You can now call me Peter “Four Jacks” Croft.  Or Pete “Two Tow-bars” Croft.  Yes, I’ve bought another car, making three cars now.

I wanted a reliable car for some longer distance trips in the next few months, and I’ve been thinking about one of these for some time, so when a 2006 model came up on Facebook Market a few weeks ago, I enquired. It was advertised at $4,500, but the owner, a mechanic, said a warning light had come up and he’d need to test it.  A week or two later, he said it’s a catalytic converter (in the exhaust) that’s the cause, and that won’t stop it being driveable, and he dropped the price to $3,000. OK, I said, I’ll take it. And I did, last Sunday.

It’s mid blue metallic, alloy wheels (my second set now), with black leather upholstery. The wood grain is plastic, but it looks nice, and it drives beautifully. It’s a 3.5l V6, fuel injected OHC automatic. with on-demand 4WD. It mainly drives the front wheels, but the rear wheels kick in if it senses the front wheels slipping. You can lock the 4WD on.

That makes three cars I own now, all with 3.5l OHC FI engines, and the Verada has an anti-slip mode as well.  The new car also has a tow bar and roof rack, so that’s two cars with those now. I’d better start towing something. The ball assembly is removable on the MDX, so that’s good as it only just fits in my garage. Garaging is a problem, of course, with three cars in a two car garage, so the oldest, the Magna, is out in the laneway.

So what am I gonna do? At least one has to go at some time, probably the Magna. It still drives beautifully but needs a new timing belt, an expensive job. The Verada needs new brakes, new exhaust, new tyres and an oil leak fixed so I can’t really drive it at present. The MDX feels great, but it’s heavy on fuel (14-15l/100km around town) and needs TLC all around. I suspect it will be a keeper, maybe.

Both the Verada and the MDX have the potential to be sold again for a profit if I put some work in, so I will eventually go back to being a one car man. Meanwhile I’m enjoying this.