How Much Junk Do You Need In Your Car? |
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Matt Hubbard
Speedmonkey
February 6, 2014
I spent many years purely driving my own cars. I would own each for around 12 months and then get bored of it and buy a different one, not necessarily a better one just a different one for the sake of it being different.
I wrote a list of all the cars I've owned since I passed my test in 1988 and posted it to the Speedmonkey Facebook page. Join in with your own list if you like, quite a few have already. The post is embedded below.
Anyway, after 12 months of ownership and prior to being put on sale I'd have to clean the car out. This takes ages, primarily because it would be so full of junk. And then when the car was sold I'd go to the massive pile of stuff from the old car and deposit it all in the new car, in all the 'right' places.
My jobs over the years have meant I've spent hours in my cars. It seems every time I got a car I'd bring something in my pocket and leave it in the car, thinking it would come in useful at some point.
Typically the junk would include:
A penknife (with a tooth pick for picking at my teeth in traffic jams) A tiny torch which I've had since 1998 and never used once CDs. Many, many CDs (before CDs were cassette tapes, many cassette tapes) A folder containing even more CDs A toilet roll (for spillages and emergency windscreen clearing) Kitchen paper (for cleaning my glasses (toilet paper leaves residue on the glass)) A small ring-bound UK road map for the glove box A large paperback UK road map that lives in the pocket behind the passenger seat A satnav A phone charger (currently an iPhone5 cable) A twin pin 12 volt plug so the satnav and phone charger can both function at the same time A tiny can of de-icer in the glove box A large can of de-icer in the boot An ice scraper A rug on the back seat (in case the boot was full and the dog had to go on the seat) A small ring-bound note pad Many pens Several post-it pads A bag of old sweets Some toy cars to keep the children amused A Game Boy (for about three years in the 2000s) A Halfords wheel wrench (normally kept in the spare wheel well next to the car's own wheel wrench Chewing gum Wellington boots My Barbour which I bought in 1989 (and which is still waterproof despite never having been re-waxed) A Goretex jacket A bottle (or two) of water A handful of coins A first aid kit with half the plasters missing An emergency triangle from an old Saab (this was abandoned two years ago after one of the dogs did some diarrhoea on it) Some spare bulbs (which was a generic kit so might not have even fitted the car)