The life of a first car is rarely easy. These are machines tasked with delivering newfound freedom before the practicalities of adulthood get in the way, but also reined in by the constraints of full-time education and minimum wage employment. And, for those that aren’t replaced as soon as insurance allows, the transition from daily driver to weekend project can be challenging too. Especially, as Mike Myers found out the hard way, if that stage begins without the protection of off-road parking.
“I’ve had this thing since high school, but my long-term plans were only just coming to fruition when someone crashed into it outside my apartment, one hour into my 25th birthday,” he tells us. “She destroyed the fender, popped the airbag, broke a transmission mount and cracked a wheel. Then, because she had no insurance, she drove off.
“It was brutal, and I might have lost interest if I hadn’t been able to repair it. But I think that reignited a fire in me to pursue it and take it to the next level as soon as I was financially able to. I couldn’t replace all the memories I had with it.”
Mike’s patience for slow-burning projects seems hard-wired from birth. With a limited European car scene in his hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, the Jetta’s 19-year evolution (and its post-crash survival) owes a
