How sentimental do you get about your cars?

[snopony]

My sister recently came across this photo that i wasn't aware of… and it got me thinking how sentimental do you get about your cars? I had been waiting for her to be delivered and when she arrived walked across the road and just *had* to touch her door as if to say 'welcome home' - I do admit i had tears in my eyes as this car had been a 23 year wait to replace my first one. She is now safe and polished and looked after in my shed. anyone else have experiences like this?

[Pinkbits]

I shed a tear when I finally had the keys to my coupe in my hand back in 2006.
It was just over 16yrs after I had sold my XB GT coupe to buy our first home.
Myself & about 10 other subbies were retrenched three weeks before Christmas when the business was sold to Goodman Fielder.
Add that to about 6 weeks of negotiating to buy the coupe & finding another job made the end result a little emotional as there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to own another coupe.

[2011G6E]

I'll have the Celica in front of it...

There are people...uninformed, soulless people...who claim that a car is merely a lump of metal and has no soul, has no place in your heart, and should be seen as just another home appliance.

These people are the sort you simply don't need in your life.

A car, unique perhaps amongst objects in your life (apart from motorcycles as well which are equal in this case) has a character and "life" about it. Paradoxically, even the crappiest cars in our life sometimes end up being looked back on with fond memories years later for various reasons.

There is also the "feeling" you get when you see some car drive past which was an important model in your life. I occasionally stumble across a car which does this to me...not a rip snorting overpowered fireball like my old Charger was, but just a tiny little old English car, the Austin A30. I had one as my first car, and kept it for years until, foolishly, selling it. I loved that tiny little car...the fun times, the smile it gave every time you drove it, the feeling of toddling along with other drivers smiling at you...it was great.
One day I may get another, and I'm man enough to admit that if I do, I'll have a tear in my eye when I first hop behind the wheel.

[snopony]

yes, have to agree.
That car represents all the good things in my life. All packaged up in Aqua and black stripes. the bad stuff seems to be all non existent when i can go down and sit in the shed and fiddle with something. (ALWAYS something to clean or pull apart or put back together)
Or go for a drive with a big goofy grin on my face.
so worth it.

[snopony]

Have to add the irony of seeing her come up the street on a trailer- as over two decades ago its how my last sedan left me… in bits… on a trailer never to be seen again. To say I was anxious to get it OFF that damn thing was an understatement.

[Pedro]

[Quote]:"There are people...uninformed".

Well guess I'm one of them. I've had lots of different cars over the years and liked all of them for different reasons ... otherwise I wouldn't have bought them in the first place.
But sentimental ... nah. The next one I buy is usually more exiting to me at the time than the last one I owned.

[Nanoraptor]

I think I'm a little more sentimental over models than particular cars. Until June this year, the only cars I'd ever had registered in my name were XYs and an XW. A couple of them were heaps, too.

Still, there's something about getting in a vehicle that I know intimately. Every sound is meaningful, every little click and clunk communicates. Hell, my body has spent countless hours sitting in those big square lumps of seats I'm sure it's shaped me physically.

Yeah, I give it a name and photograph it weekly too, and sometimes after a good long trip pat it on the dash and mouth a little "thank you...".

[NX74205]

To an extent, I do. I have a very hard time letting them go. I doubt I will ever be able to simply trade in a car I have owned. I need time to properly say goodbye to it, so if I ever sell, I advertise it for an overly inflated price hoping it'll take months to sell.

Would I ever want my old car back? Possibly. But that depends on the condition it's in.

[Feathers]

My car is my baby.
I was attached to my old XD Ghia too, and it killed me when Dad sold it to someone he knew would not look after it, AND who would take great pride in bringing it around often so I could see exactly how fast it was deteriorating.
Its now sitting in a paddock rusting away, while he kills his third car since then.

I still have my project XD awaiting my decision on paint colour to get any further in it's progress. Someone made an offer on it a couple of years ago, but there is no way I could part with it.

I ADORE my XR6. Have done ever since I bought it. It's named after it's custom plates, and everyone I know calls it by name.

I cut ties with the "friends" who didn't understand my passion (and were just awful people to begin with), and I found a couple of forums filled with people who understand.
Done cruises and meets with AFF people, and met like-minded people on my trip to Europe through another forum.

And not once have I had to justify my love of my car, or driving in general, on the basis of me being female, to anyone on these forums!

My car still puts a smile on my face just sitting in the garage, though I don't get a chance to drive it much beyond to work and home again these days. Need to road trip it in the next school holidays I think!

[mik]

No doubt about it, for some of us anyway, sentiment , emotions of different types, some good some bad, ive had both over the years, my cousin reckons im "precious" with my cars o0 ......, possibly, but i do get attached to some more than others, my first v8 an XR 289 , i loved that car to pieces, my Au probably even more so ........ its been the family rock, and been through tuff times and good ones for 10 + years, tears may flow when that one goes.

