Arrivederci Marty
Marty Mazda: 1985-2006.
It is with a heavy heart I announce that, at 8:32am this morning, my beloved but 'special' baby, Marty the 1985 323 sedan, left me (via a free tow-trucking service) for the big car wrecker in the sky.
Marty was my first car, dating back to my P-plate days, and followed me over to Sydney. Being fiercely SA nationalist, he refused to register in NSW and kept his SA licence plates as a mark of pride.
Lord knows he wasn't the most assertive of cars, and was easily frightened by graded slopes. Like me, he also hated having to operate on cold mornings and would often sulk by refusing to turn over if he wasn't driven at least once a week. In retrospect, I don't think he was ever destined to be a big-city kid; certainly, he felt alienated by all the elitist Woollahra car scum who never accepted him as one of their own, just because he didn't have European heritage or parts made within the last 10 years.
Still, Marty truly was the little Mazda that could. I didn't take proper care of him or love him the way a 'special' child needs to be loved, and still he managed to (eventually) turn over - and move - more times than not. He may not have always had 100% fully operative brakes, and he might have always had an embarrassing faint scent of cat pee beneath the myriad car fresheners adorning his dashboard, but he was mine.
Maybe it's the Taurean in me, but I must admit I do feel attachment to my possessions, particularly those I've held onto for years. OK, yeah, 'it's just a car', but I did honestly feel a little sad seeing him carted off this morning. Even with his many breakdowns, Marty was always one of the most reliable - and loyal - men in my life. He will be missed.
posted by Sam @ Tuesday, October 17, 2006
13 Comments:
Vale Marty... He will be sadly missed. I will always remember his affectionate attempts to catapult me through the windscreen while braking suddenly at traffic lights... Aaah the memories :-)
Vale Marty.
Just a quick question. I name my cars with girls names. Is naming your vehicle after a boy a gay thing? or is marty short for martina?
Just curious not trying to offend.
Lol - takes a bit more than that to offend me BL, but thanks for the sensitivity :P
Marty was named by my (very straight) brother, the original owner. I thought about a name-change when I adopted him but didn't want him to suffer an identity crisis.
And he did somehow look like a Marty, to me anyway.
"arrivederci"
;)
Scusi! Arevaderche came up in a Google search. Meh.
Bad luck.
The car I learnt to drive in was one of these 323s. By the end of its life my left hand was permanently on the choke lever...
The car's name was Tarzan, as it went from "tree to tree" (323, geddit?!?!). I didn't name it, I'm not that corny.
Although my current car's name is 'Gaylord'.
Funny how one gets attached to a bit of metal and plastic.
Well my bf has a fairly spunky Polo these days Ron, so I'm becoming quite accustomed to being chauffeured around in Euro luxury.
Failing that, possibly a Honda Jazz.
That thing was older than me.
My sympathies, Sam.
Ah yes, nostalgic sojourns of fart jokes and hint of cat wee! Memories...
I wonder if car heaven whiffs of cat wee?
... and what of the A-Team perfumer? Bye bye BA?
You don't think Marty's loyalty to SA had something to do with the rego being cheaper there, no need for annual inspections, or even Marty not necessarily being registrible in NSW in later years? No wonder those snooty Woolahra-wagons never accepted him...
New car smell I would have assumed, Miss E.
Anon: Random, unitended consequential benefits of patriotism, nothing more.
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