Hey, WD! Check this out!

You gonna buy it?

I would, if I needed a car.

Hubby would, if he could drive standard.

Natalie

Wish that I could. ~150,000 miles? Just a baby for that motor.

...

I showed it to hubby. Like you, he drooled.

:-)

Natalie

Now, did you have a GTS, or an FX-16?

This car has the same engine (4A-GE, DOHC 1.6L TViS) that my Corolla GTS has, with upgraded suspension and stiffening over the FX/FX-16.

Since it's about 2/3 of the car of my Corolla, it must *FLY!*

"Hachiroku ????" ,

It's an automatic FX-16 (hubby can't drive stick)

Natalie

"Wickeddoll®" wrote in

You mean he doesn't want to learn. I learned to drive with a stick, at age

14 (yeah, juniors could get licensed at 14 in California at the time....."to and from school or work or on the business of a parent or employer.")

If you two ever go to England, I'd advise learning a stick, because auto trannys in rental cars mean the car is twice as expensive to rent. (and autos are few and far between). And driving with a stick is a lot more interesting than simply pushing on the throttle and steering. (Though I don't have a stick anymore, I drove VWs for years.)

"mack" ...

Well, he's going to be 48 in November, so that's quite a different mindset than a teenager. The younger you are, the easier it is to adapt. He tried to do it when he was a teen - several times. Just does not have the coordination.

I wouldn't even try to drive in England. On the freaking left?!

Those red buses look cool.

:-P

Natalie

I didn't drive while there - although by the end of the trip I certainly felt like I could've (I was the huge, detailed map-in-lap navigator & never got us lost!), but we did rent a bunch of cars for sightseeing in various regions. (Usually took trains for the longer distances, to get from area to area.) We requested automatics, since figured it'd be enough of a deal to drive on the left, without trying to shift with the left hand, no less. No probs getting the automatics - OTOH, we had it all set up weeks before we left home. We were upgraded to a BMW & a Rover a couple of the times because they'd run out of little red Fords. :-)

Anyway.... by the time you come back home, driving on the left may actually seem normal/more natural. I can't decide if it's because we start on the left when reading, because I'm left-handed, or what. The most difficult thing is remembering to look to the right instead of to the left fro oncoming traffic. Well... except the British road engineers are overly (to put it mildly!) fond of roundabouts - & that could be tricky - going into it backwards.

IMO what's cool is that the U.K. is just as one had always imagined it from photos seen, books read, programs viewed, etc. IOW - that isn't hype, it's real. There really are villages full of thatched roof houses, roads with watersplashes, & occasionally cows - or ducks, or whatever - ambling across or down the country roads. People really do say, "Ta, love", etc. Never mind the history - original buildings vs. reproductions. And yes, there really are those red double-decker buses in London, of course. But precious few of the classic red phone booths left.

Cathy

Heh, heh...I am sorely tempted to say something...but MULTIPLE fwaps would indubitably ensue.

"sharx35" ...

Smart move.

:-)

Natalie

Nat, I still say it's because he's not interested in learning. I'd make an analogy to the millions of women who say they can't do anything mechanical, and then sit down at a sewing machine. I finally learned to sew (out of desperation and the cost of readymade draperies and upholstery) and it was much more difficult to master than a lot of mechanical devices. As for driving on the left with a stick (and shifting with your left hand) it took a bit of doing when I had to learn to do all this on a Sunday morning in downtown London near Marble Arch. And roundabouts are terrifying the first few times! But I ended up driving the motorways at

90 mph (in the second lane, because in the fast lane the motorists thought I must have the handbrake on and couldn't wait to pass me), and got so comfortable with driving on the left that five years later when we went to Ireland, the experience came back within a minute and I was totally comfortable driving that way.. (Oh, and going on 48 is really not too old to learn....I was 20 years older than that when we went to England and I had the challenge of driving "backwards".)

Of course! It makes all your senses work in reverse and it's like combing your hair in a mirror that won't reverse the image you have. but you DO get used to it.

