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Wheels Again.

I can't remember the last time I had my own car. I've only ever owned one car, a Mazda 1500ss. I certainly remember buying it for AU$500 (obviously it was second hand at that price) and then spending another AU$500 on it to fix some minor issues and to completely re-detail the interior. I do remember selling it but I don't remember the year. I can safely say it was more than ten years ago.

Since then I've either walked everywhere or borrowed cars of people (mainly my sister) that I've lived with.

Last month, my partner, Enigma, was looking for a car suitable for her son and came across a great buy. A 1971, Chrysler Galant (pictured). It was recommended to her by her Mechanic who used to do all the servicing on it. In the meantime Enigma's son had found an alternative car that a friend was selling so he went with that. However the Gallant, for which the price had been negotiated down to the price of a fairly flash, brand new bicycle, was hard to pass up. So she bought it.

Now the Galant is a manual gear box. In our family only two people have recent experience driving a manual, Enigma's son and myself. Enigma has driven a manual but that was so long ago she's not sure if she really wants to relearn. Since her son now had a car, I'm the lucky one to finally have wheels again.

I've been for a few short drives so far. I love a manual car because it feels like you're actually doing the driving. Not like automatics where you just kind of push a pedal and steer.

This particular car is a year younger than me and comes from an era before cars got complicated with all kinds of technologies that anyone without a degree in rocket science and electrical engineering couldn't understand. The most technologically advanced things in cars back then was the radio. Since the Galant has had the radio removed there's nothing left to be confused by - except maybe the speedometer which is in miles per hour.

Some of you may be thinking what's confusing about miles per hour? Well, in Australia, we switched over to the metric system probably about the same time this car was made. I've never had to read a speedometer in anything other than Kilometers per hour. I've made myself a little conversion chart to refer to that I've stuck on the dash.

Anyhow I won't go on about having a car. It is good to have wheels but really I just wanted to record the occasion somewhere and share it with you. My readers.
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Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 06, 2007 8:13 PM

    Bravo for finally having a car - even if you didn't buy it! It looks pretty good, and a nice colour. Looks good on the outside, anyway. Just need to keep it in good working order now, so it will serve you well!

    It's strange that this one is older than you too, as the Mazda was a 1968 model I seem to remember, making it two years older than you! I think it got sold in the 80s sometime, though that is when you got it, but I don't think you had it in the 90s. That was brown too, but not bronzed like this one.

    This one is even older than the one in 'Life On Mars' a 1973, or maybe '74 according to one critic, but I have forgotten the make now - a Ford I think.

    I should know all about miles, having grown up with that table at school! I know there are 8 furlongs in a mile, but don't think this helps for fuel! Can't remember how many yards in a mile either. I know 3 feet make a yard, and 12 inches are a foot, so 36 inches in a yard! I don't understand the metric system properly! Still like my weight in stones and pounds!

    We also did 'chains' too! I think 10 chains make a furlong or something, but I have a conversion book for everything that Lesley bought me back in the 70s, so maybe that has something about miles in it!

    Take care with the driving! At least you got plenty of practise travelling from SA over to Perth and all things in between around NSW! Quite pround of you both for that, and pleased it went without mishap, in spite of the hairy encounter with the road trains, and the hills and bends!

    ReplyDelete
  2. TET (David Arandle)October 08, 2007 7:15 PM

    Have to correct you, this car is a year younger than me (1971). It's actually gold in colour though it looks brown in the picture. The interior is in very good condition because I think the person that had it before me re-carpeted it throughout. All it needs is some new seat covers in the front.

    Not much point in trying to explain feet, inches, miles etc. to me. You may as well be talking Greek.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 10, 2007 8:16 PM

    Oh, yes, I was going the wrong way!

    Feet and inches is easy, as it is just twelve inches make one foot and three feet make a yard, thereby 36 inches being in a yard. (3 times 12)

    I have to remember that a centimetre is one inch or there abouts, and 30cms make a foot! We had a table for all these things at school, to remember them, and it was on the back of the exercise books that you used to buy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 22, 2007 1:30 AM

    You're going to have to switch to oil painting so you have plenty of oily rags to run it on, or are you going to video for petrol?

    ReplyDelete
  5. TET (David Arandle)October 22, 2007 8:10 AM

    Video for petrol sounds like a plan... maybe I should build a web site ...all proceeds go towards putting petrol in my car.

    Actually this car isn't very petrol hungry - and I don't drive that much either so it's not to bad cost wise.

    ReplyDelete

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