lead a life filled with love, and was loved back tenfold, fellow Lanzealot. 

 

[Supra_Natural]

Damn, completely forgot that I started this thread, must get around to posting up soon. 😅

[Supra_Natural]

1969 Volkswagen Beetle Part 1 - How NOT to buy a Volkswagen

Right, well here we go then. For as long as I can remember, I've been interested in cars, apparently by age 4 or 5 I could recognize makes and models from some distance away, and I obviously had quite a collection of toy cars (Matchbox at the time, Hot Wheels hadn't made it to SL). At some point in my childhood though, I took a detour towards planes and for a while the car interest petered out. Then at about age 11 or so I started reading the good old MOTOR magazine (and occasionally was given a copy of CAR or Autocar from the UK by a family friend), which brought the interest back into focus. I was fortunate in that my parents both had vehicles of their own (will eventually make a post on them too), so you can say I grew up fairly well versed in automotive stuff. 

By the time my driving license rolled around, I had already been thinking for a few years what my first car would be. Obviously the budget was not big, I had about 400k with some help from my folks, so that was what I was looking to spend. Back in the early 2000s that kind of money went a lot further than it seems to do today, and there were quite a few choices available. But for reasons that to this day I'm not entirely sure of, I had my focus set on a Volkswagen Beetle.

One reason could be because my grandfather owned a black 1959 example from brand new until the year 2000, and I had quite a few memories of outings in that car with the grandparents. Why didn't I just get his car you ask? Well my grandfather apparently had no idea that I would be interested in the car and when he stopped using it, he ended up giving it away for free to a work colleague! I tried to get (pay him and buy) the car back at the time but the guy didn't want to part with it. So I ended up having to search the marketplace.

Online adverts were still in their infancy, so most of the hunting was in the weekend papers and the Motor Mag. I read as many VW books and articles as I could find and talked to VW mechanics where I could find them so I thought I had a pretty solid idea of what to look for. Fellow AL member @milindu had a couple of bugs as part of his collection and was nice enough to let me see what a good one looked like. He wasn't selling any of his, but he WAS selling a KE25 Toyota Corolla Coupe, in absolutely mint condition, for 200k (and he offered me a discount on that too). For reference, it was something like this, but MUCH tidier

Anyway I had beetle blinkers on so I stupidly passed on the 'rolla, which ended up being bought (and lovingly maintained to this day) by one of his mechanics. 

So I went on hunting beetles, over a couple of months I looked at every single beetle that came up for sale, and i mean EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Overall I think I looked at around 30 cars and they all had some fault or the other. There were really nice ones quoting 400-500k but I didn't want to blow everything I had on buying the car (probably the only sensible decision I made at the time), so I wanted to spend no more than 250k on buying. Now my priority was a car that was mechanically and structurally sound, figuring cosmetics could be worked on later and I told my self I would buy a car that was a regular runner, so mimimum problems would exist.

Unfortunately after 30 cars my stock of patience (always low in an 18 year old) ran out, and car number 31 happened to be an example that was cosmetically very nice, but had been sitting unused for some months. The seller was a nice old uncle and he assured me everything was working well, My mechanic gave it a look over and pronounced it acceptable, so 220k changed hands and I had a car!

The plan was to drive it around for some time, figure out the quirks and then sort it out. However as they say, the best laid plans......

Edited March 3, 2021 by Supra_Natural

[Supra_Natural]

1969 Volkswagen Beetle Part 2 - How not to restore a Volkswagen

When we left off the search had just ended due to lack of patience and I had pulled the trigger on a car. Despite my previously decided idea to focus on a solid running car instead of a cosmetically nice one, I ended up picking up one that had been sitting for months but looked quite pretty inside and out. So bright an early one saturday morning I went to pick the thing up from the seller's house. Collecting it went smoothly enough, and I figured the best bet would be to fuel it up first of all. So we rolled up to the nearest petrol station and I proudly said "full tank". The pump was running for barely 30 seconds when people outside the car were yelling "Petrol halenawa!". So I jumped out to see what was up and fuel was streaming to the ground! So I popped the frunk (Beetle tanks are in the front of the car) and checked, to find that the seal around the fuel floater (at the top of the tank) had given up, causing fuel to escape from there. Also, the hose from the filler cap to the tank was past its best so that was leaking too.... Not an auspicious start overall. 

Still we managed to fill up to a point it didn't leak and rolled on homeward. I had noticed that the brakes seemed a little bit iffy but I figured it was good enough to get home and then to the garage for a check up as long as I kept my braking gentle. Unfortunately for me, as we were approaching Rajagiriya, a gent in a Mahindra Scorpio decided to come to a sudden stop at a junction. So I hit the brakes hard, only to find the pedal sank all the way to the floor! Pumping it a bit achieved not much, and we were still doing about 20 km/h when the Beetle impacted the tow bar of the Scorpio with a solid thump. Got out to find a very large dent in the front end, and the frunk lid not closing properly. Great start!

 

Beetle with its face punched in

 

Anyhow managed to limp the car to the garage where I was given some unfortunate news. Firstly, the impact had acted on the spare wheel (which was right at the edge of the frunk) in such a way that it had moved back, bending the structure behind it quite badly. In addition, what I was assured was a rust free car turned out to have floor boards that were crumbling into dust, as well as rusty door bottoms and quarter panels covered with cataloy. So my plan of gradually sorting it while running suddenly turned into a full on frame off restoration. D-oh!

That ended up taking several months and costing a lot more than I originally thought, but at the end of it the car came out looking rather decent and driving well. The only real issue was that the front never exactly lined up to close perfectly, but I could live with that. 

With it finally done I set about enjoying the freedom that my own set of wheels provided, using it as the daily driver to work and driving around with my girlfriend at the time. It didn't always provide sterling service: there were recurring issues with running smoothly and cutting out that were caused by some combination of coil and plug wires, which was eventually sorted out but was a real headache until then. I missed two Volkswagen Beetle Club drive events because the car crapped out on the day, which was really annoying. 

Still after it was sorted I did manage to get good use of it, even took it on a roadtrip or two. Drove it on the beach

 

Then promptly got it stuck on the beach 

 

 

and various other shenanigans that you get up to when you're young and dumb. It served as the daily for about 2 years, but the lack of AC was beginning to tell during the commute and eventually I got hold of the vehicle that would become my next daily. I kept the beetle around for another year or so after that but it was being used less and less so I decided to part with it a while later.

I often wondered what became of the thing and got into the habit of searching Beetles for sale over the years just to see if it survived. Had no luck for years and then lo and behold, last year all of a sudden it appeared on a classifieds site. But it didn't look anything like the car I had sold sadly. Some j***a$$ had decided it would be best without a roof and had gone and cut it off, replacing it with what looked like a 3 wheeler's top section. The side windows too seem to have gone. I consoled myself with the thought that at least the thing was still on the road, but I do wonder if it would rather be put out of its misery.....

 

So there ends the story of the Beetle.