In 1980 I went to work for Honda That company had the custom to offer to its personnel at special prices everything (and with ‘everything’ I mean cars, motorcycles, lawn mowers, scooters and anything else that was imported) that had been used for advertising or had to be tested in any way. In 1981 I bought a royal-blue Honda Accord Sedan EX automatic with less than 8000 kilometers on the odometer.

This was the first new car of this particular model and it had been especially flown over from Japan so photos could be made for the sales brochures. It was a prototype of the model series of the Accord Sedan, and had been made completely by hand. It was a very beautiful luxury car with ‘moquette’ carpets and upholstery. It also had all kinds of novelties as standard equipment, which was then unusual but nowadays very common. For instance it had an electric antenna and a novelty clock. The digits of the clock turned like the pages of a book, very ingenious!.
I had wanted to keep this Accord for a longer time, but after two years it started to rust badly, and therefore I traded it in. Later, when a Honda-dealer wanted to replace one of the wings of “my” Accord, it appeared that a new wing didn’t fit at all and had to be formed by hand.

After I had had the skid with the Mini Pick-up I bought a second Honda Accord Sedan. This was a standard model, more like a plain, grey meatball, which was used only to drive from A to B. And that was what it was extremely good for, I never had any problems with it during the time that I’ve had it. And it shows, because according to the RDW, the Dutch Licensing Office, its registration number HD-08-DT is still valid. Maybe the present owner would like to contact me?

In the early eighties I was summoned to rejoin the army for two weeks (Holland still had compulsory military service in those years). In the army I was assigned to the “Korps Mobiele Colonnes”, an army unit that originated from the B.B., the Dutch Home Guard.

This “Korps Mobiele Colonnes” was supposed to get only in action after very severe accidents had happened. Its primary task was to extinguish fires and look after the wounded. At a later time the corps was supposed to clear the rubble and place emergency provisions like pipes for drinking water. The training I got as fireman was very useful, but of course here we are talking about cars. This army corps still used Magirus Deutz trucks dating from the early fifties. Very Spartan looking trucks, but wonderful to look at and to hear. Click here for the sound of the air-cooled Magirus Deutz engine. After the KMC was dismantled in 1993 the Magirus Deutz trucks were sold to private individuals as collectors items. Now and then you’ll see one that has been converted into a mobile home.

In 1983 Citroën introduced its new model, the BX and I immediately fell in love with it. By trading in two Honda’s I was able to buy a BX 16TRS, the most expensive model in the range. This was a very nice car to drive, also because it had the same hydraulic suspension system as the DS. The dashboard looked a bit boring, until you turned the ignition key. Then all the gauges came alive with colors.

With that BX I drove approximately 120.000 kilometers in two years. After that time it proved very difficult to sell, because Citroën had introduced a cheaper, more basic version, the BX 14, with a noisy air-cooled engine and without all the extra’s that my BX 16 TRS had.

“You never forget your first love” the saying goes and when in 1985 AustinRover introduced the MG Montego, I just had to have one. I described the reasons I bought this MG Montego in my short story “Kalverliefde” (in Dutch only, but in short the story is about my first love for the 1959 MG Magnette ZB and how that car compared with the then new MG Montego).

However, within one week of ownership this MG had to return to the importer, AustinRover Netherlands. It had an electrical fault that made the engine die when I drove with a speed of more than 100 kilometers. The only solution to the problem was the replacement of the complete wiring loom, but a new loom was nowhere to be found. Finally - a few weeks later - the importer received a wiring loom of a Montego Vandenplas from the factory in England and had to make that fit my MG. After that the fault never happened again.
I was completely satisfied with this MG, in which I drove many happy miles. Francina thought different, because this MG had to be very well maintained by the dealer; therefore it wasn’t a cheap car to drive. Even now, years later, there are still family jokes about the times that I had to go to the workshop with this MG.

In 1989 my MG Montego had to make way for a Mercedes 508 motorhome:

The story about this Mercedes is described in part one of my stories called “Travels with Gus”
In 2011, after 22 years of great adventures, I sold my Mercedes on.

In 1991 we made a trip to Australia. We couldn’t take our Mercedes 508 and therefore we bought this 1978 Mazda E1600 campervan from a dealer in Perth. We were happy with it, because the Mazda served us excellent during our trip of 13.000 kilometres. Although we did have some problems on the way: a broken windscreen; leaking exhaust; starter motor and at least twenty flat tires. Eight months later we were back in Perth, where we sold the Mazda to an auction house.