Well, as the current one does not live forever I did some thinking on what I might choose as a future car. Due to reliability and personal experience I have a preference for Japanese cars. Had some issues with a Volkswagen which I owned a long time ago, on the other hand the one Honda which I owned wasn’t trouble free either. Which was kind of a surprise to me as it is not really known for having problems. The other cars didn’t give many issues and the only one that gave an issue was due to an error by a mechanic. Most others have been Mazda (with the exception of one Toyota) as well and none of them ever let me down, so I’ll think I will stick to the brand. As I usually buy second hand (2-4 year old), my future car is already on the road and there are only two which I will consider at this time. As family expansion also comes into view in these cars lifetime and the amount of kilometers might go down a lot in the near future as well, feul economy is not really a factor. No I am not looking for a car that will run 1:4 nor does Mazda make any. The two lucky ones are the Mazda 6 in either a nice Sportsbreak package or the MPS if I can get my hands on one, but preferably the RX-8. The latter might be considered risky by some over my choice of reliability, but I love the technology behind it. Although it’s a car that my brother cannot maintain as his wankel rotary engine skills are next to non-existing. The 6 still has a conventional otto or four stroke engine so that won’t be a problem, now I still have to figure out which of the two it might become in the next year or so. Phew, some choice…….. Also, will I keep the MX-5 for fun or should I trade it in. I’m a fan of topless driving, however it’s not my girlfriends favourite thing to do.

We all know the number 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything. However this has to do with the amount of days which it took to drive 5000 kilometers. So with only 131 days to go until the end of the year I’m not going to make the 300000 this year. If calculations are correct and I will not be travelling abroad the odometer should get stuck somewhere on the 295000 kilometers this year.

The spares mentioned the last post did their work flawlessly, however new items need replacement. Get the idea the exhaust manifold most likely has a leak, and the catalytic converter is getting noisy and besides that doesn’t work anymore so it needs replacement anyway. Again not something really surprising judging age and mileage. It is the first catalytic converter being replaced so this one is 15 years old and the current exhaust manifold is already 7 years old since the last one got replaced. And yet it might be repaired by just welding the leak, so it will last another year or so before it has to be replaced completely.

And what do 42 and 68 have in common? Nothing really but 4+2=6 and 4×2=8 maybe! Nor do I know if I run the highest mileage MX-5 in the country. Although it’s not a car that will be used as a daily driver throughout it’s life there must be some 300000+ km cars around. I’m pretty sure there are, however all cars I’ve seen for sale are below 250000km.

Today, my old car passed the 280000km. I know that an avarage taxi in Beijing does it in a year and a half or so, it took mine 14 years and 3 months to get this far.

Currently it has a few minor issues but nothing that cannot be fixed as far as I know so I will continue driving it until it really falls apart. Got the spares for the issues at hand and after the weekend has passed it should be running as usual again.

As this is the first time mentioning the car I’ll tell you a little bit about the history. When I was younger and just got my driving license I always wanted a sporty looking car. In those days there where two cars that I would consider nice but both I couldn’t afford so I stuck with an old Toyota Corolla Liftback from 1980. The two cars where the newly released MX-5 (we are talking 1990 here) and the MR-2 from Toyota. Six years later I bought an MX-5 as my 25th birthday present. Yup, it was bought on my birthday in 1996 (you figure out how old I’m now). It is  the eighth car I own and has broken all records in ownership so far. It was the newest car (1993, so three years old when purchased) I ever owned, and by now it’s the oldest car I have ever owned. It came with the least mileage and now has the most. And so on and so on (that includes things like accidents and consumables like tires, exhaust pipes, shock absorbers etc. etc.). For the rest it’s very reliable, in all it’s years of service it never ever let me down once. Let’s hope it will stay that way for the coming period as well, but I don’t think I’ll stick with it until it’s 28 years old. Somehow I do doubt that.