Gunter's Transport History L[1.3.4]
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I am dedicating this page to illustrating the chronological sequence of motorized vehicles which I have utilised  till today for exclusive private transport. I do not bother listing any company / contract cars used in these years, since these were (peeking at weekly mileages > 2.500 km) sometimes exhausted in 12 month only. Kindly note that the pictures presented do not show the original vehicles, but the best look-alike I could find online. Another spare time projekt of mine is the restoration of > 5000 old photo-slides (in analog technology). Hence I may come across one or another original photo which I will replace  on this page accordingly. I will mark these with an *) at the beginning of the accompanying textual description.

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The beginning: It started 1978 with the first drivers licence and a 50cc Austrian made 2 stroke motorbike, bought brand new from the dealer's show room. Initially it was made to not exceed a 40 km/h max-speed. However I managed (in stages) to push it to almost 90 km/h. A handy solid 2 seater which was also good in off-raod performance. Fuel mix at the time varied between 1:25 and 1:50 and went pre-mixed in a single tank (dynamic mix adjustment and separate tanks for oil and fuel had not been invented at this time). At the time already exisited decent Japon made bike in the same class utilising either 4 stroke or more advanced 2 stroke engines (sporting the a.m. technology), which would have been my prefered choice. Since legally I was still a minor at that time my father was to sign for contracts and applications and had a strong influence on this choice.

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From 2 to 4 wheels: At 18 years of age, just entering the last 2 years of high school, I upgraded the driving license to cars + bikes "unlimited".  High school classes were not available at the home town and a daily commute ot min 2 x 15km (only insufficiently covered by public transport) was to be resolved. My plan was to buy an old VW beatle, knowing that spare parts were widely availabel (both new and used) for reaonable prices. Too this would habe been  a choice I could have afforded from the little money I was making 3x a year working as a construction helper in the school holidays. Once again my father intervened (the car was to be registrated in his name for insurance reasons) and I ended with a second hand ALFA. No, it was not an Alfa-Romeo (everybody would have dreamed of). It was an Alfa-Sud. A car I disliked because of 4 doors and green colour. I sprayed it blue later after an accident. However, in retrospect this was a good car, well advanced of it's time and competitors - had it not come with factory as-new corrosion issues. It served me through army-service and first 3 semester of university studies. We were separated by a final (offset) frontal crash after which the insurance declared it a total loss.

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2 more wheels: During the final 2 years of high school (already using 4 wheels) I manged to lay my hand on an old BMW 250 cc motorbike (being a R-25), previously owned by my grandfather. It had been set aside to rot in a barn. I spent every free minute over 2 years to disassemble and find spare parts for a bike built in 1950. I stripped it of whatever remainig paint, had it sanblasted and resprayed, rebuild the engine. In the end it was as good as new. At 12 hp this bike was never a match for any new 250cc in the 80's. I never clocked the 0-100 km/hr. It was more like to be happy if you ever made it there. But the seating position was as low as it would get and everybody liked the semi-rigid frame. I would be very happy if this one would still be in my possesion today, which it is not. Apparently my mother (at a certain point whilst suffering from Parkinson / Alzheimer) handed it out to my elder brother along with all the original papers. Today he can't remember anything about it and I am missing any evidence of it ever being registered in my name.

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4 wheels forward: With the Alfa-Sud dead I was in immediate need for a replacemt. The commute to university was > 2x 70 km/day. Even though a big part of the distance was covered by train service, you would not get to it unless you had your own transport. My budget to find a replacement was the money the insurance gave for scrapping the Alfa and I was short of time to look around. I got hold of the first matching offer I found, another Italian car: An Autobianchi-Arbath. I bought it from second hand with only little more than 100.000 km done. Soon I learned the hard way that 2nd-hand and 100.000 km done were most likely fake statments but not to proove wrong otherwise (the mileage clocks only counted to 99.999 at that time). The car with not even double the weight of Fiat-500 (at he time) was sporting > 100 hp. Say 0-100 (in third gear) in less than 7 seconds. Within 18 month of use I had invested about the purchase equivalent of money in repairing the thing. Engine issues, break issues, exhaust, gear-shift / reverse, new tires and battery. I spent more time on repair and in the workshop than using the car. It was simply worn out the day I had bought it. In the end I sold it for less than what I had paid, a new replacement to come.

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First 4x4 wheels: With the Autobianchi still in use I started to look around for a diesel-engine car (transport economy). I learned that standard saloon cars were selling with huge mileages ar tremendous 2nd hand prices. It was merely luck and coincidence that I stumbled across this one: A Daihatsu Wildcat F-50. I never figured out why the dealer gave it away at less than 2 years old, hardly 20.000 km done for less than  1/2 of the new price. Turned out to be my luckiest purchase ever. Let us set appart that the max speed was only 110 km/hr. But with any high-way being at least 70 km away from my living place, top-speed of a vehicle was not realy a question. Over the years of use I learned that the car had otherwise enormous potetial with an 2.4 lit Diesel Engine mounted into a body the size of an SJ410. The only downside: The canvas top in winter. The car actually survived an 100% front to front crash in course of which an Opel Astra (brand new) was totally destroyed, whilst the the Daihatsu was repaired (it did need frame readjusment). I sold it due to my first abroad deployment at > 200.000 km done for 1/2 the price I had paid for it.

