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Month: August 2026
Car Treatment
From Reader GT3Ted:
- How many miles do you drive a year? — less than 100 miles per week, about 4,000 per annum. Some weeks I don’t go out at all, other than a quick trip to the grocery store (about half a mile from the house).
- Primary trip type ? I’m assuming you don’t have a daily 30 mile comment to the city in stop & go heavy traffic 5 days a week — my only “regular” commute is to the range (4 miles), and that only once or twice / week.
- Short forays into the Texas Heat? Or more weekly 100 mile adventures? — the furthest I ever drive, and that maybe once a month, is to visit the Son&Heir or the Sooper-Seekrit Mailbox place, a 40-mile round trip. Longer trips, maybe once a year.
- How religious are you about fluid changes? Not just occasional trips to Jiffy-lubes. When if ever did you have the transmission oil flushed and renewed. Engine coolant flushed and renewed? — I do a major fluid change every 25,000 miles, oil changed and fluids checked every 3,500 miles. My transmission belt(s) will be due a change at the next major service (150,000 miles), which is going to cost me quite a bit.
I take car maintenance seriously, ever since my dad (an engineer) once said, “Look after a car engine properly, and it will last just about indefinitely.”
And I drive a car gently (nowadays; not as a youngin of course, because hormones/testosterone): no heavy acceleration, no speeding, none of that stuff.
The Search Continues
At the risk of boring everyone, I’m going to continue the thread of “If the Tiguan were to blow up suddenly, what car could / should I replace it with?”
It will be a regular, but occasional post.
Here are my criteria: preferably pre-1995, stick shift, costing no more than $40,000, reliable (for an older car), roomy (i.e. no sports cars — I still have stuff to schlep around).
And then there’s this one — lamentably in Yurp, which means shipping costs and some kind of import duty — but it still gets my juices going:
I’m actually a huge fan of small station wagons — I’ve owned three before: VW Jetta, VW Passat and Opel Ascona (Chev Cavalier, for my Murkin Readers). I loved all of them, without exception, and would take one over any SUV, every day of the week. Moreover, I loves me my 3-series Beemers; I still look back on my 318i with fondness and longing.
I’m a little leery of the stated mileage (only 29,000? WTF).
And then there’s this (from the website):
“The E30 Touring represents the last 3 Series BMW built in a truly ‘old-school”’way: without intrusive electronics, with analog gauges, genuine steering feel, and that unmistakable E30 atmosphere.”
I think they’ve been reading my blog.
Thursday Landscape
Wiltshire, UK
…I think, or maybe Gloucestershire, I’m not sure.
Different Wheels
Following yesterday’s rant about modern-day cars and their godless, snooping manufacturers, I want to say this.
One of these days, I’m going to need a new car — the Tiguan’s odometer is nudging 150,000 miles pretty hard, and every time I set off on any kind of trip, I’m apprehensive.
I have no idea how I’m going to afford it without draining our meager savings; I may have to auction off almost all my guns to a certain group of gun-loving Readers I happen to know, just to defray some of the cost.
But just so everyone’s clear on the topic: given all that’s appeared above, there is no way I will ever consider a “new” car — i.e. one made since the mid-1990s — but I’ll aim for one made without too much electronic equipment. Here’s an example:
1993 Mercedes Benz 300CE ($38,000)
Less than 35,000 miles, that lovely 3.2-liter engine, and a Euro-spec stick shift… oh be still, my beating heart.
Of course, by the time I would actually be in a place to buy this magnificent car, it would be long sold (because duh); but it should give you an idea of the direction I’m aiming.
There’s another option: American cars. But to find one of those that was made before 1995 and hasn’t been hot-rodded to hell and back? That makes me really nervous. (And I can’t go with a truck — New Wife is adamant on this.) Plus, except for the 65 Mustangs, American cars of that era a generally fugly.
I will accept any and all thoughts on the topic. Be kind, willya?
Ugliness
As any fule kno, one of my frequent irritations is architecture that is foul and ugly (especially of the Bauhaus / Le Corbusier / Post-Modern ilk). Reader Alex S. sends me an interesting take on the whole “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBY) syndrome; and while it’s a long read, it’s definitely worth the time:
Western countries used to let landowners build almost anything anywhere. Now, strict rules freeze the character of most neighborhoods, banning change and densification. Why? One theory is that modern buildings tend to be ugly, leading residents to support rules that exclude them from their neighborhoods. If this is true, then designing beautiful buildings could lead to more development.
One could only hope. Let me clear on this: I’m absolutely not against redevelopment, especially in urban locations. The more the merrier, say I, as long as the new buildings don’t look like factories, warehouses and concrete/glass building blocks. In cities, by definition, where people are squashed together, there needs to be some kind of harmonious architecture — and not just for aesthetic reasons, either. It’s actually jarring to find, in an area that has a certain architectural feel or style to it, a new construction that belongs to the Fuck You School.
I’m less concerned with suburban architecture, by the way, especially if the houses are not standing cheek-by-jowl with each other. When it comes to personal property, I’m kinda-libertarian about the whole thing. While I may cluck my tongue and (occasionally) shake my fist at some modern concrete block house standing on the same street as some gracious older homes (and there’s a lot of that in Dallas), the way I see it is that if someone’s just dropped a couple mil on a piece of land, he should be allowed to build whatever he likes on it.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Along the occasionally-posh Inwood Road in north Dallas, one generally sees what I refer to as the “Dallas Mansion” style:
But on that very same road, one occasionally runs into an ugly Modernist edifice:
…and while I think that the above is a piece of shit and doesn’t fit into the overall tone of the neighborhood, I just shrug and say “No accounting for taste, is there?” and continue on my way to the DFW Gun Range.
My tolerance, however, stops very short when I see something like this:
…when it’s perched in a neighborhood that looks like this:
At that point, I start calling for the C4, and an investigation of the bank accounts of the people sitting on the local planning commission.
Never mind “not in my back yard”: it should be “not in anyone’s back yard”.