[ebv8]

i have one really been sentimental about 2 cars, my first which i sold to a guy who stopped me in the street and crashed it 1 month after i sold it and my EB as i spent 7 years building it to they way i wanted and seeing it drive off and now the new owner won't return my messages and it stored in a barn in western syd probably being eaten by rats and having birds crap all over it
thats why i'm not selling my GT ever!

[Mont5.0]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

I'll have the Celica in front of it...

Pretty sure its a corona, and yes I would have it too.

[sgt_doofey]

It's funny that we have these sorts of feeling for something like a car.
I've got my EL up for sale at the moment. It's been my daily driver for the last 15 years and I know everything about her.
We've gotten a Mazda CX-9 as a new car, and even though it's a nice car, there is no connection with it. I won't think twice when we trade it in when the lease is up. However, when the EL finally leaves the front yard for the last time, well, who knows.

[HULK_I6T]

Its not really the car. People get attached to the experiences they have with that car, not necessarily the car. The car becomes more of a momento, a reminder of those times.

Ive sold and bought many cars. Recently sold my supercharged XR8 which Id owned for about 6 years. Spend plenty of time with it and thought id be a bit upset when it left... But nothing.

Just went out and bought another car. Didnt get upset at all.

I must be cold blooded or something, never got upset about a car. They can be replaced...

[xr6tjet]

I get very sentimental. I was given an AU fairmont as my first car and it had been the family car since the early 2000s, I have since done it up heaps and got off my Ps and always wanted to have a turbo falcon. Thoughts of selling it came up and changing to an xr6 turbo or F6 typhoon. Instead NOPE, putting a barra turbo in it lol!

Bought an XF ghia 2 years ago to fully restore... told myself if it's too much work I will move it along. Started driving it and became attached and since have done a full resto on it lol!

Bought a two tone XE ghia about 2 years ago as well and got instantly attached. Now I can't bring myself to ever get rid of any of them !

Every time I drive in one of my cars I think of all the good memories these cars bring out in me when I was a kid and I can't wipe the smile off my face!

[snopony]

I think for me as well, if anything were (god forbid) to happen such as a scratch or car park dent, I tend to take it as bad as if someone had personally attacked my first born. probably sulk for a week too. But thats just me.

[brennan.]

Traded in the ED wagon on my display pic for a ricer, saw the car drive past me a few months later and nearly followed him home to buy it back. Totally regret selling it.

[CoupeKing]

People have different personalities. For some its just a car, and for a small few seeing their car go is like losing a limb. It doesnt have to be a classic thats worth a mint, just had it for so long, served them well. Kind of like a Dog. Some will spend thousands to keep it alive while others will just replace it next week and move on.

Must be an awesome feeling if you had to sell your toy to fund something else, only to be re-united with it years later.

[T-Pak Addict]

I think there has only been 3 cars that I have an attachment to over the 30 odd cars that I have owned over the years and my current one is one of them.

My old HQ was a pile of crap, had its quirks (personality) and hated my girlfriend at the times guts!!! It hated her with a passion and wouldn't start, made weird noises etc etc and it was fine with me....

My GC Galant, Had it over 3 years sold it to my sister, bought it back, sold it to a mate and he wrote it off... Lots of fun times and places it should never have gone but it just kept on going....

My BA, Lots of great times and the longest car I have ever owned. Coming up to 5 years at the end of this month. No plans to ever get rid of her, I think she will be with me another 5 years, maybe more. She isn't the most powerful car in the carpark but she brings a smile to my face everyday when I am out & about. We have spent some good times and bad times together. There is just something about this car that pales in comparison to all the ones before. Even the wife doesn't get it why I am so pedantic about this car....

[Grippy]

My old man's race car (a genuine 1970 Mk2 Cooper S) is the same car he bought brand new as a 20 year old. He owned it for 7 years, did silly things 20 something year olds did in the 70's, did it's fair share of street racing, hill climbs and auto cross events and was then sold on to buy a Mk2 Escort Ghia. He pined for his Cooper S for 25 years before tracking it down in South Australia, still with it's original block. The owner wasn't keen on letting it go, but Dad ended up paying 2 - 3 times what other Cooper S's were selling for to get that particular car back in his life. It's fair to say this car will never leave the family.

Every time he races it, it's like he is re living his youth and taking it up to Bathurst was a real life achievement for him. Cars to some people are metal and rubber, but to others they can be time capsules or even best mates.

[PepeLePew]

I've had a lot of cars though I'm sure not as many as some. The one I miss the most was a total piece of junk $800 LC Torana sedan rego REK434 with the super powerful Vauxhall engine and manual, flat green paint, dents, torn seats. I was never inclined to get the dents out, never inclined to polish it, never inclined to do it up in any way. It got serviced and driven. But it personality in SPADES. It started without fault. It got from A to B without fault. It lurched more than a Munster. It had skinny little tyres and crawled round corners more than drove. 0-100 in 25 seconds I swear. It had no mod cons, a radio dangling under the dash. But I just loved that little bucket of junk and I miss it to this day. Sister in law borrowed it for a while got it defected to hell and it went down the financial tube to the wreckers. I miss it to this day and if i saw another I'd whip out the cheque book faster than Flash. But it'd have to be junk

I like my cars these days, but I don't feel the love of their imperfection. Maybe I just need a puppy.

