[V8] Rolling the fleet

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Well, it IS a perfect world.

I've had many flirtations with alternatives to our aging fleet. I know 
that sooner or later it will become necessary to replace one or the 
other or both of our cars as daily drivers.  In actual fact, I am quite 
certain that the outside limit for our car's use may well be 2019.  
There are a couple of reasons for this line of thought.  One is that the 
wagon will then be 25 years old and likely will have 235,000 miles 
accumulated at current usage rate. It will at that time require a major 
engine service...timing belt and all that jazz.  Unless it gets painted 
in the next two years, it will be VERY worn looking also.

The V8 will then be TWENTY-NINE years old.  I have no idea how much work 
the car might require by that time, as I think it will need a timing 
belt service at least by then, certainly on the basis of age if nothing 
else.  I think it likely that parts may become an issue then, especially 
front rotors and if the brakes need to be replaced entirely, that will 
require a complete re-engineering of the front axle....oh! Where is BIRA 
when we need them the most?

So I really think there is an outside limit to how long these cars will 
remain in service here with us.  In 2019 I will also be 75 and by that 
time I am sure we will want to go back to one vehicle.

Just when I have begun to despair at finding a suitable replacement 
vehicle, after a very lengthy search through automobiledom, the Germans 
have once again come to my rescue. At least that's what my son has 
recently told me.  He sent me an email with the PERFECT link, and once 
more Stuttgart rides over the horizon with the perfect car for ME.

It's the new Porsche Panamera Shooting Break, scheduled for 2018 
introduction here in the good, ole USA!

Now I had heard before that the elves in Stuttgart were playing around 
with alterations and modivications to the Panamera platform. But a 
STATION WAGON is simply beyond my wildest dreams. Perfect for our 
purposes, the station wagon give us everything we could ask for without 
the lousy, boxy, confining and expensive profile of the foolish SUV or 
crossover type vehicles.

I decided to take action.  Having paid our bills for the month just 
before I got my son's email, I rushed right down to the credit union to 
open a special Shooting Break savings account. I've started saving for 
that new Porsche. It'll be a special gift to myself for having lived 
three-quarters of a century!  I took ALL the money left over from paying 
this months bills and opened the account, and I will make regular 
contributions to that account from now until mid-2019 when I will go 
shopping.

Yup!  It's a perfect plan.  The account is there, the pump is primed and 
I'll be....well.....

Ah....I opened the account with what was left this month.  I now have 
$1.16 gathering interest toward the downpayment on the new Panamera 
Shooting Break!


Roger