Cars … March 29, 2017

I have been driving (pun intended) myself mad of late with my obsessive pursuit of the ‘perfect car’. Many of you out there will have already stopped reading because you have no interest in the four-wheeled puzzle that us ‘drivers’ face – for those of you still reading – here is my plight.

I am lucky enough to own a variety of vehicles and I like to think there is a ‘reason’ for each vehicle that I own. I do a lot of miles, 35K plus a year business miles then another 5K or so pottering around privately – so pretty much up there with a high flying ‘salesman’ – which probably for want of a better word – is what I am.

My first car was an aged MG Midget. I learnt a lot from this car – the main thing being …don’t ever buy an MG Midget. Impossible to work on …without being double jointed and ambidextrous…and it was forever breaking down. I then opted for a Fiat Panda – I bought a new one having become fed up spending every spare moment of my time ‘working’ on the MG to keep it on the road.

The Panda was great – fantastic little car, economic, comfy, quirky – I did a little over 100K miles in the car before it died. Learning curve on this car was making sure that every business mile that I did should cover the cost of the vehicle, its repair and its depreciation.

From the Panda I moved onto a Fiat Uno – very much the same deal as the Panda and another 100K miles later i moved on to a Vauxhall Astra. The Vauxhall was probably the shittiest car that I ever had – but I put this choice down to having an impending family and thinking that I should emulate my father (he had Vauxhall Astra’s for years).

After the Vauxhall was the first true love of my life – the SAAB years. Starting with a 900 ‘i’ and gradually working through the entire model range to a 900 Turbo ‘S’ convertible …fantastic cars – I did circa 90K miles in each one that I had – with little or no trouble apart from the odd blown turbo.

After the SAAB came my first Audi (after an admittedly short ownership of a TVR Chimera – but that another story) – then after the Audi came the first Porsche.

The Porsche years were a period of constant changing of cars as each year a new model replaced the one that I had thought was the ‘ultimate’ car ….

Learning curve on these cars was that the mileage that I was doing was just killing the value of the cars and making it a very expensive way to get around. I still love Porsche’s and look back on those years with great pride and fond memories of classic journeys… (nb classic and expensive journeys…)

Following the demise of my last Porsche (a Panamera GTS) I decided to go back down the Audi route picking an RS4 as the perfect vehicle for high mileage – load carrying capability and the car proved pretty well perfect in every way. The Audi brings to the table a car that delivers everything performance wise whilst still managing to hold its value after being used and abused for thousands of miles.

I have recently replaced the Audi RS4 with the RS6 and find myself in love again with driving – my current car having all the bells and whistles and buttons that a man could ever need….but….. the problem I keep hitting is …should I be going electric …?

This is my dilemma …should I be looking at hybrid cars …should I be going more environmentally friendly?

I consider myself environmentally aware yet I’m driving round in a petrol guzzling monster? How can I justify this …?

I keep looking at the Tesla but just can’t bring myself to take the plunge – I’m chained to the combustion engine like some Luddite denying the benefit of machinery. Yet…. I love gadgets, I’m a big fan of apple and all its wonders yet cannot bring myself to make the move…hmmm

I’m thinking the answer is to buy Mrs. C an electric car of some sort and dip a toe in the water …

Watch this space.

Mike C