I dropped the Landy in today for a service. The old girl is up to 380 000km from her birthday in 1981 and needing a bit of loving care.
For a mere $135.00 she is running nicely now, but not without her problems. The mechanic who worked on her suggested all I needed was 4 litres of petrol – to set fire to her…
Steady Eddie…
Ok… So she is full of rust, the shockies are shot, the front tyres need replacing, the rear axel seals are gone, it leaks everything it is possible to leak, the handbrake doesn’t work… and there are over 20 other items needing attention… BUT the fact is she still goes!
So I’m tossing up – sell her for $2K and buy another $8K beast, or run her into the ground. The problem is I’m not sure how far she has to go.
I reckon I might be able to get another year out of her. Then again she could cark it tomorrow.
My policy has always been to buy older cheaper cars and take a gamble on the maintenance costs. For the most part it has paid off with few really big bills hitting us over the years. I reckon this baby could roll along nicely for another 12 months if I spent $500.00, but then that’s about 1/4 of her total value…
Occasionally I dream of owning a car that was made in the same decade we are living in a dream that is currently well beyond us. Right now we have a 1989 Telstar that has been a great car and the 1981 Landy. I reckon the total value of our cars (and boat )would be less than $10K !
The great thing about the Landy is that when I am dropping the boat into the water I don’t worry about how deep we go. When smashing around the bush I don’t worry about the scratches – I’m told they will polish out but I am unlikely to ever make that discovery. I washed it once, but haven’t made a second attempt – couldn’t see the point.
If you want to buy a great old piece of Australian history then drop me a line and you can come and have a look. We can give her hiding up along the dunes and you can see what a great 4wD the old Landy is. And the best part is she’s on LPG so its actually cheaper to run than the Telstar. She’s done a heap of south west trips and been no drama (except for the time the harmonic balancer fell off in Mandurah…)
Come on… you know you want to…