So in my quest to be free from the addiction of always feeling the need to purchase cars for whatever reason, a new challenge has been thrown into the mix. My family.

Let it be known that since I committed to refrain from “ever buying a car for myself to restore”, I have kept my promise and still have only my 1977 Land Cruiser and 1979 Mercedes as my personal projects. I have had good offers on both and am very proud of myself in the fact that I have turned all of them down.

But guess what? My oldest boy, Zach has informed me that “in less then a month I will have my license” and intends to drive whenever or wherever without any reason or logic and that he insisted that I “help him find a car”. His money of course, not mine. And since I am helping HIM buy a car and not buying it FOR MYSELF, I have not broken any aforementioned commitments.

So off I went hunting down a car that would be fun, cheap and easy to maintain. And here it is…..

Just kidding. But that is what it will look like when it’s done being restored. In actuality, the end result was this three hundred dollar find in Monroe, Utah. A silver 1988 VW Cabriolet. This will be fun project for him. Here it really is.

It needs a new top and some other odds and ends but it should work out fine.

And then my dear wife, Emily, finally wore down the Ford Festiva she has been driving every day to work. She had put over 200,000 miles on it. The transmission blew up and so it has been retired.

What to do, I wondered, (for a few seconds at least). Since Emily is my sugar momma, the river of which all money flows, finding a car for her to get to work, was now my new top priority. No lazing around the house for Emily like her husband gets to do.

Off I went to look for a car that she could purchase with HER money for HER to own.

The only conditions is that it had to get better then the 42 miles per gallon that the Festiva was able to get and that it was safe and not too ugly. Not a very easy task. Having it be ugly is important because Emily does not like us boys using her car as we trash it up with candy wrappers, spilled drinks and the like. So it was going to be difficult to find such a vehicle. But I was up to the challenge.

Here is Emily’s new ride. A 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit diesel. Look at all those 48 horsepower busting to get Emily down the road to work. This one here is getting about 55 miles per gallon. I do things to diesels and I may be able to get it to about 58 miles per gallon. Recently rebuilt engine that hasn’t even been broken in yet. This should be good for about 300,000 miles before a rebuild.

Not too ugly though. Unless you compare it to Zachs cabby or my “parts car”. Then it definitely ranks right up there on the ugly meter.

It just so happens that I was able to work a parts car into the deal also. I have decided to keep that for myself. It has a really bad transmission. I also think it has a hung valve so it needs real work. Since this is my car, it enters into a “grey area” when it comes to my commitment. Here it is. A black 1989 VW Cabriolet.

The house is starting to look like “Jays German auto” since this now gives us five German cars on our property. Three VW’s and two Mercedes.