BRENDAN SEERY
LIFE is not a static thing. It is all about change – and about moving on. Knowing that, though, doesn’t make saying goodbye any easier. So it was just before Christmas when I said two difficult goodbyes to a previous part of my life.
The second was the most painful. His name was Lucky – because we got him from someone else who rescued him from the streets of Berea where he was being dragged around by a piece of wire around his neck. In the end, life catches up quicker with big dogs than small ones, and this cross husky by way of a St Bernard was starting to fade. His eyesight was almost gone, his back legs were collapsing and his fear in the midst of the crashing of thunderstorms was heart-breaking to watch.
The end happened on a Saturday morning. My wife and my daughter sat with him until he faded away after the vet administered the injection. I stood outside, unable to face it. Sometimes cowboys do cry…
Unexpectedly, the other parting was, as Shakespeare would have said, more of a sweet sorrow.
My Volkswagen Jetta, Wolfsburg Edition, had been with us for twice as long as Lucky – almost 26 years from the day I bought it new (from Dornat Motors in Braamfontein) in 1989. Like Lucky, it had never let me down. Not once in that time had it stopped, or failed to start or pulled off in a cloud of steam.
My son was six months old when I brought the car home to Windhoek, Namibia, where we were then living. He is now 26. When I picked up the keys from Dornat, the company still had a five-digit phone number. Nelson Mandela was still behind bars. The Soviet Union was still hiding behind an ideological wall which began in East Berlin. Digital and Internet were terms which would have belonged to science fiction stories.
In its time with us, the Jetta (I never give my cars pet names) covered 332 000km. It travelled to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and all across South Africa (and
VW JETTA CSX 1.8
(WOLFSBURG EDITION)
Engine: 1.8-litre naturally aspirated (carburettor), 77kW.
Fuel consumption: 9.5 litres per 100km city; 7.5 to 8l/100km open road.
CO2 emissions: What? every single major national road – N1 to N9 – from one side to the other and a myriad secondary roads in between). It witnessed sunrises over the Indian Ocean in Durban and sunsets over the Atlantic in Swakopmund. It survived Namibia’s desert heat and Gauteng’s brutal hailstorms. Its clutch survived my son’s early driving lessons (the original clutch lasting an amazing 312 000km) – although its lack of power steering meant he would never drive it as his student car (any mother will tell you, as his did, that it is cruelty to children to force them to drive a vehicle without power steering).
Apart from the long-lived clutch, the SA-assembled VW displayed other remarkable mechanical feats. The engine was never opened. When I was driving it regularly (up until about 280 000km or so), it was using a can of oil every 8 000km. The first exhaust silencer was replaced after 12 years.
The after-market Dunair air-con system (never quite as good as the factory-fitted item, but then VW aircons are the best in the business) had to be re-gassed a few times and have bearings and seals replaced. There was one replacement water pump, a rebuilt carb and a few engine mountings, as well as a radiator. And, apart from that and normal replacement of service and wear-and-tear items… nothing.
My wife scraped the front fender
Purchase price: (including general sales tax).
Selling price: R15 000 (market value R25 000).
Period of ownership: December 2014.
Longest distance covered in a day: Joburg to Harare (1 100km); Joburg to Port (with a small baby, your attention is often occupied) and dinged a concrete pole, while I reversed into someone… little damage to my car, though. My cousin drove into another car while she was borrowing the Jetta (again, just a dent) and my wife’s nephew gouged a front wheel on a kerb. Then there is a little dent on the driver’s door – the result of my wife closing the gate on me as I drove in behind her (the less we say about that the better…)
The 70kW 1.8-litre petrol engine gave reasonable performance (official figures were 0 to 100km/h in just under 12 seconds) and it had good overtaking power right to the end, mainly because the car only weighed 960kg.
When I bought the Jetta, I had been through a depressingly bad few years with an Opel Kadett which was, simply, a piece of junk. It was VW’s iconic ads – the cars in the shape of the emblem, the “VW you and me” song etc – which tugged at my heart strings. Cars can break your heart as badly as a woman can. I needed one (a car that is) to love… and one which would love me back, unconditionally.
Apart from the emotion, there were other things which drove the Jetta decision. The Wolfsburg Edition was a sexy package: Golf GTi rims and interior trim, boot spoiler and alarm immobiliser. I knew the boot was a decent size, but it was only with familiarity with the car
R33 000
March 1989 to
El i z abe t h (1 100km). Longest holiday trip: Windhoek, Cape Town, Garden Route, Durban, Joburg, Windhoek (8 000km). Breakdowns: Nil. Major problems: Nil. that I realised just how much stuff I could shove in the back. With clever packing, you could easily get the cases, toys and paraphernalia for a family of four into the boot… along with food. The leg room in the back meant the kids, in their carseats, could not easily kick the back of the front seats either. It sounds minor – but those who have, or had, children, will know exactly what I am talking about.
On the road, the Jetta was in a different class altogether from the soggy-handling Kadett and, even with the low-profile tyres the ride was good. On the open road, the car would cruise all day at 120km/h (and often did). In town, its fuel economy was around 9 to 10 litres per 100km, while on the highway that figure came down to just under 8l/100km. Not fantastic by today’s standards but good enough to help a young, small, not very rich, family get away regularly for holidays.
The experience made me a VW fan – and I quickly came to realise that VW’s products are benchmarks in their sectors… something still true today. We later bought another Jetta ( a Mk 3, with even bigger boot and fantastic aircon) – and I always feel I am coming home when I get into one of the “People’s Cars”.
To be fair, I also kept my side of the bargain by religiously servicing the car and attending to problems as soon as they arose. I also did most of the cleaning and polishing myself – including of those very difficult-to-clean 18-spoke GTi alloy wheels – so when the car went to its new home, the paint looked as though it still belonged on the showroom floor.
The owner is a nice guy by the name of Thabo Mojalefa, who is a policeman based at our local police station. He began nagging me four years ago to buy the Jetta and I initially gave him a figure of R15 000. He kept on coming back – but we kept on finding uses for the Jetta (as an emergency family car or when relatives needed wheels while their cars were being fixed).
Finally, I could put him off no more and we did the deal – I honoured the original price. A deal is a deal – although I did feel a little bit chagrined when I got offered R20 000 by at least two other people. I told Thabo he could flip the car instantly for a R5 000 profit… but he told me he wouldn’t get anything this good even for R20 000.
On the last day I had the car, I took it up to the local car wash… and it was a completely different experience to taking Lucky on his last journey to the vet.
Three of the people working at the car wash took out their phones to take pics of the car once it was cleaned and dried. And that doesn’t happen for cars which I test which cost more than R1 million.
So, farewell, faithful friend. I know you, too, will fare well. I know you still have a lot to give and I am happy to pass you along. Thanks for bringing me into the V W family…