Tuesday, 2 October 2012

Car had trouble starting and didn't quit smoking...

I bade farewell to my car last Friday. I am not a car fanatic by any stretch of the imagination, usually going for practical and comfortable cars and my last vehicle was a Vauxhall Zafira. It wasn't fast but it was extremely comfortable and spacious and I adored it.
I had run it into the ground, owning it for close to 10 years and it had some mechanical faults that meant it was beyond economic repair. Mind you at 217,000 miles, it had done its fair share of travelling.
It had been as far North as Aberdeen, on several occasions. Newcastle a couple of times, Cumbria a few more times, North, Mid and South Wales a few times, East Anglia a couple of times, Kent and Sussex region a few times, Somerset and Devon a few times and Dorset numerous times but Car had never been to Cornwall.
I used to visit Cornwall regularly but haven't been down there in 10 years and I found it a little sad that Car had visited so much of the UK with me, it has travelled as far North, East and West of the UK as I ever have been, but not as far South. It has been a good companion, safe and dependable and very easy to drive.
Last Friday I drove Car down to the canal and sat there with a coffee and had a cigar. It was cold but sunny, very fresh feeling, my favourite kind of day. It is stupid to get so attached to a piece of machinery but it is the distance that we had both travelled together, the shared experiences. Getting towed out of a field by a tractor in thick mud, having to pack the tyres with mud and stone when I got stuck in snow, watching the other cars slide down a hill and getting up it first time, driving back from Hebden Bridge with hardly any brakes and metal to metal grating all the way home. Then the more euphoric first views of Cumbria or first trip to Dorset or revisiting childhood memories like Kenilworth Castle and Stonehenge, it becomes more than metal as driving is the ultimate freedom and by default the car becomes an extension of you.
I am now in a faster car that my wife has called Jack, although it being a French car, I am sure it is a Jacques (with a silent "Pah!". It is very pretty and has lots of lights, lots of automated things, 6 gears and white dials. Everyone seems to love it and I can't find fault with it except that it's not Car. Car had trouble starting and didn't quit smoking last year, infact Car woke up to a cloud of black smoke every morning. Car sounded like a tractor and steered like one too. Car had decided that it needed new tyres every 6 weeks and was eagerly waiting for a new steering rack, track rod ends, clutch and many, many engine parts.
This is simply my fond farewell to my favouritest car ever, OV51WBP, bye Car.

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