JASON HODGES LANDIE GENTRY

Better Homes and Gardens’ resident landscaper Jason Hodges loves vintage cars. His passion for older cars started when he was seven — and the object of his affection was a 1964 Ford Falcon XM coupe owned by his friend’s father.

“I can still remember just walking in and saying (to the owner), ‘You are a rock star, that is the coolest car I’ve ever seen,’ ” Hodges says.

And while it was unrequited love at first, his dream car would be his eventually after the owner offered to sell it to him in his late teens. “I didn’t even ask the price,” he says. Hodges extended the family about five years ago adding a Falcon ute to his garage.

But his real pride and joy is his 1975 Land Rover Series 3 short wheelbase ute. The old ute hadn’t been registered since 1988 and had been languishing in a paddock since the early ’90s.

And it wasn’t an easy find. Hodges enlisted the help of Land Rover Heaven, a business that finds and sells old Landies and parts.

“It cost me $1800 to buy and then I spent about $4000 to get it registered,” Hodges says. “We got it going pretty well but it had no brakes and needed new springs, bushes, steering column and seats.”

And its little Holden engine makes it easier to work on and is more reliable than those in past Land Rovers. This helps because, as Hodges admits, he is the world’s worst mechanic.

“I replaced a battery on one of my cars once and I put it in backwards and ended up blowing up the alternator. So what was meant to save me money cost me double what it would have if I paid someone to do it,” he says.

The Landie’s fading mint green paint has patches of grey undercoat peeking through but Hodges won’t change it.

“I love that it is a little different,” he says. “I think it is a middle-aged man’s version of ‘look at me’. They make me feel like I’m on holidays. When I’m in the car its my version of golf or fishing. I’m not into Ferraris and going fast.”

The Land Rover is a far cry from his daily drive, a Toyota HiLux, but it is only used for short spurts down to the shops.

And as Hodges explains, it is all about the experiences you get driving an older car.

“I remember driving my Falcon ute on the highway going about 80km/h (the car’s max) listening to Johnny Cash. People would keep tooting the horn when passing me smiling and with their thumbs up. That is burned into my memory for the rest of my life.”

Another brush with an admirer of his vintage metal when he was 19 had a similar effect. A Porsche owner told him how beautiful his Falcon two-door was and bemoaned the fact that despite the big money he paid for his sports car it never drew the same response from others.

Hodges hopes the cars are around in years to come to teach the next generation how to drive. He reckons learning to drive a manual is an essential skill and doing so on one of these old machines would hold the driver in good stead.

“If you can drive around a paddock in an old Land Rover, then you can handle driving in Sydney,” he says.

Better Homes and Gardens airs Fridays 7pm on Channel 7.