I should admit here that I'm a little bit anal about documentation (well, I'm a little bit anal about most things) and that all of my cars have had one of those foolscap folders that you used to carry your school art project around in for all the paperwork. I like to think that this stems from the Saturday job I had in a library as a teenager.
The day I picked HVF up, I spent a very happy evening sorting through the inch-thich pile of paperwork that came with it into date order and reading everything and I had some very profound thoughts. Well, I thought so anyway...
First of all, my archivist's mind was very excited to discover the correspondence between the first owner and the dealer that sold him the car, back in October '86. It was a pleasure to find, and proof that this car has belonged to careful, meticulous people - just the sort of people you want to buy a second-hand car from.
I knew that the car had spend most of its life in the hands of one family, but now I had proof - down to handwritten notes saying things like, "Just tell the garage to fix it - I'll sort out the bill - Love Dad." A heartwarming moment.
There were also a lot of bills for really minor things, which prove quite how much money you can spend on a car if you have a mind to. Bills for changing light bulbs and wiper blades... the sort of stuff most people would do themselves.
But then, this is a lucky car.
You see, I knew from the seller that this car had had the engine and box rebuilt 30,000 miles ago, but seeing the bills for this work really put the work into perspective for me. Yes, the work was done 30,000 miles ago... back in 1994. So first of all, I now know that for the last 13 years the car has been enjoying a gentle semi-retirement compared to the 100,000 miles it had already put on. Second, I know that a decision was made to spend around £2,000 on an eight year old car. A quick look at eBay shows eight-year-old cars of a similar size to the BX to be worth around the £500 mark.
So, this decision was made and the car was given another 100,000 miles rather than being sent to the scrapheap. And it was this decision that will have saved it for posterity. Even I wouldn't argue that a BX is a classic car right now, but they will be one day - and this one will be there, because of that decision taken when it was an old banger.
Documentation is important. It's nice to know that our classic car has survived - it's even nicer to know why it's survived.
All content copyright (c) 1998-2007 Stuart Hedges
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