Originally Posted by
MrChocky
I know, I know. I'm prone to flights of fancy about wanting certain things. I'm definitely going to sit on this for a long time, to see how much reality sinks in. And for practical purposes, I'm a least a year out.
So, some background. I'm in the Bay Area - in fact, that guy in Alameda with the black one is really really close. This is most definitely, (at least in some of the cities), Tesla country. In fact, I have some very strong (if indirect links) to Tesla that I won't go into here. For a lot of reasons, it's not practical for me to own one here, so if this happens, it's going to be after a move elsewhere.
So some background. I'm not, by any stretch, a "car guy" - despite watching numerous Netflix shows. I'm probably not going to be doing traditional mechanical work - I'm much more at home with an screwdriver than a wrench. So that means buddying up with someone to coerce/pay to do the major work, or find a shop close by that knows how to work on such things.
In the meantime, I'm slowly trying to read the accumulated wisdom here - well noted things about "paying up", issues with the originals, and in general things you expect to go wrong with a 40 year old car. I also spotted today the buying guide. I'm also painfully aware of how difficult it can be to buy a "regular" car,
My present car is a VW Eos, which has a fantastically complex hard top convertible roof - which was amazing until it broke. I spent 6 months trying to research, fix and generally poke at it. I found out a number of things that hadn't be published anywhere, and got a lot of abuse from a forum. I couldn't find anyone locally who'd even want to touch it - realistically it needs 2 or maybe even 3 people to work on it! And probably the repair would be more than the car is now worth - so that all left a bad taste. The current plan is to drive that until it gives up. The other car is a much more practical Subaru Outback.
So some practical questions (I'm sure I'll have more):
- What's rear visibility like when backing? I never got around to fitting a reversing camera, and the EOS's rear is high and rear window is small.
- Is it a "compact". I know the doors much it much easier to park in confined spaces.
- Can a booster seat be stowed in the area behind the seats (small child)
- There's no computer/ECU as such is there? I think this ought to be obvious from 1981, but I have to ask.
- Non leather interiors - I'm vegan, so any rework here is gonna be fabric or faux. Has anyone done this?
- My final concern here with the car is that it's gonna attract a huge amount of attention, especially as a DD. It's not really a car you'd want to leave unattended for a long, is it?
And to cap it off, some more about me:
I'm a software engineer, in fact, an exceptional one. I have a ton of knowledge, but something which is relevant here is control and network systems - for my day job, I wrote software for robots. Slightly less relevant on an older car, but still - and yes, I saw the digital dashboard project.
Also, I happen to be an accomplished technical writer - I'm great at gathering stuff, and presenting it in complete and thorough form.
Thanks! Appreciate any feedback.