MAKE THE CALL
Itold myself that selling my weekend car and not immediately replacing it was a great idea. Imagine all the time and money I would save not having a financial drain sitting in the garage, I thought, then, when I find a car that I really want, I’ll have extra funds and certainty that I’m going to hold onto it. It was great in theory. I waved my Toyota MR2 (AW11) goodbye as the new owner drove off into the sunset and stuck the pile of cash I’d exchanged it for into the bank. Happy as Larry. What a great deal, the greatest, such a great deal. Yay. That lasted all of five minutes, if I recall correctly, and then it dawned on me, what am I going to do to fill my spare time now? It may not have been that dramatic in reality, but it is a weird feeling not having an ongoing project. That mind-space occupier that helps pass time when you’re sitting at your desk in the morning pretending to be working when you’re really just thinking of all the things you could be doing to your car. It really is a great thing, one that I didn’t realize I would miss until it was gone.
In an attempt to subdue said feeling, I’ve been replacing it with cheaper thrills. Wheels. I’ve always had a thing for collecting (hoarding) wheels that I liked, especially the ones that I had absolutely no use for, and in sizes / pitchcircle diameters (PCD) that suited no car I own. That pursuit has flooded the garage with towers of rollers that made it practically impossible to access anything. Thankfully, lockdown gave me the time to go through and downsize a reasonable amount of this clutter, including a whole heap of spare parts that I’d been holding on to for a rainy day that probably was never going to come.
The logic was, if it’s been there more than a year or two and never been used, it probably ain’t going to be.
Although, once the garage was cleared out and the handful of keeper wheels organized, that same feeling of wanting a replacement weekender crept back in. Hell, I don’t even have the space to store another car right now and yet I find myself browsing Marketplace and the local auction site prolifically just to see what’s out there.
It definitely doesn’t help the cause that I genuinely have no idea what I want to get my hands on. I’ve always had a few grand plan–type builds in the back of my mind, the ones that are at the “I’ll do it one day but not today” level. It’s this indecisiveness that’s left me feeling a bit frazzled, as I’m keen to get back in the game and have a car to hit all these freshly revived events that we’re about to enjoy leading into the sunny months.
The point of this yarn is that, well, know what you’re wanting to do before doing it. Don’t slang a car simply for the sake of slanging it, unless you have an idea of what you’re going for next. It may open up the cash banks, but if you’re anything like me, the final decision is far harder than the initial idea.
Please submit all suggestions to @jaden_nzpcmagazine (Instagram).