Cathy said the above - I think your ability to get an auto trans. was because you booked it early. I think you might have had a hard time if you walked in off the street and tried to rent one.

Why didn't I realize before that you're a southpaw.... so am I (and all the world's 'better' folks, of course.) We came into our own a few years ago when all the presidential candidates were lefties!

The most difficult

Oh Yeah! That'll kill you quicker than a gunshot! Now, they have signs painted at a lot of intersections for the tourists (not just us but other Europeans who drive on the right) saying "LOOK RIGHT" which I almost took to mean "comb your hair and straighten your tie". All you need is to have a fender brush by your pantsleg one time and you'll learn fast to look right.

Well... except the British road engineers are overly (to

Ewwww! The first few roundabouts (traffic circles for you uninitiated) are enough to be a permanent cure for constipation! But once you get accustomed to them, and realize that you don't have to stop at a hundred stop signs, just go around and keep going, it becomes second nature.

Agreed! But if you really want to go back in time with even narrower country lanes, go to Ireland, commune with the sheep grazing and the ruined farmhouses which dot the countryside on the peninsulas in the west, and enjoy the forty different green colors on the landscape, and enjoy the friendliness of the locals (who seem to be much more understandable than the rural Brits).

People really do say, "Ta, love", etc. Never

Yep. I think they sold them all to US! (and everyone now has a cellphone up to their ear.)

"mack" ...

Hubby's intellectually gifted, but a total spaz. I think his mind scares him into thinking he can't do it. He kept passing on cars he *really* wanted, because they were sticks.

I still think I'd kill someone, probably myself included.

I know how to drive stick, but I would be very afraid to try that, along with driving on the left side, at the same time!

And you guys are the only ones in your "right mind" huh? :-P

You're not helping.

New England (not surprisingly) towns/cities have plenty of those, but call them "rotaries." We didn't have any problem with those while living there.

Well, if we get to Europe, I planned to see all of the British areas.

So where in the US are the booths?

Natalie

Ummm... let me clarify that bit. ;-) The detailed map was huge, not me!

Scroll on down for rest of my replies...

, but we did rent a bunch of cars for sightseeing in

I only vaguely remember that. But it's quite true that we are special. ;-)

A large percentage of artistically inclined people are lefties - musicians, artists... And years ago I read an article that reported research that found that lefties' brain synapses can regenerate better than those of righties'. For ex., lefties who have strokes can often regain their use of speech better because their brains rewire from one hemisphere to the other more readily.

OTOH... we can be a bit too special: lefties tend to have allergies & other auto-immune disorders way more often that righties. And add in my gender, & I'm *way* up there, re: autoimmuine disorders. And I do have a zillion alllergies, along with Raynaud's Disease, hyperthryoidism, & MVP. And then of course there's the fact that so many things are made with right-handed people in mind...

;-)

All you need is to have a

That's true, re: being a pedestrian, but I was thinking of driving, too - esp. at intersections.

This sounds very much like the extreme western region of England - the country lanes in Cornwall, where one "eats weeds" - since the lanes are so narrow that the hedgerows are brushing your face if the car windows are open. ;-)

And we often saw sheep & cows, or sheep & goats - or whatever combo, in the same fields.

and the ruined

When flying to London the first time, the pilot mentioned when we were over Ireland. I looked out the window & realized why it's dubbed "the Emerald Isle." :-) A friend went to the Dingle Peninsula, & brought back photos of fuchsias, growing wild.

and enjoy the

To keep London Bridge company? ;-)

Cathy

Natalie - we have to get you to Europe - or at least to Great Britain, since it sounds like you'd love to go. My niece is also petrified of flying. But... in the last couple of years she's been to Europe & has flown cross-country to LA. She asks her doctor for a Xanax prescription each time, so she can actually get to where she wants to go.

Cathy

"Cathy F." ...

Hubby's next assignment (either 2008 or 2009) is likely to be overseas, but with my luck, it'll probably be Asia.

And Serax is my sedative of choice. :-)

Natalie

I really do hate to admit it, in this thread--but I, too, am a leftie. Groan.