Look
I know you’re a little skeptical after such a headline of hubris — but I had to electro-shock you into stopping by somehow right?
Of course the car likely did it too if you’re honest.
How do I know?
Because I just bought it and already it’s a magnet of conversation - as if a visitor stopped by from a lost time.
Driving it north from San Jose two weeks ago, with no license plates but plenty of grins and thumbs ups - through San Francisco and across the mighty Golden Gate Bridge - I’ve already experienced too many lessons not to share.
I Wanted
a fun, easy to work on old car for Saturday drives, and I got that to be sure, but I simply had not counted on the joy.
The joy it would bring other people.
I also just recently stumbled onto Robert Putnam’s data-heavy social capital book ‘Bowling Alone,’ so I’m attuned to the instant community I’ve just joined — even if the car’s tuning still needs some work (pause to respect the loud backfire I hear after turning off the engine).
BOOM
The car of note is a 1976 BMW model 2002 and is my sixteenth, but in an extremely small time frame is turning out to be the most socially connecting - before it’s even registered.
Or smogged.
Or has working brake lights.
Or bumpers.
Oh and I need to fix the odometer.
Like I REALLY need to fix the odometer - especially since a big part of the draw of the car was the low miles, so if the miles aren’t accurate.. oh boy.
And I gotta fix the stereo. Because I caved and already bought a couple cassettes to play in the old deck.
It's gonna be a regular time machine baby!
Just the appearance of this car on my street has started more conversations than I’ve started on my own in two and a half years in my neighborhood.
And I’m not exactly an introvert.
Speaking of Time
It’s been widely noted in recent years what with door dash, Uber rides, and Amazon, that modern folk have an absolute dearth of free time.
Free time to create new art, write songs of existential longing, or to explore and repair relationships?
Nah.
That all sounds like work.
The modern man and woman has been suckered into filling free time with doom-scrolling, creating tik-tok shorts, and of course raging online.
This old car ain’t having it.
It requires time.
In just three short weeks of ownership here’s what I have less time for:
- Listening to news (instead I listen to carburetor rebuild tutorials)
- Scrolling X (instead I scroll eBay for the many hard-to-find parts this baby needs)
- Watching funny videos in hopes of a good night sleep (instead I watch odometer repair videos and wake up with the phone under the bed and me having enjoyed a glorious full night sleep).
In short, I have a kid.
But the difference is I can still have a kid, and I guarantee ya the kid and I would be washing the car on Saturdays and loving it.
Together.
Maybe that’s it - maybe our devices by nature are solitary, whereas maintaining an old car requires other people.
In fact the Saturday after I bought it I needed a second hand to help with getting the rear bumper to line up so I called an old friend and we got it installed.
He stayed after helping and we sat and talked for hours
Longer than we’ve talked in maybe ten years.
Hmm.
So the car requires time, and attention - but what it takes in minutes it gives back in uniquely priceless returns.
Like what, exactly you say?
- Satisfaction - ie. a HUGE feeling of accomplishment upon fixing even the tiniest repair.
- $ savings by having done it myself
- Learning and problem solving
- Exercising manual dexterity
- Inviting strangers’ help and advice (whether or not I asked for it!)
- Talking to people
Hold on maybe I’m onto something - if we’ve rightly found that BOTH modern devices AND 50 year old cars require lots of attention, what’s the key difference then?
It’s in the payout.
Yep.
Creating tik-tok videos is certainly a skill, but doomscrolling, raging online about events halfway around the world, and choosing DoorDash over the joy of cooking, what payback do these modern tasks yield?
- No feeling of accomplishment.
- No community of neighbors chiming in.
- No increased manual dexterity - in fact too often the opposite.
And guaranteed no friends catching up afterwards.
In short, modern time-sucking options leave us empty, alone, and addicted.
Too many single women.
Too many angry young men.
Too many people with no time for real friendships.
Because really what are we doing with all this extra energy convenience provides? We’re giving it to our devices.
And they’re giving nothing back.
The little car gives back.
My previous old car did too.
Oh how I forgot.
Old cars, houses, farms, and raising kids to name a few - all give back what they take, and much more.
And maybe the reason this car was right for me in this moment is because it’s that perfect piece of nostalgia - it refuses to bow to modernism.
In short the car is a rebel. It’s a middle finger to modernity, wrapped in stylish and subtle german sheet metal of the 1970’s.
Also it could be that it’s just cool.
Here’s hoping the cool little conversation starter leads to a wife, and I’ll be sharing more than just a blog post.
Vroom vroom!
