[roddy1960]

They're a hunk of metal ,paint , glass,chrome, rubber, plastic , cloth/leather/vinyl and numerous oils and liquids in suitable combinations cobbled together somehow aren't they ? But some cars we own become very emotional to us . Others we have not so much .

Up until 2003 since 1978 when I got my licence I owned a number of cars that I liked a lot but would trade without too much trouble .. At the time I had a seven year old EF Futura that was quite a nice bus with a 5 speed manual and in gun metal grey ..One afternoon I was driving along the coast and a local servo used to have cars from a city car dealership on display .

One at the time was this beaut looking (to me anyway) 2001 AU ll Futura . Even though I didn't really need petrol I called in for a look and she smacked me straight away ..Chris , the owner of the servo who I knew pretty well said it had just arrived that day for display .. Took it for a drive and something just told me I'd need to talk to the sales consultant . Chris actually got him on the phone for me and he came down the next day . We did a deal and I got a pretty good trade on the EF and by that weekend the 2 year old AU was sitting in the shed ..

She's still here , she's driven almost every day and to be honest I can't imagine it not being here..The longest I ever owned any car other than the old AU is about 5 years and that was a Ford Escort Mk2..The AU is coming up 18 years about Easter ..I bloody love the old bird ...still...

Sitting there also is the lovely FG XR6 that leaves the AU behind in so many ways but I can honestly say I get just as much a thrill of pottering around in the AU as the XR6...

That's just me and it's probably just for this one particular AU maybe ...and I'm not sure that when the day comes that the old girl has to be retired I'd necessarily look for another AU but only time will tell on that ...