Yes!! NPR had a series on commuting and the cost of automobiles to the
typical American family. The average was something like $5,000 to $7,000
per year per household. At that rate you could buy a fairly nice,
restored LBC each and every year and almost have enough left over to have
someone else work on it.
I drove my last LBC everyday for fifteen years (if anyone sees her in
Connecticut, tell her Hi! and don't believe it when they tell you she's
low miles!! ;-)
I am now re-married and every once in a while I will get to swapping
stories about the fuel pump that quit in the high plains and the fellow
LBC nut who drove another one seventy-five miles out to me and helped me
install it in the dark (the only time I didn't have a spare with me)
...or the time I had to go get it because I loaned it to a friend who
tried to impress his new chick by dropping the clutch (literally!).
My now wife will say, "Aren't those cars really undependable? You talk
about them braking down all the time?" And I will have to remind her
that in fifteen years it ALWAYS got me home, and it cost me an average
of less than $1,000 a YEAR to run, and that included purchase price, gas,
insurance, and all the free comments I got whenever anyone saw it.
And besides, it was good therapy. Where else can you buy this much fun
for so little?
Michael Mason,
About to put another LBC on the road after six boring years of
plastic new cars with no personality
On Wed, 28 May 1997, Larry Schilling wrote:
> Don't you just get tried of people saying....
>
> "My sister had a Triumph, it was in the shop all the time."
>
> "Had a Triumph once, it nickle and dimed my to death."
>
> "We can't take your car, I want to make sure we get there."
>
> "You drive a '73 Triumph? You sure are a brave soul."
>
> "What is that, some kind of MG?"
>
> "Had an MG once. All those British cars are junk."
>
> "You have a '73 Triumph? Why?"
>
> And on, and on, and on it goes seems like everybody has an unsolicited
>opinion.
>
>
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