It’s not a Delage or Alpine, so what is it?

So as you may have realized, I really wanted to get a car. I even dedicated a post to musing on what would be best for Canada, and the conclusion was the Porsche 944. As is custom with me, when I finally decided to buy a car, I straight-away decided to ignore my careful documentation, and just jump on the first opportunity I got.

As a reminder, here was my checklist:

• Good Handling: because I like to drive
• Reliable: because road-trips
• Fairly rust-resistant: because Canada
• Comfortable: because Canadian roads
• Exciting: because I like to drive

Here is how my car fits in all this:

• Good Handling: I never tried the car before, or any other car from the same brand
• Reliable: the car does not start, I had to replace the knock sensor, the alternator did not work, and the brakes were jammed
• Fairly rust-resistant: the car has a hole in the roof, and it’s not a convertible
• Comfortable: I have no idea, since I never drove the car. Also, no heated seats, electric windows or air conditioning.
• Exciting: it’s 4 wheel-drive, weighs close to 1.5 tons and only has 135bhp

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?

So, as you can see, I basically bought a car sight unseen. It’s from 1998, meaning it’s 18 years old. It used to be driven often, almost every day in fact, and has 240,000kms. I say used to, because the car has been in storage for the past 2 years, hence why I have no idea how it runs. Also, on a fun note, the car cost me less than my desktop computer.  On another fun note, I bought the car in June, and it’s now August – the car is still not inspected to drive on the road.

To briefly introduce the context behind my decision, because I will not reveal the car yet, what happened was I was talking to a friend of mine who owns a garage, about my plans to buy a car. He told me he has a friend who has this car in storage, and he wants to get rid of it. The car needs some small work, but overall, it’s in good shape. I decide to trust my friend, go have a look at the car, and decide to buy it. When I saw the car, I only had a few minutes, and never got it to run, because they still had to work on getting it started. In honesty, most of the problems I knew about, the reason I went forward with all this is because it was a great opportunity to learn how to work on my car. After all, the car is stored at my friend’s garage, and he helps me to work on it. So win-win.

Since I got the car, I changed the driver mirror, changed the front brakes, duck-taped the roof, changed the battery, knock-sensor, refurbished the rear (drum!!!) brakes, fixed the chipped windscreen, changed the engine and transmission oil, and replaced the alternator. There is still a couple of things to do, and overall, it only cost me a few hundred dollars, and a couple of days of time. And I’m happy about it, because I’m learning to work on my car. Having had my brakes changed on my old Golf, I can honestly say I saved at least 500$ with my brakes, and the experience I got with my new car was invaluable.

So why did I choose this particular car? Well, as I said, it’s an ideal opportunity for me to learn to work on a car, before I go onto more exciting projects. The car is from a brand I respect and love, and to be honest, I had no idea I could get a good (ie, unmolested) example of it. I have plans for this car; you can be sure about that. In the future, it will turn it into a sleeper, with more power and sleeker looks. It will be awesome. And I will be able to use it 365 days a year in Canada, rain, snow or sun.

Mount Fuji, what could be the link with my car?

The only regret I have, but then again it was to be expected, was the rust. Even if my car, for its age and for a car that was driven all year round, does not have that much rust, it is amazing to see how bad it can get.

So, to be continued…..