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One less Brit car in our family.

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aeronca65t

aeronca65t

Great Pumpkin
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My older daughter sold her WRX a few years ago when my grandkids came along. At the time, she replaced it with a new V6 Jeep Commander (with 3 rows of seats). Her husband has held on to his 5-speed SAAB 9-3. Despite all the warnings of perceived poor quality by some "expert" friends, the Jeep has been a decent vehicle with no issues. Likewise, the SAAB has never given any problems.
I've personally lapped Summit Point with her Jeep.....it would probably beat some of our cars. :wink:

Now, my younger daughter's Jaguar has been traded in.
Since my younger daughter had twins (3 months old now), her Ford-built, 5-speed, X-type has become too much of a squeeze for her gang. The Jag has been a very good car and with 4 wheel drive, is great in snow. It has been replaced by a V6 GMC Acadia, another 4-wheel-drive, US SUV with 3 rows of seat. Close friends of her husband's family own a GMC dealer, so she got an excellent deal and trade-in.

Both of my girls have warned me not to get rid of my MGs or the Miata in case they need "a sport car fix".

I'm sure that when they get older, they'll return to less prosaic cars, but right now, these vehicles work better for them.
By the way, both of my girls taught their hubbies to drive stick shift cars and both took their driver's test in manual trans cars (I didn't).

The X-type (now gone).
2_brit_cars.jpg
 
You did well with them, Nial. My wife refuses to even learn how to drive a stick (I've offered...)

And nothing wrong with a practical transportation appliance -- it's the correct tool for job sometimes. All the more reason to keep your MGs around for some alternate fun. :smile:
 
I'm pleased to hear she had good service from the Jaguar. I don't near much good about them, but I feel its not from people that own one.
 
Believe me Bill, I advised her <span style="text-decoration: underline">not</span> to get the Jaguar. I had not heard good things either.
So it's been a pleasant surprise that she's had great service out of it since '05 (it's an '02 she bought with 30K miles on it).
Our '08 Accord has give us more trouble.

Drew: my Linda never learned to drive a stick either. I just brought it up last weekend and she rolled her eyes.
(and we know it's possible....she has an identical twin than can drive a stick). :laugh:
 
aeronca65t said:
Drew: my Linda never learned to drive a stick either. I just brought it up last weekend and she rolled her eyes.
(and we know it's possible....she has an identical twin than can drive a stick). :laugh:
Click to expand...
I get that same eye roll every time I mention it. She gave the excuse that she's left handed, so I pointed out that the MGB is right hand drive and you shift with your left hand.

That didn't work either.
grin.gif
 
drooartz said:
I pointed out that the MGB is right hand drive and you shift with your left hand.

That didn't work either.
grin.gif
Click to expand...

You know that's what gives me the most trouble driving in England - shifting with the left hand. I've driven there many times for many years of visiting friends, but I still occasionally go from 1st to 2nd to 3rd...back to 2nd again. Dang! :wall: I guess it's that left-right mirrored reflex thing.
 
My daughter is learning to drive with Stick. All our cars are standard. I must say over the years other men have been very impressed by a woman who drives standard. (the fact that she's beautiful doesn't hurt either - course I'm biased.)

More to the point of the post I have friends who taught their daughters to drive standard so that they would never be "trapped" anywhere - unable to drive a car. I concur.
 
rkep01 said:
drooartz said:
I pointed out that the MGB is right hand drive and you shift with your left hand.

That didn't work either.
grin.gif
Click to expand...

You know that's what gives me the most trouble driving in England - shifting with the left hand. I've driven there many times for many years of visiting friends, but I still occasionally go from 1st to 2nd to 3rd...back to 2nd again. Dang! :wall: I guess it's that left-right mirrored reflex thing.
Click to expand...

I got the hang of shifting by the time I left the airport parking lot, but curbed the poor rental car's left wheel a few times. It didn't help that the car was sort of wide in proportions and the hood was sharply sloped so you couldn't see where it ends..
 
rkep01 said:
You know that's what gives me the most trouble driving in England - shifting with the left hand. I've driven there many times for many years of visiting friends, but I still occasionally go from 1st to 2nd to 3rd...back to 2nd again. Dang! :wall: I guess it's that left-right mirrored reflex thing.
Click to expand...
After the first day I was good to go. Don't think anything about it now, feels natural.
 
I guess it's just my dislexia kickin' ni. :jester: Incidentally, I love the country lanes. I've been on two way roads where I could stand in the middle and touch both stone walls with my outstretched arms. :eeek:
 
As Drew knows, I am currently building my A35 to be right-hand drive (I got the steering rack from him). The car is a Canadian lhd export model but I am converting it to rhd and replacing the old-time steering box setup at the same time.

I've had no problem with driving rhd cars in the past. When we rented cars in Ireland (always manual trans) I was fine, even in the roundabouts. The only time I had an issue was when I was going over a narrow, one-lane bridge. After I exited the bridge, I accidentally moved to the "wrong" side (but Lin quickly reminded me to move).

We were in Antigua a few years ago, and even with an automatic rhd car, it was tougher than Ireland. The roads were awful, very narrow and filled with large tractor trailer trucks that were lhd (and thus, "wrong" for Antigua)....causing the drivers to "take the middle" a lot.

One funny thing was that Lin would keep getting into the wrong side of the car and I'd say, "Oh, do you want to drive?"
grin.gif


antigua-09-j.jpg
 
I don't really have a problem with RHD cars. I've got well over twenty-thousand miles in them. It's just the dang shifting with the left hand. Not all the time, just when I'm not thinking about it. It's like trying to write with your left hand if you're right handed. Very difficult to write in the proper direction, but if you write it backwards it's much easier. Does that make any sense? :crazy:
 
Yeah, when I throw a ball with my left hand, everyone says I "throw like a girl" (sorry, ladies!).
Especially my brother Paul, who is ambidextrous.

Interestingly, I once saw a British export Morris sedan with left hand drive that had <span style="text-decoration: underline">left hand, floor shifting </span>(with a crazy linkage). No idea if it was a custom job or what?

How did you get so much time driving rhd cars?
 
We've been going, yearly, to Merry Olde since the early 90's and have made many friends over there. During our stay with them, we hire a car and tour the countryside so as not to become like "fish in the fridge" to our friends. We've been to Ireland once and have toured most parts of England, Scotland and Wales(Cymru), if you speak Welsh. The only parts we have yet to see are the east coast and the southeast of England. Soon enough, though.
 
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