{"id":9517,"date":"2021-05-12T07:57:17","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T07:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.co.uk\/magazine\/?p=9517"},"modified":"2024-10-01T08:03:49","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T07:03:49","slug":"its-all-about-personality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/its-all-about-personality\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s all about personality\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Classic cars have personalities. It\u2019s just a fact. People with no interest in cars who, as such, view them as nothing more than appliances on wheels will not understand. If you say your car has personality to someone who drives a Nissan Almera, they\u2019ll give you a look akin to the one you give a child and when they thrust a paint-splattered sheet of paper in front of you and tell you it\u2019s a horse. Those people won\u2019t understand. They\u2019ll think you\u2019re mad. But the reality, as well we all know, is that those people are wrong. Old cars have soul, they have heart and as such, they have personality. We are unshakable in that belief. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

Inadvertently, I have carried out a sort of science experiment to prove this. I own three cars. There is my sensible Dad car, which is a 2012 Ford C Max diesel. It\u2019s reliable, it\u2019s safe, it\u2019s economical and it has all the personality of a potato. So just by existing, it proves that some cars are lacking personality. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My C Max – Zero Personality<\/em><\/p>\n

Then we have my two older cars. There is a 1996 Citro\u00ebn ZX<\/a> Volcane (don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s being painted soon) and my ongoing project, a 1999 Rover 800 Vitesse. Both of these cars have personality, and not just one unified \u2018all cars\u2019 personality. They are different. The Citro\u00ebn, for example, has been nothing but a joy. An eager puppy of a car, it has been receptive to work, it always starts up even if left for weeks and it passed an MOT after sitting in a lock-up garage for half a decade. The only advisories were drop-links and ball joints. I\u2019ve cleaned it out, I\u2019ve fitted new wheels and tyres, new brakes, new suspension, new water pump and timing belt and more. It has been a joy. It\u2019s a \u2018happy\u2019 car. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

My ZX – Quite a happy little thing (yes, I’m painting it black soon)<\/em><\/p>\n

The Rover<\/a>, on the other hand, is an absolute sod. A cantankerous, miser of a car that fights me every step of the way despite offering it the same buffet of shiny parts as the Citro\u00ebn. It\u2019s a moody car with an untraceable parasitic drain that, when it does start, usually moans about it. If it was the C Max behaving in such a way, I would have set fire to it by now. But because it\u2019s an older car, and I think because it\u2019s a Rover, I have embraced its constant miserable nature. It is, fundamentally, part of the car\u2019s personality. I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way, and now anticipate it taking me four hours to remove a fuse. That\u2019s just how it is. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

My Rover 800 – Quite the grumpy old man<\/em><\/p>\n

And I\u2019m willing to bet you\u2019re nodding along as you read this. Your classic, whatever that may be, will have its own unique idiosyncrasies. You will have had conversations with your car while working on it, you\u2019ll have almost certainly fallen out with it at some point. But, when everything is working and in perfect harmony, you\u2019ll have found yourself full of a love for it. A toaster doesn\u2019t provoke those emotions. Nor does a BMW i3. In the broad spectrum of machinery, cars are the only things to do this.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps we\u2019ve been conditioned by popular culture? It seems silly, but the comedy hijinks of a certain Volkswagen Beetle at the very least sow the seed of vehicular personality. There\u2019s that black Firebird from the \u201880s that talks. And then, at the other end of the mood scale, there is a very red, very angry Plymouth Fury. Yes, these cars all exist on the TV and not the real world. But by virtue of them being ‘characters’, it serves to justify our own more human interactions with our cars. Right? <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Maybe I\u2019m mad? I\u2019ve been called worse. If I am mad, I\u2019m okay with it. My perception of personality makes me love (and hate) my old cars in equal measure. It adds to the richness of the ownership experience, it makes my cars more interesting. I wouldn\u2019t change it for the world, and I suspect, neither would you.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Classic cars have personalities. It\u2019s just a fact. People with no interest in cars who, as such, view them as nothing more than appliances on wheels will not understand. 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