Changing of the guard

Those of you who know Steve will have noticed that he changes vehicles on a semi-regular basis - this includes his boats as well as his cars. In the 11 or so years since we met, he has owned a succession of Toyota Landcruisers - 5 in total... count them - a 75 series ute, a Troopy (for all of about 6 mths !), a mid-wheelbase FRP (fibreglass top), a 60 series wagon and an 80 series wagon (our current Cruiser). He also recently sold his Toyota Hilux, which he'd owned for about a year.

Don't even get me started on the boats - I've lost track how many there have been, including the "absolute bargain, too good to be passed up" that we drove all the way to Bundy and beyond for, which he sold several months later because he didn't really want a tinnie with forward controls, since he preferred a tiller steer !

The way I look at it is that he gets bored easily, but he will never admit to that. He explains it as changing to a more suitable vehicle...but then why didn't he get the more suitable vehicle in the first place? This is not to say that we've ever lost money on any of our vehicles (with the exception of the mid-wheelbase Cruiser, which was stolen from our driveway). On the contrary, we have always paid cash and owned them outright. They have had money spent on improvements and accessories, and have been well looked after. We have always gotten our money back on them when we've sold them, since Cruisers seem to hold their value well.

Anyway, with the world financial crisis looming large, exorbitant fuel prices and inflation increasing other running costs, Steve made the recent decision to downsize our fuel-hungry 6 cylinder vehicles. Our "beach and boat car" (if you left it overnight at the boat-ramp you'd be guaranteed to find it there when you returned since it wasn't worth stealing), the Hilux would be first to go. With some of the money from its sale, we'd get a cheap run-around car for me, so that I'd have some transport when we sold the 80 Series. With the remainder of the money, together with what we get for the Cruiser, the plan is to get a dual-cab 4WD ute with a 3 litre Turbo Diesel 4-cylinder engine.

I'm happy to say that stage one is FINALLY complete. The Hilux sold in 2 days, to the first people to look at it. Steve set a limit of $2500 for our run-around vehicle, so the search began to find something half decent. It was not an easy search. Let me just say that there is a lot of crap out there in that price range. A whole lot of crap. I took my life into my own hands and test drove a couple of dodgy ones, we trawled around several motor wholesalers' yards, we made dozens of phone calls, we went to the auctions and even to the wreckers to check parts availability for the $750 Hyundai Lantra on the side of the road near our place.

We discovered our new car by sheer luck. It was not the car we were stopping to look at. We were just in the right place at the right time. The dealer had only just got it in, it hadn't been detailed and he hadn't really worked out a price yet. A bit of haggling and a "mates rates" deal later (Steve went to school with the mechanic that does their road worthies, so we worked out a deal to pay for our own RWC in order to get a better deal and keep the rego that was still on it) and we bought ourselves a tidy little 1995 Mazda 323 with power steering and aircon, a Pioneer mp3 CD player, and only 114000 kms on the motor. The aircon is out of gas, but that's a minor and relatively inexpensive detail.

Sure, there's the odd dent in the bonnet (someone sat on it by the looks) and minor stone chips in the paintwork, but it drives like a dream, and is now registered in my name, so it's mine all mine! Bit of tint, some alloy mags and new aircon gas and she'll be the perfect little car.

Might take a while to get used to driving a "low to the ground" car again after five years of driving Cruisers, though... I'll keep you posted!