As a family run business A&E garage services have had a fair share of personal cars and each one filled with memories that are all different from the last. From long road trips going on holiday to peculiar faults that give the vehicle personality so to speak. Its hard to determine the exact point a car becomes special, However there are two main points for me that stand out. The way a car makes you feel when you drive it and the amount of memories and adventures you and the vehicle have been through together.
Glen Shee - 2019
“It’s what non-car people don’t get. They see all cars as just a ton and a half, two tons of wires, glass, metal, and rubber, and that’s all they see. People like you or I know we have an unshakable belief that cars are living entities… You can develop a relationship with a car and that’s what non-car people don’t get… When something has foibles and won’t handle properly, that gives it a particularly human quality because it makes mistakes, and that’s how you can build a relationship with a car that other people won’t get.” - Jeremy Clarkson
First Vehicle
My first car was a 1998 Jeep Cherokee and let me tell you, it was about as far away from perfect as you can get...
The constant drip of oil that seemed to come from it, the central locking that didn't work so you had to lock it from the inside then get out and shut the door ( making sure you didn't leave the keys inside). The boot struts that didn't hold up the boot lid, leaving me having to carry around a piece of wood to wedge between the bumper and the boot lid. These were all things that would annoy most people but for me it was all these so called annoying faults that gave the car a personality and made it very special to me. Even though my jeep had many little and odd faults it always got me home
without skipping a beat. After about 2 years of owning the jeep I decided to sell it and buy something more reliable ( I still regret that decision to this day). Buying a vehicle that works perfectly is great but the vehicle itself doesn't become nearly as special to you and doesn't create as many memories.
Ford ranger ( Vehicle after selling the jeep) Glen Etive camping trip - 2020
Naming A Vehicle
I bet most of you reading this have names for your vehicles right? We also name our vehicles even the courtesy cars. Our fiat panda is named Gino after the celebrity tv chef Gino D'acampo as they are both small, Italian and filled with character. The VW Polo is called whiskey as it has a 'w' in the registration plate. This incidentally is generally how we pick names for our cars by the letters in the registration plate.
Have you named your vehicle?
YES
NO
Memories
For a vehicle to become special to you it doesn't need a name or to be your first. It could be special because of lots of little memories or one big memory that is very significant for one reason or another. I want you to think back to some of the cars that your family had when you were growing up, How does it make you feel? Without all the family trips and adventures in those vehicles you would only remember the make and model and thinking back to those times all you would see is a car and you wouldn't feel the connection or the emotion to the vehicle like you do thinking back now.
At A&E Garage Services we can understand how much a car can mean to someone even if it isn't a rare or expensive model, because the memories that we create with our cars are worth more than money can buy.
