Better the Car You Know?

[David Cochrane]

The best & most reliable car is the one that I have had the longest, i.e. the Chummy. The most recent car (RP saloon) is the least reliable, but it's gradually getting better, I think because it's running out of different ways to break down...

[Colin Morgan]

Then there are Oriental temptations from the East?  By which I mean Coventry, not Babylon - so Riley and Alvis - a Kestrel or a 12/50?

The temptation of the exotic and unknown?  Persumably if we are still here, their guiles have not worked?

[adamjoe]

The MERCEDES BENZ C200 is my favorite car. I take care of my car as a child. Car name is NAK that always shines. 

[Robert Leigh]

My last Ruby which I owned for 38 years was nearly replaced more than 30 years ago. We bought another fully restored and used either for a year or so, but sentiment won in the end and we sold the smart one. After about 25 years I decided to sell my well used vintage Riley 9 tourer having replaced it with a smart 1933 Lynx 2 door with disappearing hood. Two years later the Tourer came on the market and I immediately bought it back and sold the Lynx. Despite the mag letting me down on my collection journey with the Tourer I have no regrets. I know most things about the car, having rebuilt the engine and back axle myself, and if it starts raining heavily the hood goes up in seconds, unlike the Lynx which took forever. I am still working on the car, currently fitting modern oil seals on the back axle and curing other faults found while doing it. The car you know is definitely the one to keep, because knowing it means also knowing how to fix it which makes life easier. I should have learned by now; I was even buying cars back in the 1960s!

[David Stepney]

I must admit that, as I have grown older, I dislike changing cars. It’s a bit like new shoes! My present fleet consists of my Landrover Series 3(owned for the last 26 years), the VW Polo Mk2 (owned for 12 years with now 368000 miles on it) and the RP saloon, which replaced my Porsche 944. The Porsche was a worthy car, fast and definitely a drivers car, but eyewateringly expensive to maintain and not all that reliable. Having had a Seven when a student, and having seen my old car (now in the hands of Hedd Jones) in Bala one evening, I thought of having another RP saloon and I have not been disappointed. It is the complete antithesis of the Porsche, with a little more than one third of the maximum speed, handling characteristics that, let us say, keep one’s attention engaged and performance measured on a geological timescale but it is just as much fun to drive and, which is more important, I can get into and out of it with some dignity.
Yes, I too scan the For Sale ads to see what’s about. A prewar Wolseley might be nice, say a 12/48 or 14/56, but in addition to what I already have. And to be perfectly honest, I think I would rather spend the money on a Ruby for the right money for my great-grandson who would really like one.