Well, ahem, I heard its young owner being interviewed on the radio, and she did say she cried when she saw what had happened because she loved her car so much. Didn't we all feel that way about our first car?
Nope. It was a pile cr@p. Triumph Toledo. If you "floored" it quickly the throttle cable would detach itself from the carb producing precisely the opposite effect of that intended. Even TLH was underwhelmed and her eldest brother owned a water soluble Lancia.
I certainly felt affection for what is, to date, my last car, My Fiat chunkychicken (Cinquecento). It made me smile, it was an emphatic unter-car car, 899cc of noddy nuttiness, and no one else ever wanted to borrow or drive it. But it enabled me to do pursue a hobby for a couple of years on a scale and intensity I would have been unable to contemplate had I not owned it. I think, perhaps, my fondest memory is visiting a minor public school in it to officiate and, post-match, having one of the boys declaim "Oh my God, sir, even our nanny has a better car than you!" If I needed a runabout I'd buy another one tomorrow.
