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I've just condemned an old friend to death, and this has sent memories off in several separate directions... and how!
Registered in May 1993, my Toyota Corolla has served me well, from new, and would have lasted a few more years had it not suddenly got more valuable.
Strand one: my cars.
I didn't learn to drive till I was 29, and work started a company car scheme with no cash alternative.
Learnt on a BSM Metro, after bad experiences with other driving instructors.
First car (I didn't pick it!) a Ford Sierra. The last of the rear-wheel drive monsters from Ford. Big and bouncy.
Awful brakes and didn't go round corners. (which I discovered when I got lent a Golf when it was off the road for a week for a recall... until then I hadn't known the difference.)
Then changed jobs and had a Clio. ("Nicole..?" "Papa..?" Told you the memories went off in all directions)
Lively, fun to drive, but lots of road noise and leaned round corners.
Lastly my faithful friend. Mine from 47 miles on the clock: ex-demonstrator sold when the plates changed. Utterly reliable and without vices.
But shortly to be a memory.
Strand 2, Technology: it's of the past. No air-bags, no ABS, and a tape player not a CD/
That's the last use of tapes, for me... End of an era.
40mpg out of town was pretty good then, but the new Yaris is offering 60! (and 55 combined cycle!)
But then I am so old I remember cars with trafficators (my Grandfathers early Morris Minor had them) and have driven cars with no synchromesh in first (Morris Minor, again: they are still around)
Before I drove there were many, many iconic and memory-inducing cars, but, keeping it to the seventies on, why on earth did we think vinyl roofs were cool? Did we really think they looked like convertibles?
The Sierra was deperately of its time, not least that soft wallowing suspension, seen in so many American TV programmes... Jellymould body, jelly suspension. The classic "Rep"'s car until it became crucial to have the I for "Important" or fuel injection on your car's boot.
Strand 3, personal history: the last 15 full years.
What have I done, how much have a changes, seen while driving that car?
I've sold and bought two houses, but only had one job.
In 15 years I've only had a front seat passenger on maybe a dozen occasions. Including my mum, more than once. How much I am a loner has really stuck home, on that.
What I was, doing and thinking, 15 years ago...
I've not scaled Everest in that time. Actually, I've done quite well to keep going. But I've changed an awful lot. Still thinking about that, with some shock and surprise.
Was I a lad , then, for a "When I was a lad" moment? Not quite, but 1993 was pre-internet, outside of universities. And that was a different world.
And I didn't have white hairs in my beard.
Registered in May 1993, my Toyota Corolla has served me well, from new, and would have lasted a few more years had it not suddenly got more valuable.
Strand one: my cars.
I didn't learn to drive till I was 29, and work started a company car scheme with no cash alternative.
Learnt on a BSM Metro, after bad experiences with other driving instructors.
First car (I didn't pick it!) a Ford Sierra. The last of the rear-wheel drive monsters from Ford. Big and bouncy.
Awful brakes and didn't go round corners. (which I discovered when I got lent a Golf when it was off the road for a week for a recall... until then I hadn't known the difference.)
Then changed jobs and had a Clio. ("Nicole..?" "Papa..?" Told you the memories went off in all directions)
Lively, fun to drive, but lots of road noise and leaned round corners.
Lastly my faithful friend. Mine from 47 miles on the clock: ex-demonstrator sold when the plates changed. Utterly reliable and without vices.
But shortly to be a memory.
Strand 2, Technology: it's of the past. No air-bags, no ABS, and a tape player not a CD/
That's the last use of tapes, for me... End of an era.
40mpg out of town was pretty good then, but the new Yaris is offering 60! (and 55 combined cycle!)
But then I am so old I remember cars with trafficators (my Grandfathers early Morris Minor had them) and have driven cars with no synchromesh in first (Morris Minor, again: they are still around)
Before I drove there were many, many iconic and memory-inducing cars, but, keeping it to the seventies on, why on earth did we think vinyl roofs were cool? Did we really think they looked like convertibles?
The Sierra was deperately of its time, not least that soft wallowing suspension, seen in so many American TV programmes... Jellymould body, jelly suspension. The classic "Rep"'s car until it became crucial to have the I for "Important" or fuel injection on your car's boot.
Strand 3, personal history: the last 15 full years.
What have I done, how much have a changes, seen while driving that car?
I've sold and bought two houses, but only had one job.
In 15 years I've only had a front seat passenger on maybe a dozen occasions. Including my mum, more than once. How much I am a loner has really stuck home, on that.
What I was, doing and thinking, 15 years ago...
I've not scaled Everest in that time. Actually, I've done quite well to keep going. But I've changed an awful lot. Still thinking about that, with some shock and surprise.
Was I a lad , then, for a "When I was a lad" moment? Not quite, but 1993 was pre-internet, outside of universities. And that was a different world.
And I didn't have white hairs in my beard.