My drive

Your car reflects your own personality. Many people stick adamantly to one brand or even one model for certain cycles. I was once Honda fans starting with Accord, as it progressively grew upscale and upmarket. At cycle #2 the Accord were getting bigger by the end of 1990s, then switched to Civic. In between Civic's 2 cycles, I had a great knack to have a balance of ride-handling composure. Traits that were only certain French car have, entered mid-class Peugeot. Another 2 cycles of 505 Pug, 505 GR and 505 GTi. Then, as my family grew it was the turn of a series of minibuses.

Initiated by downscaled 2 wheel drive Chevrolet Blazer of South Asian version, which had managed to break its timing belt at 3,000 km a week prior to new year eve. Bad experience on American car, the only one ever!

From then on priority was on reliability, even if it would be a bland Toyota! Peace of mind having baby on board and hardly time to do car tinkering resulted in almost 4 cycles of Toyota minibuses. Have I given up the ride-handling composured of European car? How could I?

So does it really tell your own personality by looking at the car you are driving? Urban traffic are much worse these days. Bumper to bumper traffic jam is an everyday phenomena. It has extended to out of town driving, during the holiday period. My criteria now is small engined minibus preferably 1,600 cc, auto trans and has high visibility.

While the European car can sit idle during the working day, and only once a while it is driven. In fact many people do this. You have one or two daily driven cars and few others park in the garage sitting idle most of the time.

Here is the list of my drive in the past:

1. Fiat sedan 125, 1970. 1,600 cc DOHC I4 a gem engine in its time, it gets to 120 km/h without fuss at low NVH (Noise Vibration and Harshness) level. Much resemble to the 1980's Honda Accord. Albeit with front drive, SOHC 1,600 cc and much more sophisticated production technology. A lot more robust car. We lost Fiat as it managed to leak fuel from carburetor sitting on top of its engine. It was one of its vulnerability, then it caught fire. I was still shoehorning my driving ability @ time.
   
2. Opel rekord sedan, 1974. 1,900 cc CIH (Camshaft In Head) I4 engine, it's a good decent car. A much better car than its Japanese car, at that era. Though I have hardly any mind's recollection on its driving impression. Except that I learned to drive on this Opel.
   
3. Toyota Corolla E20 (2nd generation) sedan, 1973. I have covered its legendary 1,166 cc 3K I4 OHV (pushrod) engine elsewhere as its bigger engine is shared with Toyota Hilux.
   
4. Toyota Corolla TE27 (2nd generation) coupe, 1975.
5. Holden Belmont (HQ wagon), 1977. A large station wagon with equally large 3,800 cc I6 (6 cylinders inline) engine. This is my first drive on the road, where I get lots of practice on it. It has huge space at the back. The car gives me a good judgement and drive feeling to manoeuvre the big car in such tiny road we have over here. That include judgement to pass other vehicle in marginal spot amidst heavy oncoming traffic. Good learning experiences, but this Australian car is just a notch better than other Japanese car and much below those of European's of the era.
   
6. Toyota Crown sedan, 1978. 2,600 cc I6 engined luxury car, it has ample of noise dampening material apart of its quiet engine and equally good dampening suspension system. Resulting in a nice ride (not in handling department though) and comfort (front and rear air-cond.).
   
7. Toyota Landcruiser, 3,800 cc I6 1978. Utilitarian beast, go anywhere vehicle.
8. Citroen GS Break (wagon). 1980. Flat 4 cyl 1,222 cc, a flying carpet ride. It has a marvelous hydropneumatic suspension, passing a bar judder is unique sensation. The suspension is highly sophisticated with two stages dampening using both Nitrogen and Mineral Fluid, it enable to have equal load on each wheel. One would be hard to notice should the car running with a flat tyre, it could even be driven with three wheels only! Invented in 1954 and has since seen many usages on luxury cars such as Mercedes Benz and Rolls-Royce by 1970s.
   
9. Honda Accord sedan, 1980. Honest well integrated designed and built quality, an affordable familly car with matching performance despite of its front wheel driven format.
   
10. Toyota Corolla sedan E70 (4th generation), 1980. 1,290 cc 4K-U I4 OHV. Bland urban sedan but now is still a popular choice for those petrol head around the world serving as modification platform.
    
