Kombi heaven...

We have been enjoying the ups and downs of owning a 30-year-old vehicle.

I have always fancied a Volkswagen Kombi, and we had one in the UK for a while. So when I was looking for a car to purchase for the time we were over in NZ, I was drawn to a 1974 white Kombi that was on an Internet auction site. We were still in the UK at the time but my folks managed to contact the vendor and checked it out for us. It looked pretty good for an old vehicle and several days later we were the proud owners of Dubbin.

The first time we saw Dubbin ‘in the flesh’ was when we were picked up in her as we arrived in the country.

It has its quirks and is not perfect, but we can live with the idiosyncrasies for the fun a pleasure driving around in it gives us. It costs way more than we needed to spend for an ‘ordinary’ car and we have spent even more to keep it going, but as long as there are no major problems it should retain its value.

My brother and father are both good with their hands and both have experience with cars. Dad built my first car, a kitset Lotus Super Seven replica. So they have proved invaluable in the general maintenance of the old girl.

We took her away for our first holiday recently and we found the whole experience very enjoyable. We are looking forward to more trips in the future.