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*) 2 wheels again: I was still using the Daihatsu and the BMW when I finished University. The first job thereafter, working for a company deeply into software development, I earned myself an unexpected (in my eyes at the time huge) bonus for a piece of software algorythms I had developed. Today I know that it would have been better to take the x%-sales share over the one time payment offered. With this unexpected budget I sat out to find me a decent bike. In 1987 I was finally luck again when I managed to obtain from first hand a hardly used Harley at not even 10.000 km done. The previous owner was selling it because he considered a Harley-Sportster not being a real Harley. Whilst I had sold the car with my first abroad deployment I kept the bike. I had it properly shut down and stored in 1989. Only 2012 I decided to bring it out again. Yes, there was some issues around bringing it back to life and today mechanics (without an diagnosing computer) were not even able to pinpoint the issue. So here we are: Today 2019 I am still using this 1987 (first registration) bike.

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2nd 4x4 wheels: When coming back from my 2nd Nigeria turn there was actually no 4 wheeled tranport available but a decent fare-well bonus at my hands again. Looking to replace the sold Daihatsu I found that this would not be an easy task since the 4x4 prices had gone up significantly. Also I was dreaming of buying my first brand-new car ever. Having had used a Toyota Hilux back in Africa  I had come to appreciate this very robust (rigid front and rear axle) 4x4 model which offered at least a semi car type seating postion in it's otherwise missing comfort edition. The pricing thereof too was not to bad. The only problem was: Toyota did not import the car (and later also refused to service it) due to silly VW agreements. In 1993 I went to buy one in the Netherlands and imported it myself. Ever sincer I am in the memories of the local governement car registrarion office for this and following stories .... The car served me extremely well till 2010 when I finally sold it. > 300.000 km done, first engine, mechnically still in good condition .

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1st 2x4 wheels in SDQ: with going to Santo Domingo on a more frequent base we also started to dream of and look for our own place to stay. The $ spent on TAXI, public transport or car rentals was simply getting too much. Hence the first step was to get mobile ourselves, looking for a car. Very soon we dropped our initial dream of buying a brand new car (for budget reasons) and settled on looking for a fairly used option. Domenican Republic is mostly US oriented and the vast majority of available cars is having automatic gear boxes. Opposing to this common feature we started to look for manual gear box options (this is considered a vehicle disadvantage and reflected in it's used price tag) which also makes a vehicle general less atractive. On the end we were merely lucky to find a harldly used (less than 5k miles done) manual gear box equipped Chevrolet "Monza".

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*) 4th 2x4 wheels: Well into the 5th year of my UAE deployment we were facing an issue (after changing from Fujairha to Dubai) with getting our daughter to school. In Fujairah the school was a stopover on my way to work whereas in Dubai it was opposit directions. Hence the company car was not enough and we ended in buying our private transport in the UAE. There was many thoughts and many more restrictions to be observed on what to buy (apart from the money / value question involved {e.g. no private diesel car permitted in UAE}, the luxury-car insanity, rediculous German Car prices in UAE {despite no VAT}). We did not foresee the 2008/2009 financial crisis or the Arabic spring but a car transport back to Europe was a point on our car-shopping list to be observed. In the end we decided to buy a Dodge-Caliber (since Dodge was liased with Daimler-Benz through Chrysler at that time). Needless to say, the worst szenario became reality. We took the car to Germany (transport was not to costly), registration was a nightmare (Dodge is nonexistent in G today, and belongs to Fiat) again. Apart of that the car does fine and is still servicing us every day.

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*) 3rd 4x4 wheels: We were doing reasonable fine with the Dodge-Caliber and the Harely-Sportster (in Germany).  There was no issue in summer at all. Occasionally I came home soaking wet and I tried to avoid getting to the job wet in the morning. Winter time was total different matter. After a season with only these 2 at hands it became obvious that a second 4 wheeler was necessary. I was once again dreaming of  a Diesel 4x4. On the end there was only the Landrover + Mercedes-G options (both as low mileage ex-army mod sales) left in view. The LR: lhd are actually available in UK for resonable prices. What scared me of was the weight / hp ratio and the drive back on it's own wheels. (I know what I talk about after using a lhd drive vehicle in Pakistan). The issue with the Mercedes-G is: Most Army models are the short wheel-base and that was the only bad experience I had with my Daihatsu before. In the end I was lucky again to find a Diesel long wheel base lhd version, with a 5 cylinder 3.0 conventional (non-turbo) engine. It's unfortunately a soft-top again but offers 8  seats. Same year of first registration as the Harley and not exactly a Mercedes but a Puch. Actually in daily use.

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*) 4th 4x4 wheels: This is actually the last new-comer to the group. It is rather a development project which I repossessed last year.  It is same year of make as I am 1962, belonged to my father before. Made by Mercedes Benz as U411. 4x4 2-seater cabrio. Sporting a whopping 18 forward and 6 reverse gears, fully locking diffs,  onboard compressed air and hydraulics, front + rear PTO, 3-way tipping load bay ... Last time I had seen it running under it's own power was 1975 untill it did again 2018. It took me 1 day to move it the first 500m since all tyres (one after the other) blew . Needless to say: Most parts which were not made of steel are gone due to decomposition. Corosion too has taken it's toll on the steel. Allegedly most spare parts can still be found (not easily but). I have some hope that I will manage to put this thing to working order, road legal, again.

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Final thoughts: Should you reach to reading these lines, you have come to the end of this page. You may leave or go back up one level. I made the background for this page from a variety of car-outlines (all of which I found as foc give away *.dwg samples). It took some steps and a bit of time to create the corrsponding *.png. The bet I am throwing out: >> How many different models are displayed ?? <<

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