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Familia

My little Familia. I picked this up for $900 from the back of a dealers yard as an unprepped trade-in. Looked tidy and ran well, and looking to sell the Marina I needed something to keep me mobile.

It was the non-turbo BFMR model, so AWD with manual centre diff lock. Had a hell of a lot of fun on gravel roads in this, taking some 90 degree sweepers sideways with max opposite lock.

It also saved my arse once on a gravel road when an animal ran in front of me. I panicked, slammed the brakes on and started to slide. Travelling about 80KPH and slamming the brakes on in gravel makes for 100% loss of control. Gave it a bootfull and managed to accelerate out of the slide and continue on my merry way.

It wasn’t all fun and games though, it did have some issues at times. It leaked some oil, the gearbox was notchy, and the exhaust was made of swiss cheese. It was a good solid car under it all.

I enjoyed this car and lot, and even used it to transport me and my possessions to Christchurch when I moved. I had it for a couple of months in CHCH and then the sickness began… it was the first car I swapped.

A quick story there too. When I swapped it I didn’t really understand the whole “make sure the ownership is changed BEFORE you hand over the keys” thing, so I took the guys word he would do it asap. Turns out he sold the car on straight away still in my name, and the new owners (who I didn’t have any contact with and the guy I sold it to was ignoring me) never put it in their name either. I ended up, after trying to get the guy I sold it to get the new owners to put it in their name, deregistering the car (which it appears never actually worked despite what the person at the counter told me). Call it a dick move, but I wasn’t having a car in my name running around in someone elses hands. Lesson learned.

1987
1.6L B6 non-turbo
5 spd manual
AWD
Centre diff lock
Sweet wider steel wheels

Update 8/3/20 – Unfortunately it appears this car met its end due to an expired registration exemption, which lapsed 10 years ago.