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In September 2016 I bought an old Peugeot 206 triggered by the need to get to my mother's place more regularly and a lot faster. One way takes 2,5 hours by car, and roughly 6 hours by public transportation. So after roughly 30 years of not having "my own car", I did it again. We did have a family car for 20 of these 30 years. However, I did not want to crash my wife's car on possibly snowy roads over the mountains, so that was the day.
This particular Peugeot 206 was from 2005, with 152000 km on the odometer. It had seen its fair share of roads, hail storms, scratches and what not. It was ready to go to the press. But the operator of the recycling place had mercy and sold it.
So after 6 more years, after an additional 70000 km (I crossed 222222 km on its last trip), and after a number of repairs it was showing its age. The next technical inspection (TÜV) would require quite a bit of work and money to get it going again. Corrosion had gnawed on its body quite a bit more than I thought. Plus the things I knew. I was facing a prospected bill of more than 2500 Euro. So I was facing the hard question, whether to continue or not.
It took me two more weeks now to say "or not". I decided to replace the Peugeot.
It was a good car, it never failed on me so badly, that I had to walk home or get home by some other means. I certainly could get to my mothers place a lot faster. And I did quite a few times. And my siblings and my mother were happy, whenever I came. After my mother left the planet in 2018 I decided to keep the car. Yes it is eating away precious fuel. And yes it costs to keep it operating. But it also enabled me to do things, which I could not do with only one car in the family. These things also involve meeting people from other free projects, carrying me and my stuff to the archery site and back and you name it. Having a car at your front door considerably lowers the bar whether to do something that involves organizing a car. I'm living in a fairly rural place. So while I can commute to work ok by train, not everything is located near train stations.
So, good bye Peugeot. May the Goddesses of Recycling be merciful.
Of course I could have gotten another used Peugeot 206+ or later. But I came across another small car, the Alfa Romeo MiTo. It is out of production already. However: it features a small engine: 875 ml stroke volume (yes right, 0.9 litres!) on two cylinders (yes right, like a twin motorcycle engine!). And with some clever tricks the engineers get 77kW (105 PS) out of this engine. Amazing. It should fare quite a bit lower on fuel consumption (officially 4.2 l/100km) than the Peugeot (more near 6.5 l/100km). And being from 2013 it features more modern exhaust control.
It is a lot more quiet inside this car, I can tell you. And of course it features some of the newfangled stuff, that a normal car apparently must have. But alas, it still has a regular key! Yay! And I sure will get used to all of the rest.
So, welcome MiTo, may the Goddesses of road travel and engine life be merciful.
As I have written before
> Driving a transaxle is something I cannot really put into words.
And so some day the stars and the karma and all the other inexplicable things conspired just long enough to find another Alfa Romeo 75, a 2.0 twinspark limited edition in black.
This one is in much better condition than the first one I tried. And since a few days it is ready to drive. And it does. I went to buy something and took a little detour on the way home. The big smile came back quickly. One of these inexplicable things, I guess. A car is a device to carry passengers or load from one place to another, in exchange for a fill of precious fuel. But of course, a car is also a thing of design and technology and fashion and personal taste. So if you look out for this relict from an era gone by, it might be me.
Hello Alfa 75, may the Goddesses of road travel and engine life be merciful!
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