Hi from Sydney,
Here is my '93 L200, the day I bought it from a bloke on a farm an hour north. Had it for a couple of months now and I’ve loved every drive with it.
I learned how to drive on a '96 Ford Falcon wagon with the clunkiest auto box, central locking that wouldn’t lock and a real tired fuel pump that meant turning the 4L engine over real difficult. But it was the family beater that was handed to me once I could drive on my own.
$80 in petrol every week - one day I just had enough.
I started looking for the smallest, cheapest car I could find that I could burn the gearbox out learning manual. Weeks of trying to find someone to relinquish the wagon onto unsuccessfully meant that I cheap was a must. Then, up pops this little thing on Gumtree for $750, and I knew I wanted it.
An hour drive north with a mate who would drive it home for me (no manual experience), I met a retired bloke on his farm with his wife and 7 dogs. The Mira had lived its last 10 years as a grocery trolley for his wife while he drove his 80s Porsche, bought during his mid life crisis (his words, not mine).
She was dirty, full of dog hair and nothing like the wagon. I needed to take it home.
I’ve driven it every day since I had gotten the hang of manual driving, and I’m real excited at what else I could learn from this car from places like here.
Could never find a seller for the wagon. Disgruntled neighbors in sketchy parts of Sydney meant a couple of popped tyres and minor vandalism - the beast had to go. Driving it to the scrapyard to never see it again was a day of relief that almost made up for only getting a couple hundred for it. It will be a long time before I’m in a car that big again.
