Tag: Cars

After the last two chapters in this series (Part 1 and Part 2) I can already hear the rumblings:

“Okay Kim, enough blathering on about overpriced old cars that will massively deplete your lottery winnings, and end up spending more time in the shop than in your garage.  What four cars would you pick if you could only buy a 2024/25 model?”

Actually, it’s not a difficult question.  Here they are, with a few words of explanation for each, and to make life simpler I’m not going to go into the luxury/supercar category because very few of them actually get me going.  Each of these are cars that just about anyone could buy with just a small lottery win, or even a large performance bonus.

Acura Integra Type S

It’s the adult version of the Honda Civic R;  same 300+hp engine, stick shift (!!!!) but with a little more luxury and a more comfortable ride.  And Honda reliability.  What’s not to like?

Mazda MX-5 Miata RF

Everyone’s favorite sports car.  This one is for New Wife, who still misses her old MGB GT dreadfully.  Also note the stick shift (!!!!) which means I wouldn’t mind driving it too… and having this means I wouldn’t be tempted into a Porsche Boxster or Cayman ($$$$).  Less than half the price (and running costs) of a Porker, and pretty much the same amount of fun.  Perfect.

Mercedes GLA 250 AWD

Call this my “guns ‘n groceries” car.  Basically, it’s a classier version of a VW Golf (interior dimensions are amazingly similar), but it’s a Merc.  Sadly, it’s not available with a stick shift [boo hiss]  but I can slum it, I guess.  New Wife would be driving it more than I would, anyway

Toyota Tacoma TRD
New Wife has absolutely forbidden me to get a truck, any truck, ever.  But I bet she wouldn’t mind me having one to fetch mulch for her rose garden at that new mansion instead of smelling up her Merc.  Also, from my perspective, it’s pretty much a Hi-Lux, FFS, and it has a stick shift (!!!!).  And if the things are good enough for a Somali warlord…

…feel free to guess where I’m going with this line of thought.

Putting together this last list was more fun than I thought it would be.  As any fule kno, I frigging hate modern cars with a passion, but given all my preconditions (stick shift etc.), I think the above may well be the best of the bunch.  (I love the fact that of all of them, the Acura is the only one that does not come with an automatic option.)

Feel free, as always, to take issue with me in Comments.

See last Saturday’s post for the background, if this is the first time you’re seeing this series.

My choices for the Euro section is a little different this time, because in addition to wanting to flee the modern electro-digital foolishness, I’m also tending towards smaller cars that are fun to drive, but not necessarily high-performance cars.  So you won’t see the Dino 246 (my perennial favorite) or similar in today’s selection.  Here they are:

1956 Porsche 356C

1971 Lancia Fulvia 1600 HF

1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider

And here’s my go-to choice, one that, unlike the Alfa, will always start reliably:

1964 Mercedes 230 SL

I am quite curious to know that if I ever did populate my garage with the above four beauties, which one would become my favorite over time.

And next week — have the smelling-salts handy — I’m going to list my modern choices.

Former Drummer Knob wrote to me, enclosing a listing for a house in Plano, and mischievously asked:  “It’s in your neighborhood.  Would you buy it?”

I have no idea why Knob would be looking at a house in Plano (from his penthouse in Monaco), but whatever.  I’ve shared the link but by the time this is posted, it will probably already have been sold — houses in the swanky Willow Bend neighborhood seldom last long on the market.  Still, it provoked a train of thought in me because, unusually for a house in the $2.5 million range in that area, it had four garages (most have only two or three).

You can probably guess where this is taking us, because I’m a total slut when it comes to cars and my likes and loves change quite promiscuously depending on what I happen to be looking at.

Nevertheless, I’m currently locked on a mindset which asks the question:  “If I wanted to escape the modern trend in cars of electronic everything, basically a four-wheeled laptop which has the added benefit of spying on your every move, would I be prepared to sacrifice some of the modern characteristics, e.g. reliability or handling, for that freedom?”

And the answer is, “Yes.  But I’d have to have backup.”

It’s no good having a car you love and adore when it’s in the mechanic’s hands and you need to make a grocery- or liquor store run.  One funny guy remarked on these very pages that if you collect vintage cars, you actually need more than one, for this precise reason.  (“Two is one and one is none… actually, sometimes even three is none.”)

But a 4-car garage certainly gives you the opportunity to indulge yourself.

So here’s my current list — for some reason I’m on a British kick at the moment, so a couple may be familiar from recent posts — of three desirable beauties that would make parts of me throb every time I opened the garage door:

1966 Austin Healey Mk III

1956 Jaguar XK140

!968 Jag E-type Series 2

Alert Readers will notice some similarities:  stick shift, wooden dashboard, leather seats etc.

“But Kim,” I hear, “didn’t you say you had a four-car garage available at your lottery-winning house in Plano?”

Indeed I did.  But given the history of the above three when it comes to reliability, I would have to have a car that would be absolutely guaranteed to start every time I turned the key, and for that, I’m afraid I’d have to forsake British cars because

Yup, I’d have to go Japanese if I wanted a supremely-reliable sports car.  And here it is:

1999 Acura (Honda) NSX

All the performance I’d ever need, matchless reliability, and as befitting its relative modernity, in crass shouty-yellow.  Also with a stick shift, of course.

But I know that some people are going to laugh at my fondness for old British cars, so next week I’ll go all-European, applying the same criteria for my selections.

News from the Car Company Formally Known As Jaguar:

Jaguar is set to embark on a daring strategy move as part of its transition to becoming an exclusive EV brand; the company says it won’t sell a single car for a whole year.

The British marque has pledged to become a ‘luxury all-electric brand’ from 2025, but to do so it says it will need to take a 12-month hiatus from the market.

Its last remaining combustion-engine model on sale will be the F-Pace SUV, which is due to bow out early next year. 

Wouldn’t have any of their existing cars as a gift, because with the possible exception of the F-type, they’re as ugly as Hillary Clinton’s knickers.  (Sorry.)

Anyway, I’d rather get an older Jag, any day of the week, e.g. this fully-restored 1956 XK140:

…which will cost you about the same as a new F-type.  Wait… 3.4-liter straight six, capable of 140mph, with a stick shift.  Try and get the same thrill as that with a Duracell microwave-on-wheels.

As for the opening paragraph of this post:  they may call themselves Jaguar, but they aren’t.