Little green car, Appreciation, what's important, Hillman Minx 1950, Car Review Hillman Minx 1950

 

Beautiful green car, Hillman Minx 1950, I love this car, my green machine
This is my beautiful little (very little) green car.  I love it, I know it is an inanimate object but I just love it.  I guess it because it is a bit like me, past its prime, not perfect, but curvy and fun.  

There are things about this car that every driver needs to experience.  It has a column change, some people don't even know what that is, but it's when the gear stick is part of the steering wheel, sometimes it needs a move called a "double-clutch".  Look it up if you have never experienced it, you should!  It has indicators that flick out the side of the door pillar with an almighty clunk when you put them on, often my passengers turn in shock and look out the back to see what has fallen off the car.   They don't turn off automatically.  The biggest issue with the indicators is that you need to remove your hand from the steering wheel (which you are holding on to for dear life as there is NO power steering), and the indicator switch is in the middle of the steering wheel, where the horn is!!!! The frequency of tooting the horn when putting the indicator on is incredible.  It has no seat belts but is fully legal, the driver is pretty much held in by the steering wheel.  It has ash trays in the back of the front seat for the smokers in the back!  It has a speedo in miles per hour rather than km per hour, so you just have to guess if you are speeding or not.  It has no oil filter, it is 1950 so was before oil filters existed.   The lights have full beam and dip, however, I am not sure either is very effective.  You must know how to do a hill start to drive this as it often stalls on the hills.  You need to watch the temperature gauge as it creeps up and you have to turn the heater on to get it down again.  I am no shrinking violet, I am not obese but I am a typical middle aged NZ woman, this means when I hop in this car, the seat (which cannot be moved forward or back) has very little room between me and the steering wheel, in fact, I have to squeeze in.

There is no way to hear or take a cellphone call in this car, I love that about it.  

The car only unlocks from the passenger side, so you need to lean over and unlock the passenger door.  No electric windows and the old pull out door handles that easily jam your skin when they flick back.

This car has a thing called a choke, another thing young drivers should have to experience at some point.

I purchased this car because, back in the 80s, I needed a car that would fit my family of 6 in it, so I bought a similar vehicle and put seat belts in it to hold the car seats.  We had a great time in that car, people laughed at us, but it never let us down.  When we purchased a new car, we truly appreciated things like central locking, electric windows, and power steering.

I took it to the supermarket for an outing, it turned lots of heads and bought lots of smiles to people's faces.  One lady said "What a cute car, has it got all the mod cons on it, like air conditioning?"  I replied, nicely, "no, that's what windows are for!"  As it is now listed as an classic car it is incredibly cheap to insure and register.  But windscreens are impossible to find!  So I am very careful.

Now my main car is a Toyota Camry Hybrid, my dad is a 92 year old mechanic, he says I am spoilt by the new car so find the little green car tricky.  He remembers a time when all cars were like this, he said stopping on a hill with a car with a bad handbrake at a red light in the 50s, was a real skill to hold the clutch and the gas pedals ready to go.   What a long way we have come with what we have.  It is really important to take a moment to look back and appreciate what we have in this life.  

Having this car makes me truly appreciate what type of life they lived back in the days before cellphones and internet.  This little green car does all it needs to get me from a to b, it has heaters and fans for my convenience, it starts every time, it has a simple motor that is easy to fix, I have to wonder about all of the extras we have in our vehicles today and how we have become less attached to the vehicle and less focussed on the joy and experience of the drive.  Yes, my little green car is a beautiful beautiful little car and I love it!


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