[poppa smurf]

cars represent "moments" in life's journey.......

first job = EH holden
first date = VC valiant (hotted up many dollars spent)
first ..well you know = VC valiant
wife to hospital for the birth first son = Centura 4 speed 245 hemi (hotted up)
hospital trip for second son = toyota crown
father to hospital for heart bypass (didn't survive) = toyota crown
first trip on the tanami = nissan patrol home made camper trailer
moved into our first house = self restored LH Torana 4 speed 202 (hotted up) relived a couple of childish dreams

not sentimental as such more "thought provoking"........reliving memories, I guess that could be sentiment.

which car would I want back, I'm glad you asked, it would be my VC valiant in a blink of an eye.......nothing could touch that.........so many good times, so many hours working on it, so much money spent.

damn fine post snoopy, my head will be filled with these memories all day.......well done.

[Franco Cozzo]

Pretty upset about selling my Ambo loking back, bad move lol. I got pretty cut when I saw the exact same vehicle and body setup from Jakab in Tamworth NSW being used at AFF Heathcote as the Ambulance.

Might go next year and offer to buy it from them LOL.

[TheSneakiness]

My AUII Ute for sure. I ****in loved that car.

That ute had a personality and a name to those members of the past here who named it the Axe after I went into a carpark a bit too hot and hit the wooden bollard at the end of it. No damage to the car, just the bollard bent back about 15 degrees.

I stupidly "upgraded" to a BA MkII and regretted it since. Every 3 or so months I scour Carsales to see if I come across the AU.

[Feathers]

Originally Posted by snopony

I think for me as well, if anything were (god forbid) to happen such as a scratch or car park dent, I tend to take it as bad as if someone had personally attacked my first born. probably sulk for a week too. But thats just me.

I'm very much the same. Not just limited to my cars though.
I drive buses and coaches for my father's bus company, and we've spent the last 6 years rebuilding a coach with all new paint and panels, new interior...
It's been on the road about 18 months now, and it's basically "my coach". If there is a job for it, then I'm almost always the one driving.

The other week I was returning to the depot after a job, and some moron went through a red light in front of me, through one of those "Left turn on red" signs, and then panicked and stopped when he saw me coming towards him.
I didn't have enough time to stop, but the next lane over was empty, so I dived for it, and if it were not for the rack over the front of the ute, I would have missed him by inches.
The rack left two gouge marks in the stretch panel, a hole in the front pillar fibreglass, and a scratch lower down. It could have been MUCH worse, another inch and it would have shattered one of my windscreens, or if that lane wasn't free, he'd likely be in hospital breathing through a tube. Of course he's also uninsured.

His comment was that "it's only a scratch" , and it took everything I had not to throttle him. It still makes me angry every time I look at it. I'm sure my blood pressure went up just typing this.

I've also just been told that "my bus" that I've been driving for the last 7 years is one of the next to be listed for sale to upgrade the fleet. :(
I'm sure it knows, because the day after Dad mentioned it, it's now starting to get hot while idling, and I have to drive with one eye on the temperature gauge, waiting for it to do a head gasket.

[Dalonian]

My first car was a manual EA falcon S pack. I still miss it as it was the car I had when I first started going out with my wife. We still both get sentimental about it. Not the best car, and mechanically used to give me tons of grief (it had a shoddy clutch) but I miss it a lot.

[SSD-85]

I only get sentimental about cars I was forced to get rid of due to circumstances.

Im a bit of a hoarder so if I had my way, the yard would look like a dealership

[mikeeman_ford]

i have had all emotions with my falcon, Love it to death, send it to the scrap heap, towing donkey, run it till it dies, you name it, i have had the emotions. However i have found in the last 2 years i would never want to say goodbye to it, i have had it for 11 years, it has earnt its respect with reliability, and when things have broken, that is my fault for not maintaining her properly.
My friend had a white corolla we all loved, it was beaten up, did some hard yards, but we loved it and grew fond of it......A WHITE COROLLA.

You can love your car, you will do many kilometers of travel in the car, its hard not to grow attached to it

[jmack]

yeah im the same with my cars, have trouble letting go thats why 5 of them and 2 bikes are still in the shed.its amazing relationships have come and gone but the cars are still here

[mcnews]

Not sentimental at all with anything less than 20 years old. All the newer stuff is easily replaceable tupperware, get a new one, or still has parts to rebuild one. Thus I don't look at anything newish as remotely worth being sentimental about.