Dick,
I had a Berkeley in the late 60s. It would fit in the bed of an ElCamino.

The XK-8 has made five round trips from here to Illinois (1500+ miles one way) with zero issues, except a clogged fuel filter. I just rolled 124,000 miles on it.

Like yours, it is a car that brings a smile to your heart every time you walk by, or get in it and go somewhere with the top down.

take care,

Rich

Butch,

You are the only other person I ever met who owned a Berkeley. There was a nice looking one on eBay a couple of years ago. It didn't have a motor. I thought about buying it to put here in my office so I could look at it... lotta memories there.

When it got to 5K I passed. I seriously doubt if I could get in it nowadays. I did call the guy up. He was down South someplace and said that I could easily get it in the back of a pickup.

I had it circa 1958 and have some pics. See part above re: too dumb to post.

I did learn one thing back then... I seriously doubt if anyone's daughter ever got impregnated in a Berkeley...

I believe mine had an Excelsior engine. A British MC engine. I had dreams of installing a Honda MC engine. At the time my finances were slim. I sold it.

Butch,

I sold mine too after about a year. Michigan weather made it impossible to drive half the time.

At that time I was commuting to a local college. One day I came out of the school and found it on the neighbor's porch. I grabbed a couple of guys and we carried it back to the street where it belonged.

God, to be young and that dumb again...

Rich,

To be fair when I took the Porsche for it's annual oil change I asked the dealer to check the coolant system. The temp gauge had been a little flaky lately...

$1014.00 later I was back on the road with a new Porsche radiator and the car performing flawlessly. In eleven years that's the only big bill I've had except for the belt change. Not bad for a 31 year old car.

Butch, I had a Hyundi Sonata for a while. It's a solid well made car with plenty of "Go" even with the four. Two problems... the mileage sucked (25 MPG average) and it handled like a darn Buick. I would durn near get sea sick driving it on our roads. Since the sticker said I should get 32 mpg's I finally got mad and swapped it for a VW Jetta wagon with TDi. It handles like a German car and, if I don't have too much fun, I can get over 40 mpg's. There's a lot of room in back for shooting equipment.

Dick

Jetta TDI, Plus one!

My wife's 2010 sedan has averaged 42+mpg since she drove it home.

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Jetta TDI, Plus one!

My wife's 2010 sedan has averaged 42+mpg since she drove it home.

Try a Camry hybrid. Wife bought one almost a year ago and the worse tank we ever had was 44 mpg during a weird cold stretch. If we stick to driving around down it averages 48-50. And this is on 85 octane gas, not expensive diesel. Take off the traction control button and it will break the tires loose if you punch it at a stop light. Tons of power through out the power band. Best $24K we ever spent.

Randy,
My oldest son and his wife bought a Toyota Highlander Hybrid about 4 years ago. They like it, but my son says he will never be able to cover the difference with no more increase in mileage than they are getting.

Butch,
Makes sense, those are heavy SUV's and the mileage increase is slim.
We went from a 4 cylinder Hyundai that was averaging 25 in town and 32 on a trip to the hybrid which gets better mileage in town than it does on a trip. The Hyundai was so slow as to be dangerous at 7,200 feet as a gas motor loses 3% of its hp for each 1,000 feet increase in elevation. Takes a long time to earn back the difference in price, especially if gas prices drop. Another of the reasons we went with the hybrid is the electric motor by its self has 50 hp and it does not lose any of the hp at higher elevations like a gas motor does.
But the wife absolutely loves the fact she can go over 550 miles on a tank before she has to refill it.