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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, my wife immediately changes the radio any time Journey’s song, “Don’t Stop Believin’” comes on the radio or my Spotify playlist, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.
I’m not sure why she hates the song so much. She likes other Journey songs, just not that one.
Back in episode 597 I mentioned that I sold my beloved 1972 MGB GT. For those of you who have followed me on social media for a while, you may have seen me first mention that I sold it back in February of this year, and a few days later I first mentioned that I’d actually purchased its replacement last October, fixed that car up, and had been driving it ever since. That car, you may recall, is a 2011 BMW Z4.
When I brought back SILY for a two-season run in 2021, I dedicated an entire season to the MG. I talked about what inspired me to buy it, how I set about determining to buy it by goal planning, how the car arrived and was not at all what was advertised, how I resolved to learn how to fix the car and repair it myself, how I’d succeeded in repairing the car, and how the entire process had made me better in multiple areas of my life.
So WHY did I sell it just a few years later? HOW could I do such a thing? Several of you asked me to share that side of the story, and that’s exactly what I’ll do today.
In case you haven’t listened to those episodes, which are episodes 574 – 583, let me give you a quick recap. I had put together a list of goals for me and my family. I arranged those goals into categories like 1 year goals, 5 year goals, and 10 year goals. I then shared those goals with my wife and family. For the ones that would involve their participation we discussed them and decided together if they were to be pursued and their priority.
One of those goals was for me to purchase an MGB GT. I’d loved the car for quite some time, and wanted my next car to be that car. They made the car from 1965-1980 with few changes, but I mostly liked the versions from around 1967 until 1973.
My wife and I agreed on the goal and the price range we thought was right. Once we got to the point where acquiring the car was getting close, I began researching them obsessively. I also began an extensive search all across the US to find one that met as many of my preferences as possible. I finally found one in Georgia that seemed like a good fit and had a friend of mine local to the area test drive it. He noticed a few issues with the electrical system which was a big deal for me since I didn’t have much background in electrical systems.
The seller promised to fix those issues, which I got in writing and on video. I eagerly purchased the car and had it shipped to me. Immediately when it arrived it was clear the issues had not been resolved. When I questioned the seller, he at first seemed like he’d be willing to work things out. Ultimately, he told me the car was sold as-is, he wasn’t going to compensate me, told me that he was wealthy and I was welcome to sue him, and blocked me.
I couldn’t in good conscience sell the car without disclosing the issues, and if I did disclose the issues I’d take a significant loss. It would also take more money to sue him than the car was worth, so I decided to learn how to wire a car. I stripped out all of the wiring from bumper to bumper and rewired the car from scratch. Once I was done, I’d learned some new skills, had a beautiful, dependable car that I’d help restore, and had the car of my dreams! It was an amazing experience full of ups and downs, so I had to break it all down in a series of SILY episodes.
I purchased the car in May of 2019, began rewiring it in January of 2020, got the car drivable in April, and buttoned up the final pieces in May of 2020. So the question still remains, why would I decide to sell it just 3 years later.
When I first bought the car and told the previous owner about the issues, one of his first comments to me was, “some people are just not meant to own old cars.” When he told me this, I was offended. I wasn’t just some random guy who had never turned a wrench before. Nor was I a guy that expected a car from 1972 that was 50 years old to not have any issues. I expected issues and I expected to work on the car. My issue was I also expected the car to arrive in the condition it was promised. How dare he imply that I’m not the kind of guy that can handle an old car!
However, in the months and years after I fixed the car, I came to realize that the guy was kinda right.
I don’t drive much. I work from home so my daily commute is from the bedroom to the kitchen, then with coffee in hand, it’s straight to my home office. The only times I drive are when I need to run an errand, pick up dinner, or to go to church. Some weeks the only time I drive is when I go to church.
So you might think that this type of driving would be perfect for a car like a 1972 MGB GT. But here’s the thing. If it was raining, I’d take my wife’s car. If it was too cold, I’d take my wife’s car. If it was too hot, I’d drive my wife’s car. Here in Oklahoma, that means I didn’t really drive the MG from June through August, or December through at least some of February.
All of that was fine though. My wife never minded me driving her car. But it felt like a waste to have the MG. Sometimes I’d get it out during those off months just to make sure the battery was charged and to keep me from feeling like it was a waste to have it. But way more times than not, it just sat in the garage in favor of a more modern, more comfortable car.
