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I’ve looked at this many ways, but mainly this way. A car and it’s number plate appear to point the way, one way or another, certainly in this case. Weird I know. Looking at ‘Alphabetical license, part 1’, then this doesn’t look quite so weird after all. You have to imagine a car rolling off the production line just like all the others around it, only somewhere and somehow this particular car gains a direction and soul of sorts. It’s an unexplained twilight zone phenomenon if it has to be explained at all. Some people may refer to such a car as jinxed.

This car went on to find its second owner – that being myself, and that owner of course to be the right owner to be able to see the connection that appears on the licence plate fitted to it. For this to happen it had to therefore be in the right place at the right time. This did so in the most extraordinary way, previously explained as without knowing. And maybe it even found its first owner to be the right owner too, but we’ll never know that. Following the known trend here; the path of which has already been set, there also has to be something in common between the owner, the licence plate and the owners lifestyle, otherwise this cars pathway in this tale could never have been understood. So how could it be then that this car appearing on the second hand market was not that which was advertised, and in fact that at the time and placing of the ‘For Sale’ advertisement did there appear a description of an entirely different car altogether?

So come 2004, this licence plate is attached to this car. It’s a Volkswagen. More to the point it’s a Passat and it’s a Passat that gets factory named the Trendline. Never mind its history, as apart form a full service record there is none to tell. It is odd however that this particular car can end up on the forecourt of this garage when its (for the purposes of my ownership and this tale) rightful owner is passing by. Thinking out of the box, if RJT from a previous motor vehicle symbolised any type of message, then what of BV54 . . . ? How this is interpreted is of choice only to myself as the owner and to myself only therefore to be seen as one of these invisible crossroads that appear in life from time to time. It is all the more apparent then to the behaviour of and the natural acts of god that befell upon this vehicle Trendline. And what better example of named car could this tale be aligned with.

Two people come together and it’s 2004. Two other people also don’t come together and it’s still 2004. One person is the same on both accounts and one is not. Both occurrences are in a town called Bovington. Being well aware of both because it is I whose life it touches; by now the licence plate is viewed with a curious distraction. It’s only now that the licence plate together with the cars’ discovery as a second hand car sale and how it happened is all the more of interest. The facts of this tale seem almost impossible to even imagine, let alone be happening. From an invisible crossroads perception, I choose one way and the plate suggests several ways. Whether I choose the way the plate could be inferred as in one particular direction could also be aligned with the way the car behaves. This based on my observations from previous plates on vehicles, and as well as previous cars whether together with plate or not. My choice of direction was made from where the heart tells it to, not the licence plate. This combination of car and plate, or even plate on its own at this time, is however there and visual and drawing attention to itself.

Infuriating mechanical failures on this car from the offset could suggest maybe that a chosen direction – if aligning names with letters on the plate, (as on previous plates) could well have been loaded with similar let downs. Instead of synchronised relationships and car faults, and with hindsight, it’s worth contemplating that these break down events may be significant if related to a certain relationship that could have been followed. Well why not? There’s more than one way to choose here. I just try to imagine what could have been if with a different choice. That’s all of a sudden not so hard to imagine.

It remains disturbing in some ways that despite best efforts to upkeep that vehicle (Trendline) in the best condition, the relentless troubles that it suffered throughout my ownership of that vehicle could be so repetitive and costly in effect. If looking at this from a perspective of ‘Twilight Zone phenomenon’, it is cause for wonder. My car felt like a newer car at all times. It was certainly an upgrade from the previous one and judging from the amount spent on it to keep it in good condition it should do too.
It’s doubly hard to wonder why a tree should fall on it overnight whilst it was parked up. All that cost repairing this most unreliable of vehicles only for it to fall foul of a falling tree and not only brought down a perfectly healthy looking tree on top of it, but also a 20,000 volt power line to end up laying right alongside it. It’s like the kiss of death after one of the branches of the tree smacks a hole dead centre into the windscreen just to add insult to injury.

