Are we unusual in getting attached to vehicles?

My diesel Octavia Mk2 with 179000 miles has just gone off to a new home and I’m feeling rather sad. We recently bought a petrol Mk3 which is rather nice with all mod cons but I do miss the old one. She has been a faithful servant. My wife was equally sad when we had to let her old Corolla go.
I still dream about my old Ducatis - I wish in particular I still had the bevel 900ss. She was a beauty.

1 Like

I used to pat the dashboard of my diesel Avensis, and like you I was sad when it went to its new home (even sadder when they decided it was too old to fix: about 180,000 miles but 12 years old).

I could, however, get attached to the new Tiguan - lovely beast!

I cried when the BX we had as our first car got towed away. I hated it (dh loved it!) as I thought it was very ugly, no aircon etc! However it was the car we started our life together with and bought our first baby home from the hospital in!

1 Like

I’ve owned Defenders as my main car for nearly 20 years, some good, some awful but all unreliable to some degree. Why do I do this to myself? Style, function, utility or just a hair shirt :wink:

A fantastic question! After 20 years of wanting a Defender I finally had a test drive and decided absolutely not!

3 Likes

Now I want an Ineos Grenadier, talk about bad decisions!

That sounds like a mid-life +50 crisis!

1 Like

I’ve never really been attached to my cars, only ever had each for a few years. Longest owned was a 1994 Jeep Wrangler (when they made proper jeeps) but at 4.0l it only did 15 mpg at best so was only used as a summer truck, or if the snow was seriouslybad. Sold it about 10 years ago but now wish I’d kept it…
Liked my Land rover D3 too until the steering rack decided to fall apart :roll_eyes:

I’ve always been attached to some of my cars - sometimes they have a special quality which just gels with you. I particularly loved my Alfa Romeo 164, which I had from new for 19 years before she needed more specialist care than I could manage and she was packed off to retirement with an Alfa enthusiast in Yorkshire. How I loved that car, her impeccable handling got me out of one or two scrapes, I can tell you!

I used to love my motorbikes - but, probably for this reason, never got attached to cars - with one exception: when they first came out I bought a bright green Citroen Picassso with the roll-back fabric roof like the old C5s.
Wrote it off in the Vendée with 3 small children in the back (not my fault - 2 cars full of teenagers crashed straight across a mini-roundabout into us - luckily we all walked away with only cuts and bruises, and the teenagers - despite their driving - were lovely, admitting liability straight away and filling in the accident form for us - neither I nor the kids were in any fit state).

2 Likes

I loved my MG’s.
My first convertible was called Maud, because she came into the garden when the black bat night had flown.
I had an MGB GT some years later.
When that went, I has my first, second=hand, Mercedes 190E, which I loved to bits.
I remember driving down to Cowdray with a friend and seeing a car like my old one coming towards us and, lo and behold, it was mine and someone was looking after it very well. I was so pleased.
The Mercedes estate that we have had since January 2008 is a very comfortable workhorse, but I cannot say that I am attached to it in the same way as the others, they had more ‘personality’.

Style, of course :slight_smile:

1 Like

It was a sad day Saturday gone, my 20 year old octavia estate got drove onto the weighbridge at the scrap dealers,180,000 Miles and running as good as the day I got her,I’ve put up with all sorts falling of it and going wrong but always ran fine and 55 mpg,sadly the abs went loopy and could bear opening a can of worms the upside was I threw some scrap in the back and ended up with 300 quid for it,I watched it get picked up then turned and walked away,I’ll soon forget all about it while boozy camping after a 150 mile ride on my 40 year old lambretta at the weekend :grinning:

1 Like

Heady romantic stuff, but the only car I’ve ever really loved was a gold Mercedes 280CE pillarless coupé that has so many good memories. It was one of the last with the phenomenal build quality that nearly bankrupted Mercedes.

I bought it in Consett (that’s in Co Durham, southerners) and my then partner disparagingly observed that it looked like something a Moss Side drug dealer might drive. However (thanks to paid relocation) I subsequently drove it all over southern Africa on everything from motorways to hundreds of kms on dirt roads. Did the 900kms from Grahamstown to Cape Town many times, always returning with cases of Mogenhof Merlot and Chardonnay in the enormous boot. Once arrived in CT with the front of the car completely covered in (dead) yellow butterflies. Starting first time on a mid-winter morning 3000 metres up in the Qwaqwa Highlands, then stopping a few minutes later to let a family of zebras cross the road. Trying to drive as fast as everyone on the four lane JHB inner ring road, which is a bit like being in a computer game, but there’s unbelievably steep gradients, you’re 5000 feet above sea-level and your car’s not only tuned for sea level at the coast, but is used to running on 97 rather than the 93 octane fuel that you used to get in the interior. By contrast, the freedom of driving at 150kph on dead straight single carriageway desert roads in Namibia on the way up to Angola while looking far, far ahead for potholes and stray tortoises. Lastly, realising the leather interior was way too hot if you were wearing shorts, so like everone else, got thick Merino sheepskins from a farm in the Karoo(that could get a bit smelly).

Had four MBZs after that, but never the same adventures nor quality of machinery.

4 Likes

I had a 3.8 E.type coupe BRG in the 60’s. Bought it from a mate who had money troubles £700. Sold it a couple of years laterfor £900 as I had acompany car. Austin 1100!

How I wish I’d kept it, silly money now.

1 Like

Keen to keep my car going, only an old Peugeot 207 but had it for over 10yrs. Enjoyed the R90S BMW bike we had (l was pillion only), so comfortable especially when compared to the Ducati Darmah 900 which was a beautiful posers bike but had a seat with only an inch of padding!
What l do miss is my Chas Roberts mountain bike, one of the first he made in 1985. It survived several long trips including traversing India, Nepal and Pakistans Karakoram Highway. It was stable and comfortable - a real workhorse and l now regret selling it.

1 Like

Even more so if you did this to it… JAGUAR E-TYPE ZERO - “THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ELECTRIC CAR IN THE WORLD” | Jaguar Media Newsroom

1 Like

In the 60’s I lived as a child in a poor suburb of Birmingham - Greet. My uncle, doing rather well as an electronics engineer would come to pick me up in his E-type. I think some of the other kids were quite envious.

You must have had nerves of steel!. Sounds very exciting.

1 Like

it was fascinating and yes we needed nerves of steel but also taught me faith in humanity. I would recommend travel to expand the mind and if younger I would do it again.

1 Like