This month is the expiration of auto insurance. Any insurance company has an option I take care of. free towing distance. I always take the longest 60km free towing option. You know those options when you’re in a car a few times on the street.
Last month, a car stopped on the U-turn lane at the southern end of Yanghwa Bridge. I sent the cars calmly. The window of the passing large sedan opened and the man’s face came out. ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘We’ve run out of fuel.’ ‘You can blink.’ ‘The battery is dead, too.’ He raised his window, making no secret of his pathetic expression. I was not surprised. It’s because I’ve been riding an old car for a long time.
My first car was a 1994 five-door manual transmission Pride I bought in 2009. At that time, the price was 450,000 won. I liked that car then, too. The car is Korea’s best car, so it was able to perform well even with a simple restoration. It was a time when I wasn’t used to the culture of fixing old cars like now. The car looked very old because I didn’t have money and couldn’t repair it. At a meeting in Gangnam, he was also told, “You can’t stop a car like this in a parking lot.” I made up my mind. It will definitely be restored. Like a new car. Like people in developed countries who fix their cars for a long time.
It took about three years to restore the car. Little by little, I saved money, bought parts and fixed the car. Just in time, there was a member company of the “Car 10-Year Ride Maintenance Center” in the neighborhood, which received great help. For the first time in my life, I went to a place called ‘automobile parts manufacturer’. I bought an Italian wheel that fits the measurements from an overseas auction. In my standards at the time, I spent quite a lot of money painting the whole thing. Slowly something was getting better.
There is a pleasure of restoration. When the old headlights were replaced, the night vision improved by 1.3 times right away. I felt like I had a successful eye operation. Once, the car shook like a cultivator, so I wondered if this car would be here. When I changed the engine mount, which is a consumable, it became fine like a lie. I learned from the experience. About machines, about markets and people that I didn’t know about, about the slightly wider world, about a valuable lesson that you can fix and improve anything. I think I liked the experiences at that time. I still ride an old car. The world surrounding old cars is also getting better. The public’s view of old cars has changed a lot. Now I hear less questions like, “Why do you ride that?” Repair has also become easier. There were many car centers that didn’t accept old cars at all, but now many people are kind. As overseas direct purchases became easier, domestic and foreign parts supply became easier. These days, there are also “self-car centers” in suburban areas that only charge hourly fees, and with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), information such as part number can be found much more easily. Isn’t it futuristic and romantic to fix a 30-year-old car with the help of AI.
That’s how I’m getting older with my car. The towed car decided to replace the main consumables at this time. I bought the wrong part and bought it again in a hurry. Looking back, all of that is a memory with my pet machine. “The Future of Mobility” is a big topic these days, and that’s something I don’t know. However, I can decide the future of my vehicle. You can take advantage of the changed world culture, take good care of it, and fix it. I want to respond so much to bigger changes.
[PARK CHAN YONG editor/columnist]