11. VW microbus, 1982 Brazilian version. Noisy version from its German sourced van.
12. Toyota Landcruiser Hardtop, 3,800 cc I6 1983. See number 7 above; now with power steering and better stopping ability yet no disc brake at local market.
13. Honda Accord 1.6 (2nd generation) sedan, 1982. EL-1 engine. Better equipped yet less enthusiastic driving machine than its predecessor.
    
14. Mazda 323 hatchback, 1983.
15. Peugeot 505 GR sedan, 1985. 1995 cc 4-cylinder ZEJK "Douvrin" engine (OHC, Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection) had 110 hp (81 kW). Nice huge comfortable seats, good handling and above all excellent ride.
    
16. Mitsubishi Sapporo two door hardtop, 1983. powered by 4G63T I4 turbo injection SOHC. When not in its turbo lag mode, the turbine whistle is quite entertaining experience. Corner ability is appalling as its tail is easily provoked for sideways.
    
17. Mercedes Benz w 124 E300, 1986. Over Engineering at its best, eerie quite and solid stability at illegal speed. 
    
18. Mercedes Benz G-Wagen G280, 1986. Huge beast and surprisingly nimble at the right moment.
    
19. Toyota Kijang minibus, 1987. Reliable full stop.
20. Mazda 323 hatchback, 1987
21. Volvo 740 GLE, 1987. So brick wall but forgiving.
    
22. Peugeot 505 GTi sedan, 1988. 2165 cc 4-cylinder ZDJL "Douvrin" engine (OHC, Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection, Compression ratio: (9.8:1) ) with 130 hp (96 kW) . Top speed: 185 km/h (115 MPH). See above number 15., equipped with one of the best yet vulnerable ZF Automatic Transmission which has engine brake to enhance spirited performance.
    
23. BMW e28 520i sedan, 1989. 125 Hp I6 M-20 engine. Silky smooth, fuel efficient urban sedan whilst offering more than adequate indecent high speed chaser.
24. Honda Civic sedan, 1990. Front wheel drive version to a lesser degree compare to BMW above, a nice little performer without doubt.
25. Toyota (Great) Corolla 1.6 SE-G sedan E100 (7th generation), 1992. 1,498cc 5A-FE I4 16v DOHC. Bland reliablity with a tad of performance some what marred with inadequate chassis technology.
    
26. Honda Civic sedan, 1992. Brute power, great handling; BMW chaser yet very noisy and choppy ride.
27. BMW e36 318 sedan, 1993. Comfortable yet inadequate horsepower.
28. Toyota Kijang minibus, 1994. Reliable full stop.
29. Chevrolet Blazer 2wd SUV, 1996
30. Toyota Kijang minibus, 1997. Reliable full stop.
    
31. Honda Accord 2.2L (5th generation) sedan, 1997. F22B-1. Up to these days still returning above 30 MPG on highway, the last legendary classic of its kind.
32. Volvo 960 sedan turbo, 1997. 940 in US market. Decent performer with booming engine sound, great inspiring stopping power.
    
33. Toyota Kijang minibus, 2000. Reliable and low depreciation.
34. Toyota Kijang minibus, 2003. Reliable and low depreciation.
35. Toyota Avanza minibus, 2004. Reliable and low depreciation.
36. Suzuki APV minibus, 2006. Under dog work horse with huge cargo loading. Cheap and plentiful spareparts.
37. Honda Jazz (Fit) 1.5 VTEC hatchback, 2007. We all know about it.
38. Daihatsu Granmax minibus 1.5 VVTi, 2008. Decent racing engine work horse with huge cargo loading. Coming up the old body Nissan Serena 2011.......etc.....
    
    

While most memorable drives are French cars, they are notoriously vulnerable workhorses. They let you down when you depend on them, my European drive is now the brickwall Volvo. This is not the one that shares its floorpan with Fords, its rear wheel drive. And yes its classic 960 Turbo 1997, in US market this is known as 940T.

The other thing worth mentioning is that a reliable car is my priority king. And apparently it show from my drive list it is Toyota. The brand always shows up at JD Power list year to year. Kijang prior to ECU era is hard to beat, it refuses to breakdown. Literally with abusive use, the car just keep going, even with hardly maintenance at all.