I can't put it off any longer. Must move on from the past...
I am finally announcing the departure of Vic 2.0, and the
arrival of Vic 3.0.
In September 2018,
2.0 was involved in an ooopsie that didn’t involve me. I wasn’t even in the state at the time. All I am going to say on the matter is I came
home that night, and found the car basically totaled in the driveway. I am not going to share all the sordid, anger
inducing details, and will just end with this:
like 1.0, 2.0 ended up at Taxi Guy’s shop. Last I heard, we plans on repairing it and
making it his Florida
car. I hope that does occur, because it
deserves to hit 200,000 miles someday…
And so I am on to Vic 3.0.
It was one of two that my boyfriend (aka: Mystery Mechanic) had on the
road for shakedown runs before possible sales.
It is a 2008 P71 in silver with black interior. Yup, just as I was getting used to the “bling
factor” of Blue Pearl, I am back to silver, this time Silver Birch (1.0 was
Silver Frost). Gone is the stress of
trying to keep dirt and dust from showing every second of the day!
As for the black velour interior… well, I am getting used to
it, but I swore I would NEVER have a black interior. I dislike them intensely in daily
drivers. Dust shows up on all the
plastic, carpets show sand and dust, and it gets HOT inside in summer. It is also so darn DULL. There is NOTHING to break the depressing monotony
of fields of black… I am sensitive to colors and light in my immediate
environment, I guess…One GOOD thing about black: coffee stains don't show up!
Now, 3.0 was an actual police vehicle, whereas 2.0 was a
Ford demo and never saw actual, regular police use. So there are some imperfections. The rear deck needs to be put back properly,
the power locks sound like they may quit over the winter, and it needs a
windshield BAD. It also sat for years
before being sold off, so the underside has some surface rust we need to
watch. But it drives great, and other
than a noisy starter in cold, I am more and more confident it won’t quit on
me.
That is one thing about loosing 2.0 that was killing
me. Between MM and I, we put about
170,000 miles on that car, so we knew everything about it… what had been
replaced and what was due to be
replaced. The car was by far the most
reliable daily driver he had ever owned.
Now, I am with a car I have to always wonder about. BUT, it is better than NO car at all!
The first thing I needed were better hubcaps.
I hate running them as it is, but if I have
to, they better be nice.
We got some
nice ones and I put them on.
I may put
the “poverty caps” on for winter, though.
MM had an NOS cassette/CD/AM-FM unit, so for the very first time I have a car with a CD player... Yup, I am ALWAYS up to the minute with trends!
The front grille was also not up to my standards. But I didn’t want to put a brand new one in
before winter, so I put in a used one I found in the basement… I think it was
the original from 2.0 before MM replaced it.
It still isn’t perfect, but is a lot better for now. I did score an NOS one that may go on in
spring. It also needs clearer
headlights. It passes inspection, and I
don’t want to mess up the NOS ones I picked up for 2.0 a while ago. Maybe I am afraid if I DO put the nice parts
on it, something will happen and THIS car will also get ruined!
When I registered 3.0, it had 120,971 miles on it. It now has about 122,500. Need to get the front snow tires put on
(needed to get a second set of rims with TPS sensors on them).
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| Vic 3.0 Railfanning |
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| 3.0 visits Maine for the first time |
I noticed that the original struts were made by the same people who made the replacements, Stabilus. I like to use OEM parts when I can afford them, so I was happy about it.
