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Old 17th October 2023, 02:03
Makko Mexico Makko is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Posts: 949
Oh dear! Here I go.......

Renault 16 - Great fun and good workhorse. Manual
VW Brasilia - A piece of crud that I bought cheap. Boy, was it bad! Manual.
Chevrolet Malibu straight six, three speed manual. Swapped the TX for a Hurst box. A bit of a handful at times.
Dodge Dart E - Excellent car, loads of space. After a botched service at the agency, they blueprinted the engine at the Chrysler factory in Toluca. Good car. Manual, 5 sp, 2.2 litre. At the same time, Renault 21 LTD, lovely car, crashed into when parked by a drunk. 2 litre 5 sp. manual. Replacement was a Volare, a Dodge K rebadged. 2.2 litre five sp manual. We replaced the bench front seat with Recaro seats. Great car until a legally blind old lady pulled out 10 metres in front of me on a main road - Rhinoplasty to put my nose back together. Replacement was a Chrysler Shadow 2.5 litre automatic. Absolutely great car, very flexible re PAX and cargo, a joy to drive.
Swapped the Dart E for a Chrysler Phantom, 2.5 litre turbocharged engine (ex Lotus) automatic, "Personal Luxury Car" (badged as Le Baron in USA). Crap tyres but large alloy rims, fast, handled a bit "long" and really chugged gas at high speed. I once outran the Federal Police when speeding from Mexico City to Queretaro (198 Kms.), making it in one hour.
During this time, I also leased two Alfa Romeo 164's in Italy. The first was a straight six, manual. Great fun. I then got a 164 single turbo. Both were twin sparks and I put some serious clicks on them, eeveen doing once Paris to Liverpool on one tank of gas.
After that, I took work in the UK from 2001 to 2006.
I had a company Vectra, I think 3 litre, estate. A nice roomy vehicle but it had it's foibles. It was auto.
I then bought a Vauxhall Carlton - The Blue Monster! Manual. Absolutely loved it! I took it Spain and Portugal when I was working down there 2002-2003. Came back to scrap the car.
Then a Ford Fiesta. Ok runabout. Manual.
I then got an Escort. That lasted about two weeks until the engine seized and I dumped it. Manual. Dreadful car!
I then got an Alfa Romeo 156 Twin Spark. 5 sp manual. Great car. I put 127,000 miles on it in three years. I sold it for scrap on the day that I was returning to Mexico.
On my return, I had an Astra 1800, auto, then two Jeep Patriots 2.4 litre, auto. At this time, we also had a Nissan Tiida - A stunning car with its sporty engine and CRV transmission.
I have had since 2017 a Dodge Journey Lujo SXT SUV (Freemont in Europe). Probably the best car that I have ever had. In fact, I returned from visiting my Daughter and Grandson in Monterrey yesterday, 910 kilometres, two tanks of gas, in eight hours 25 minutes. I got out the car at home without any aches and feeling remarkably refreshed and relaxed.
In 2015, I leased an Alfa Romeo Giulia, twin turbo diesel, eight speed auto gearbox. An absolutely thrilling car, a joy to drive, especially in Sport mode with its active suspension. Unfortunatelly, a little beyond my wallet at the time with daughters in Uni (Law) and High school. One day........!

Rgds.
Dave
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