Yeah. He was my 2nd close friend in as many years to take his own life. The 1st was way more devastating as we had a much closer bond- and had nothing to do with cars. His daughter was old enough that I could consult him on navigating my own. I'm still a little shut down from that one and it's been 2 years. Time, I suppose. But there hasn't yet been enough.

Sorry to spill the tea as the kids say. I'd give any car I own to have either one of them back.

After getting the E53, I decided to give myself a distraction as well. I have a smaller garage so I needed to find something weird and fun to tinker with. 1982 VW Rabbit Pickup, also known as the "caddy"

LOVE THAT! :cool: My brother had an '81 Rabbit. We used to deliver the afternoon papers to machines all over my town while jammed out to the Beetles Greatest Hits. Some of the best times of my life! :thumbup:

Thanks! I've been looking for years for a clean one and finally found one. I have a nice little swap kit to go in and have some useable passing power. So many instances of Farm trucks, paper deliveries, parts delivery trucks.

VW still make it... (the Caddy, I mean)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Caddy

The name Caddy makes more sense when you know that the base car the Caddy was originally derived from is known in the rest of the world as the "VW Golf". ;)

And so it was after the 90's or so when they suddenly rebranded the Rabbit to be a Golf- Which made ZERO sense to my teenage brain. Besides the memories of the paper route with my brother, I am fond of the 'PS' picture in the back of my dad's Road and Track magazines. Usually a funny picture, this was the rear deck of the same car but missing the 't'. It read 'Rabbi'. My affinity for dad jokes started early I suppose. :dunno:

Yes, I'm aware overseas they do. Stateside it ended a long time ago.

At this point, the X5 is the newcomer, so it's sort of the current distraction rather than the other way around :)

I still own my 2002 6-speed maxima (hence the username) and this was my first car I got when I was 16. Still looks and drives like new and puts a smile on my face with 250k miles. I have no hesitation driving this on long distances and have no intention of getting rid of it. It doesn't currently *need* anything, but I did purchase an all new cooling system as preventative maintenance since it's all original aside from the two radiator hoses.

https://i.imgur.com/C7JXHhr.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/VuVJ7jO.jpg?1

My tow/off road vehicle is a 2018 Titan Pro-4x. Very comfy on long drives but obviously not great fuel economy, although the X5 doesn't do much better.

https://i.imgur.com/zYOCTSk.jpg?1

And I do have a modern BMW to maintain as well - a G01 X3. It's my mom's and I do all the maintenance/work to it. She drives about 25k miles a year and I plan to be overly enthusiastic about maintenance like I am on my vehicles. It's crazy how the new X3 is larger than the E53!

https://i.imgur.com/iwra6PL.jpg?1

E53 is regarded as a distraction (after many others) by my wife
 

I've been obsessed by vehicles for my whole life, and spent most of my after-work hours around the car hobby since the '60's. I even made an attempt to become a professional mechanic, trained in a GM (Buick, specifically) tech school in the early '70's, but never worked as one (the Gm dealerships objected to my longhair and moustache...I refused to shave, out of principle). Sorta funny, since I've been mostly regarded as a "-redneck" ever since (hippy-redneck, redneck-redneck, old man-redneck, etc., though I've never lived on a ranch or farm).

Anyway, I have had obsessional feelings towards my cars/trucks over the years, often going too far into modding them, and usually never selling/trading them, unless totalled (one was T-boned, two were stolen/totalled by my brothers). I have traded several for other vehicles, usually to make the wife (at the time) happy (if that's even possible), when absolutely necessary. But, I'll normally have a favorite or two that're untouchable.

My '66 Chevelle was my latest obsession, at least it was until '08, when I quit drag-racing (perceived job-insecurity and/or upcoming retirement sapping $$ needed to maintain it, nearing old age/overwork sapping my energy to race, and wifely pressure to stop, were all factors). So, the Chevelle sat untouched in the garage for 13 years.

Meanwhile, I piddled working on two daily drivers, and two pickups (and ignoring two other ex-daily drivers, sitting in the yard...a Fiero, and an Olds Quad 4 coupe, that my wife wouldn't let me get rid of), and resisted selling or parting-out the Chevelle. I wanted it to continue on, either racing, street driving, or both. So, I waited.

Interim period: And I built a semi-offroad squareback trailer, when I missed the racing/building/racing cycle, after three years. It is still an ongoing distraction.

My next-door neighbor, an EE, was always working on his small fleet of vehicles (Subaru, Hyundai, two dirt bikes), often using my lift to yank out, rebuild, and replace the Subaru's engine). Trying to perfect it, I guess. But when he got the dirt-bike racing fever (at 40+ ??), I suggested drag-racing as a substitute. Or street-modding with a classic car. Over the years, he became more hooked on the idea. So the swap was born.

He found a '01 X5, that was primarily used for highway travel to and from West Texas oil-lease properties. Hi-mileage, and travel on hard-packed alkaline soils, keeping it mostly in good shape. Over the next 3+ years, he restored to like new the cooling (except for the clutch fan), suspension, transmission, and finally the Vanos/timing chain & guides/engine seals. Then we swapped cars.

He moved a few miles away, so I'll have to visit the Chevelle as he converts it to a streetable resto-mod, retaining many of the racing pieces it has, and converting it to fuel-injection with an overdrive tranny (goodbye carburetor, trans-braked Powerglide, and 4.88 gears w/full spool). From what I've tested, and knowing his work, there'll be little for me to work on the X5, at least for a while. The wife's already pissed about the "unnecessary" fan conversion.

My toys are miniature :D