I'm Kevin McVay and I am a car enthusiast. While that statement sounds like the first in some sort of twelve step addiction program perhaps it is in a way, and those who have been bitten by the bug will know what I mean. From an early age, I remember handing my dad spanners as he worked on our cars and watching Grice, Moffatt, Jane, Bartlett, Brock, Johnson and the like roar around the track. Those days made a big impression on me. I finished school and became a tradesman working on cars for around fifteen years. In the meantime I would buy an old scrapper and fix her up and drive her around and then sell her on. Each time I would swear to my parents, then girlfriend and then wife (depending on the period) that I would never do that again. But I kept coming back to it, I couldn't help it.
Recently, my wife and I were at the Gold Coast for the Mustang nationals. We were sitting on the beach in between road runs and she said, “remember that car you had when I first met you? I think we should get another one. ” My wife is not what you would call a car lover but she is a supportive person. I went out and found an XP sedan just like the one that I had twenty years ago but this one had an automatic transmission so that she could drive it easily.
Unbelievably, the day we returned from the MOCA nationals, I had a look on the internet and found just what we were after. Michelle had taken the kids to the beach for the day and I gave her a ring and told her that I had found an XP and asked to have the necessary funds released. The only problem was that the car was in Hervey Bay. I promptly rang the owner who told me that I had been beaten to the punch. Ouch! Some young fellow and his dad were already there looking at it. I asked if he could give me a ring if the deal fell through.
Twenty minutes later he rang back and said that the ball was in my court, so at 1.00pm I took off for Hervey Bay. I got there in the dark, had a look as best I could with torches and lead-lights and went for a drive. Loved it! I gave him a deposit pending safety certificate etc. and his wife came out and said that he had better ring the other guy coming from Caboolture who was an hour behind me on the road. I jokingly told the bloke's wife that I really had bought it and she didn't need to 'help' her husband out but she said that the guy had really rung from the servo at Maryborough to see if he should turn around. Apparently, also the young bloke and his dad rang the next morning to say that they would come and collect the car but again he had to refuse. He could have sold it three times that same day. I haven't seen one as good for the money since in the last six months before writing this.
I guess all car buying experiences have a certain provenance to them and that was ours. I hope all of you have the same happiness in buying rebuilding and repairing that my family and I have had, particularly now that my young fella who is about eleven has started showing bit of an interes |