The time has come, again for me to change my car. I have driven the 2 latest models of the Toyota Harrier and can safely say that the Japanese marques that I have driven over the last 20 odd years are far more reliable that the European marques.
My first car was the Alpha Romeo 33 TI (black in colour) was bought brand new in 1987. Although it looked cool for a (then) young guy like me, it was fine to drive for the first 3 years. The problems started surfacing after 3 years or 60,000 km. There were electrical fuses which blew very often, there was almost overheating of the radiator, and even the power windows died on me. On top of that, I foolishly chose a black colour car which everybody knows absorbs heat. (Black body radiator, and black hole remember ?) So some of my friends from Germany, like Frank and his family, were ecstatic when I first drove the 'performance' car, but the heat,the non-cooling aircon and the non-power steering for the 1.5 L car took its toll on my guests. After one ride in my sports car, the Europeans were begging to sit in a cooler car !
The 'plus' points for the car was that it was in the 'sports' category, TI meaning something injection, and had 4 horizontally opposed cylinders which made it quite powerful. I was contemplating the Mazda 3 sports series, and decided then on the 33 because it had a solid feel to it, the road handling was excellent (Italy's roads are like winding for hundreds of miles around mountains, and near the coast, so one wrong move and your car goes over the cliff literally, so road holding was very good. On top of that, the gear shift, was quite a challenge, plus the 3 (yes 3) pedals, for those who don't drive or have never driven a manual car, the clutch, brake and accelerator pedals were positioned very close to each other, giving the shortest reaction time for the driver to accelerate, brake and change gear. It was a dream to drive it for the first 2 years or so. I drove it for a full 6 years, and decided that enough was enough. The front drive shaft was falling apart and I sold it with some relief in 1993.
My second car, was a Honda Civic bought in 1993. I bought it from a friend for $ 93,000, and truth be told, it wasn't as 'sexy' as the 33 TI, but it was so reliable. I recall I had '0' issues driving this car. It was less powerful that the 33 TI, but the reliability gave me a real 'peace of mind'. I only had to send the car for servicing maybe every six months or so. It was far cheaper than the 33 TI to maintain, and it was sparkling grey in colour. The transmission was automatic, so it was a brainless brake and accelerated control, plus there was power steering, a God send for a 1.6 L car. I have had only good memories of driving the Honda Civic and sold it with some regret in 1996, after I started my first new business, had a family and things seemed to be going well. So I decided to upgrade.
That, in itself is another story.
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