Lets take a look at that licence plate again. BV54 . . . , there was more than one pathway indication here. From my way of looking at this I could have chosen this way or that way if I was to choose any way at all from the perceived indication of the letters on the licence plate. I didn’t choose a way forward indicated by the licence plate, why would I. I chose my own pathway forward and it just seemingly interacts either way with the message seen on the plate.
Could then, major catastrophes with the car indicate the same with a chosen pathway in the other direction? It’s a car with unparalleled issues in comparison with any other car owned by myself. The car finally lets itself down in the most impossible manner. It survived the falling tree and the 20,000 volt power line with repairable and some not worth repairing (bodywork) damage. It was repaired and seemingly therefore quite resilient to these major disasters. Resilience in this case does of course come at the tail end of a large bill, but none-the-less not written off quite yet. Failures of big bill engine components, failures of locking facilities whereby it had an ability to unlock itself once it had been locked down, failures of lighting facilities – and not one bulb at a time, but all at the same time. Its final demise was as unexpected as it was complete. It was well past the threshold of maintaining a reasonable value against what had been spent on it on the second hand market. This car was a self destructing disaster area.

Some folk park their cars forwards and some folk park their cars backwards. For me, it’s always reverse into the parking slot. Parking forwards for me is a big taboo, that was a lesson which was hard earnt in days gone by. There’s an old saying that goes like – ‘Happens in threes’. That’s superstition. Still, three things can occur before it becomes accepted that there could be some truth in it. For me it’s not easily forgotten that when selecting reverse gear to go to work without firstly checking the driveway behind and then driving backwards straight into the postman van parked behind causes trouble that could have been avoided.
It’s all very significant when considering parking cars in the future. Backing into parked vehicles a number of times does stimulate the mind to thinking there should be another way in order to avoid this. Rearward parking therefore was my policy from a younger age. And it was hard to accept that on this particular day in question of the demise of BV54 – – -, that parking in a forward manner looked to be the better option. But forward park I did.
Parking in an airport parking lot leaves plenty of options normally. In an outside car park the options were actually lessened, as opposed to a park assist or valet car park. When operating from the space of an outside car park the deal is to remove the luggage and walk to the nearest bus stop. This in itself would therefore mean that the same thing has to happen in reverse i.e. upon return the luggage would have to be removed from the bus and walked over to the parked car. In a park assist or valet car park the car is normally brought to a parking holding area so there is no choice as to how it is left, it is a case of how you find it. And seeing as valet or park assist is indoors the struggles against bad weather are not there. If the luggage is to be manhandled from an outside car park to the airport lounge, it does make sense to be able to remove the luggage in the easiest way possible, because the reverse would also be true when loading luggage back up again. Choosing the outside parking lot wasn’t a new experience, it was regular. It was always the case that whatever struggle was required with the luggage there was no room for complaint really, it was my choice to park that way. One time only though, I opted to go against my better judgement and park forwards. This I did and drove up to the kerbstone in forwards. The luggage was easier to remove this way and would be easier to load back up again in a weeks’ time. Whilst parking towards the kerbstones it did go through my mind that this wasn’t really me, I don’t like parking forwards. But this parking episode was to be followed by a week away overseas and so therefore what was to worry about. Still, the niggle was there and understandably so, this really did go against the grain.

Following a week away the return journey on the aircraft as it flew over the English countryside was as it should be, except for one rather disturbing fact. Looking out through the aircraft window revealed what appeared to be a very wet landscape. Did we miss something? The place looked like a monsoon had passed by. It was low cloud now as we flew overhead and no rain at present. Well that was one good sign, at least we would be able to reload the luggage back onto the car in the dry.
Back in the car the comfort of knowing a turn of the key and we would be on our way home quickly dissipated once the key had been turned. There was no life in the engine at all. Or was it no life in the battery?
No, that can’t be the case, the battery was good.
The breakdown recovery service were called to take a look. They had no answers to the lack of any life at all on the car. Even a jump from another battery proved useless.

The car had been in perfect nick when it was parked up the week before. Now it was on the back of a transporter lorry being recovered back home after failing in a car park for no apparent reason. No one had touched it, it was running like a sewing machine when it was parked. If a car could commit suicide then this one did.
A thorough investigation followed and the result was eventually clear. Who would believe a tidemark around the whole car, deeper at the front than at the rear due to the angle of the tarmac in the car park. With the engine at the front the car had drowned in a flooded car park when we weren’t there. The water had dispersed following that, also when we weren’t there. The water however had already done its worse. The engine was now in an irreversible state of hydra lock. Later to find out was I that this particular type of car was known for this in cases that popped now and then. Build an engine too low to the ground with areas unsealed against the atmosphere and it’s a recipe for disaster.
This was the end of that car. This was Trendline BV54  —.