In the late summer of 2011, I drove past a random car dealership in Paisley and a lovely grey VW Golf caught my eye. I didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the start of a love / hate relationship with VW’s that would last a lifetime. You see, I love them… But they hate me and want to do nothing but cost me money.
My mum and I hopped out the car and took a wee look at the Golf in question, she’d later become better known to me as Avantasia. She was far from an amazing car. She was a basic 1.6 Mark V with no optional extras at all but she was mine. She was the first car I ever financed, she was the first car I paid off by myself and she was with me for 9 years in total.
I loved that car. I felt like a grown up in that car. The thing I hated most about the 206 was the fact it didn’t have any backdoors. I might not have many passengers in my car, I’m far from social afterall, but I do enjoy being able to open the back door and just toss in a jacket or a bag on those occassions I’m simply too lazy to open the boot (or it’s full of shit and my stuff won’t fit).
Avantasia and I drove far and wide together. Not only did our almost daily jaunts into Glasgow pack on the miles, but two trips to Hard Rock Hell in Wales, an unknown number of trips to Edinburgh as well as adventures to Newcastle, Troon and who knows where else and holidays to Nairn and a couple south of the border meant those miles really started to add up.
By the time I eventually sold her I was only about 200 miles of 100,000.
She’d lived a hard life in those 9 years. I think I replaced every suspension spring on her, two window regulators, a new stereo, a new fuel tank, new fuel lines, a new front wing to replace the one that was rusting away and who knows how many times I had to replace the brakes and tyres over the years and there was the sparkplug issue that tried killing me a few times too.
Oh, and being a VW the engine management light was on basically the entire time I owned her.
My biggest problem was, I really didn’t have much money to take care of her the way I wanted to. She was an amazing car who deserved better. I always said I’d keep her until she fell apart and by the time I sold her in 2019 for £500, there was as much wood in the doors as there was plastic and being held together with hopes and dreams.
The thing is though, regardless of all the things she had wrong with her in the end, I still thought she was the best car in the world. We’d been through a lot over the years and had a lot of good (and bad) memories together including accidentally reversing into a rock in the middle of a country lane one night I was dropping off a girl I was so desperately trying to impress. She was the car I drove as I grew up and became the person I am today.
But in 2016 I bought Diana, a white 2010 1.2 Polo – I never sold Avantasia, though. I couldn’t. So, for a few years I was the wanker on the street with two cars. Luckily, back then at least, insurance and fuel weren’t as pricey as they are now and it was actually an affordable option to keep both running at the same time even on minimum wage.
Diana was a different beast entirely. She was lighter, faster, way more manoeuvrable and was my vehicle of choice in 2018 when I tackled the NC500 but I never developed that same love for Diana as I had for Avantasia. Even now, I’d still buy another Golf if I could figure out a way to justify it to myself. The Polo was great, but it was a step down from the Golf in almost every single way.
She didn’t last long though. Diana was gone just over a year after we got back from the NC500 trip. I felt at the time I needed something a little more grown-up – and with air-conditioning.
Avantasia was great, but by 2019 she was falling apart. Diana was a young man’s car which is something I certainly wasn’t at the time. So, in September 2019, after a random Friday night gym session, I find myself wondering through the Arnold Clark forecourts (much to the dismay of the security guard) and came across a beautiful, low mileage Volvo V40 in Rebel Blue… with air-conditioning.
I still have the Volvo, I intend to keep her until the wheels fall off if I can help it but sadly, when Covid hit, Avantasia had to go to a new home. I could barely justify owning one car and not going anywhere never mind two. I was also saving for a mortgage back then so didn’t really want to try and balance that cost with a second car if I didn’t need it. I had hoped my Dad would take her, but he wasn’t for it. He had a shitty black Mercedes he’d take back and forth to work so wasn’t really interested in a broken down 15 year old MK V Golf.
As of writing, Avantasia’s MOT expired on 15th January 2021. Not long after I sold her I’d heard the engine blew. An issue I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with, but at the same time I couldn’t help but think maybe her new owner wasn’t as kind to her as I would have been. I reckon I could have gotten another couple of years out of her if I had just kept hold of her.