There always comes a moment when it is time to retire a vehicle or sell it on. For me, it is time to retire The Beast. It’s a rather sad moment. The Passat and I have been a large number of places and I’ve had to spend quite a bit on surgery to keep it going safely.
While this technically wasn’t the first car I owned it was the first one I actually wanted to own. Before I needed to transport p>2 around I had always owned motorbikes. There was a temporary period in my life when I owned a Nissan Micra, this lasted about five months and I’d rather not talk about it.
The Beast arrived in my life in 2006. It already had 90,000 miles on the clock and I think it was used as a rep’s car. There were a couple of odd things about it where paint had been redone poorly and there was evidence that gave rise the to suspicion that it had had a small side impact at some point. Anyway, mechanically it was sound and had a nice “pull” to it.
See this communication for a discussion of repairs and general things Beast related.
The Beast has transported me to the following locations:
- Hildesheim, Germany (twice)
- Le Mans, Carrouge and the beaches of Normandy
- Bordeaux
- Liverpool
- The Kingdom of Fife
- Carlisle
- The Lake District (four times)
- Lincolnshire
- The Midlands
- Cornwall
- The ‘Folks, Nor and Suf
- London town many times
- RAF Cranwell
It feels like a sad thing. Retiring this car. I’ve owned it for over ten years now. It’s seen me through many phases of my life. But it is now time to move on. To accept something newer.
I know I have a video from inside the Beast travelling around the Le Mans circuit in 2008. I will continue to look for it and post it below when I find it.
So after taking the total to 215,000 miles I will say: Sleep well, Beast.
