It has been a tough week as I have been saying my final farewells to Betsy, who was my first car that I bought in Germany. She has served me well all these years, except the times she broke down of course.
In the winter time she didn't like the cold, so I needed to jump start her with the cables. But once she started again, she was doing just fine. These days she is more reliable than ever.
I've always known that cars were special and could talk since watching Knight Rider as a boy and Kit was super cool. Therefore, I always try to talk to Betsy and see how she is doing so that she doesn't get in a bad mood or anything.
I think Betsy is still upset with my wife after she refuses to drive Betsy anymore after the last time she broke down and said she wasn't reliable anymore. Betsy took that hard, but I reassured her that I will drive her still and she is staying with us.
I quite often take Betsy to the car wash to polish her up nice and clean. I also enjoy to clean her inside to keep her in good shape.
In order to keep Betsy in good shape, I also bought the Haynes manual for her so I could do most of the service myself. It was fun to buy the parts and fit them all yourself. At least I know that it was done correctly and Betsy would be in good shape.
Sometimes when Betsy broke down, the manual was helpful to look what to do, but really I needed a ODB2 reader which could speak Betsy's computer language and it would sometimes give me some messages that I could try and decypher what was wrong. Sometimes I still needed my local mechanic as what causes the issue isn't always clear.
It is with a heavy heart that after nearly 8 years I part with Betsy after we have been through so much together. I remember the time I changed her battery which gave her a fresh lease of life. I always like topping up her water levels so that she could clean the windows. She always stayed cool and didn't need much coolant either.
We have travelled together everywhere me and Betsy and it must be nearly 200k kilometeres together across europe. Whilst other owners of Opel cars complained of unreliability and swapping to a BMW or Mercedes, I stuck with Betsy, I knew she wouldn't leave me stranded and so it was true, she didn't. She did chew through a few spare parts and cost a little in maintenance, but she was always there for me as cheap and reliable run around.
But now the time has finally come that I need to say goodbye and it is much harder than I thought. Betsy I will miss you and the new owner says you will have a good owner once you have been exported from Germany to a new promised land, probably somewhere warmer too.
Take care Dear Betsy!
Thanks for reading!
Credits:
All photos are my own unless stated.
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