Hi Pelicanistas
Six months to the day since I started my little UK based blog-ette about my American motoring adventures I thought I might share my car love Stateside.
Its got quite a lot of Porsche 911 content it also features a wide variety of Audi's, BMWs, real Mini's, Mercedes, Volkswagens plus the odd bit of Autocross, Race Cars, Automotive Wrenching & Home Improvement and a couple of weather related events thrown in for good measure.
Should it be deemed OT I'll understand if the mods choose relocate it elsewhere.
Having recently moved myself, family, two dogs and 129 pieces of 'stuff' 3500 miles to the Right Hand side of the Atlantic I think I can handle the virtual upheaval.
Anyway.......
Back in July 2014 I started writing...
As a soon to be Ex-Expat Brit I thought I’d post a few pictures as a visual timeline of my motoring experiences in New Jersey from 2004 to present as we prepare to return to the UK in September.
Always suffering from what my family refers to as ‘itchy car key syndrome’ I’ve had an eclectic sometimes eccentric variety of rides while Stateside, oddly enough few of which have been American.
Not knowing a soul in New Jersey on a social level, cars and car forums quickly became a great way of meeting people and as a result I’ve made some good friends along the way.
2004 – 2005
Can’t seem to find any pictures of the Ford Explorer or Jeep Liberty that were my company car’s and they were a bit boring.
2005-2008
VW Golf GTi
While Europe was enjoying the much improved Mark V GTi North America was still putting up with the sluggish Mark IV and I made the mistake (not my first as you will see) of leasing a 1.8T with a NJ traffic friendly autobox. Dull is not the word. Badly built would be two better words to describe it.
Assembled in Brazil my particular GTi was definitely a Friday car suffering a laundry list of problems from Day 1 when the A/C crapped out on me on a beautifully humid 95f July day. Coupled with the memory of 2” of standing water in the footwell after a particularly violent rain storm this was a 3 year automotive period I’ll happily forget about.
This hapless steed also introduced me to a lovely old gent and his equally ancient Nissan.
Doing my bit for international relations I tried to avoid a major diplomatic incident.
Suffice to say I failed.
Reset 21 accident-free years clock to zero. Thanks Mr. Myopia
Edited: Jan 25th 2015. Added long lost picture.
2008 Audi TT 2.0 FSI DSG
While Yank V8’s and V6’s are still popular here I could never quite get my head around the build quality or the 1970’s amusement arcade interior styling that incorporated reverse Tardis engineering.
A good example being the Ford Mustang V6 I hired for a touring trip round Maine and New Hampshire. I think the barn would have handled better than the ‘stang
Amidst a sea of beige Japanese 4 door sedans European Coupe’s have a bit more exclusivity on the U.S Eastern Seaboard and the launch of the Mark 2 Audi TT caught my interest.
Before RWD devotees laugh at the much maligned TT bear in mind my everyday motoring pretty much looked like this.
And as my budget would only stretch to the FWD I justified leasing one on the grounds that as bends and curves are in short supply in my urban bit of New Jersey a FWD car would not be at much of a loss to the slightly more powerful AWD V6.