In the spring of 2023 I told my wife that I was thinking of selling the car for all the reasons stated above, but I wanted to try something else first. You see, the car came with an aftermarket air conditioner, but as I mentioned before, I still never really drove it during the summer. The problem was, the A/C was too much for the tiny engine of the MG. On the highway at high RPMs, the engine had no problem supporting the added strain of the A/C.
However, when the car was at idle like you are at a stoplight or stop sign, the car would stall. This meant that when I would bring the car to a stop, I’d have to shut off the A/C and cook until I got the car moving again. Since most of my driving was stop and go while running errands, this was a problem. My solution was to move the choke to a more accessible position so that I could engage the choke while the car was at idle. Engaging the choke would raise the RPMs and keep the car from stalling.
The good news is moving the choke worked. It was now easy to keep the car from stalling while at idle and I could enjoy the A/C at all times. The bad news was it was still a pain. It was one of several small inconveniences that led me to choose the modern comfort of my wife’s car time and time and time again.
The final blow came mid-summer when I began planning for football season. The early games in September can be very, very hot. In fact, it’s not uncommon to see people pass out from the heat during the game. The stadium has free water and cool zones, but the heat is brutal. For that reason, my wife has stopped attending early-season games.
I can typically handle the heat so long as I stay hydrated, so I still choose to go. However, driving the MG was not something I wanted to do. It could handle the 75 miles round trip to the game. It could handle the 75-80 miles per hour speeds on the highway. The A/C would do a good enough job to keep me cool during the commute. But it was the little things.
On the way home, traffic is horrible. It’s stop-and-go traffic for over an hour. Fiddling with the choke on top of dealing with that kind of traffic was a pain. On top of that, while the car was fully capable of handling highway speeds, the high revs of the engine at those speeds were loud. It was impossible to hear the radio or carry on a conversation. And then there was the concern that someone would ding a door.
Kari agreed that taking the MG to the games was not the best option, and she was happy to let me use her car. But if I used her car, that meant that she was stranded without transportation. If an emergency came up and she needed to go somewhere, or even if she wanted to go grab dinner, she was unable to do so. She doesn’t know how to drive a stick, so she was stuck.
So the short version is, it simply became too inconvenient to own the MG.
Here’s what I learned.
People think I’m a car guy, but I know car guys and I’m not one of them. I love those guys, but I’m just not cut from the same cloth. Can I work on cars? Yes. Do I enjoy going to car shows and looking at cars? Very much. But a car guy is a guy that yearns to be out in the garage working on a car or preparing for his next project. I’m not that guy. Every car guy I know has multiple cars, often in various states of repair, but at least a few that he can choose to hop in and drive on any given day.
I am most definitely not that guy. I only work on my cars when I have to. And I can’t justify having multiple cars, especially given the very little amount of driving that I do. I’m a one car guy that has the ability to maintain it. That only makes me a car guy to those who aren’t genuine car guys.
Once I realized this, I realized that the guy who sold me the MG was a bit of a prophet when he told me, “some people are just not meant to own old cars.” I realized that I wanted a car that I could hop in and drive regardless of the weather, regardless of where I was going, and regardless of the time of year. I also wanted a car that my wife could drive, which meant for the first time in my life, I bought a car without a clutch pedal. Sure, the BMW has paddles that you can use to manually shift the transmission, but it’s not at all similar to an actual manual transmission car, and I’m totally okay with that.
So does the fact that I got rid of the MG mean that it was all for nothing or that my dream didn’t matter? No, not at all. Dreaming for that car caused me to be motivated to work to achieve what was necessary to buy it. Repairing the car stretched my skills, brought them to a whole new level, and enabled me to learn an entirely new skillset. Owning the car brought me closer to understanding what my real dream car is, and the Z4 has been my favorite car ever by a long shot.
And that’s today’s lesson. Sometimes achieving our dreams is not what we thought it would be and that’s totally okay. It doesn’t mean we’ve wasted all that it took to get us there, it simply means we get to learn from the experience and use that new knowledge to take us to the next stage.
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
I want you to be a part of the next Monday Mailbag coming up next week,September 30th! The contribution deadline is this Wednesday, September 25th. Monday Mailbag is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can send in questions or responses to my SILY episodes, and I’ll respond to them via Monday Mailbag episodes. You can participate in Monday Mailbags by visiting the Golden Spiral Media listener feedback page.