In article <001c01c1de60$2cb6f8e0$cb1886d9@g6a2g8>, James Carruthers
<j.carruthers@rave.ac.uk> writes
>Mike wrote:
>
>> My Saab cost me GBP500. A complete new exhaust system cost me GBP400.
>> A set of new tyres cost me GBP350. A replacement alternator cost me
>> GBP50. That is pretty-much all I have spent on it in the last three
>> years. This is definitely the cheapest car, in terms of purchase price
>> and repair costs, that I have ever owned. It is also the most
>> expensive car, in terms of insurance and road tax, that I have ever
>> owned, but you can't have everything! It does about 25 mpg around
>> town, and about 40 mpg on the motorway. Overall, it has still been
>> cheaper to run than the Spitfire, by about a factor of two.
>>
>
>So really it's the complete opposite of a spitfire then,
Absolutely. Huge, luxurious, all mod. cons. (but who really needs an
indicator to let you know when your screen-wash is getting low??),
powerful engine, loves to cruise at 90, new parts cost a fortune. Almost
everything that the Spitfire is not (and nothing that a Spitfire is).
> I can see why the
>sensible spitfire owner would want a car like this.
<g> I got half-a-ton of peat, gravel and sand in the back of this last
week. Couldn't have done *that* in the Spit...
>
>I've gone off Saab's ever since I moved in with a Swedish guy who I thought
>I knew quite well but ended up being a complete psychopath (I shant use the
>expletives I usually use) - he had a real thing for Saab's. We ended up
>throwing him out of the house. Im not a violent person normally - but I
>really wanted to hurt this guy. Thats how bad he was...
>
>I think I should point out that I also know 2 Swedish girls - and they're
>perfectly nice. Im not basing my opinion of an entire nation based on one
>guy :)
I think the psychotic tendencies inherent in Saab ownership are, in my
case, off-set by the neurotic tendencies of the Spitfire owner. This
makes me a "well-balanced" individual.
Having spent today on a long drive in the country, I realised that, with
the top down, and the cassette-player blasting Crosby, Stills, Nash and
Young, I could no longer hear any of the rattles that had been bugging
me all through the winter. Instead I started to worry about *smells*.
"Is that burning insulation, or is it the pig farm I have just passed?"
ATB
--
Mike
Michael Hargreave Mawson, author of "Eyewitness in the Crimea"
http://www.greenhillbooks.com/booksheets/eyewitness_in_the_crimea.html
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