A Tale of a Car
Back in the mid 80s, despite the Malaysian economy slowing down, my brother-in-law took up the challenge and left his job to start his own business. It involved a lot of travelling and he needed a car. I was working in a Malaysian motor company at the time, and my sister asked if I could see about getting a car on their behalf.
The car we eventually bought was a unit given out to motoring journalists for test drive and review purposes. It was also a slightly unusual car compared to what many people preferred at the time (this was before the advent of the Malaysian car). The best selling model at the time was the Nissan Sunny Extra 1.3 with its rock solid front and rear bumpers. The car I got on behalf of my sister and brother-in-law was the Nissan Langley 1.5. The price? RM17,000/-. This was back in 1984 thereabouts.
The Langley got my brother-in-law to various towns around the country in pursuit of business. Later, after they could afford another car for him, it went to my sister.
By the early 90s, they were doing well enough and ready to sell off the Langley. Which they did. Around that time, we moved from the shop in Chow Kit to a rented house two streets away from my sister and family. She’d asked my father if he would like to help out with fetching her kids to and fro school. He said yes, but on one condition – he wanted the Langley, and no other car. So barely a month or so after selling it, she bought it back from the same dealer. Selling price was just RM200/- less than the original 1984 price, but she had to buy it back for RM2,000/- more. Go figure.
After a few years, my sister offered to buy a new car for my father because the Langley was getting old. He refused. One day, he changed his mind. What happened?
At our new house in Bandar Utama, one of the neighbours from across the road was parking his 4WD in the space between our house and the neighbour’s. He had another regular car that he parked in the compound of his house. One day, my father went over to speak with the neighbour, to request that he park the smaller car outside our house, as the big 4WD obstructed “my daughter’s view when she reverses her car out in the morning.”
Guess what was the neighbour’s response?
“So what?” (actually, his reply in Cantonese, guan lei mutt yeah see?, translates closer to “none of your business” or “mind your own business” )
That got my father so angry, he told my sister to get him a new car so he could park the Langley outside the house so the neighbour cannot park his 4WD there. And so, the Langley has been parked there ever since the new car came along.
All these years, my father refused to sell the Langley, or even to consider any offers for it (he’d kept it in excellent condition, taking it for a drive once a week, after parking the other car in its place). He had a superstitious belief for keeping the car – he believed that it helped my brother-in-law’s business get off the ground, and so it should remain in the family.
When father passed away recently, the fate of the Langley was one of the first things the family discussed. Apparently, NG, my brother-in-law’s driver, had asked my father to sell it to him, but of course, my father had refused him. Now, it was my father who’d introduced NG to work for my brother-in-law, and no, they didn’t know each other from before. I only learned the story recently of how my father met NG. Apparently, when my father learned that my brother-in-law was looking for a driver, he went around asking people if they knew anyone who needed a job. NG was one of those he asked and he said yes, he needed a job, applied for it and got it.
Over the years, NG has been a big help to our family, especially with fetching mother to and fro the nursing home when she was a day resident there. So, in return for his help, we agreed to give the Langley to him.
The Langley now has a new owner. I told NG to take good care of it because it’s been like a family car for more than 10 years.
Before he came to take the car, I took some pictures to remember the Langley by. It was looking quite sad and shabby because its colour’s faded from its days out in the open and often hot sun, but we love it all the same. BTW, that’s not the original colour. The original was a nice midnight blue. Around 1995, my father decided to get it resprayed, and despite the dealer promising the same colour, it came out a lighter shade. As a friend said, “so groovy” . Which you can’t see from the photo because of what the years in the hot sun has done to it.
Anyway, for old times’ sake, here’s the Langley “guarding” our house.
 |
