Have you ever bought a brand-new car? Yes, a real, untouched by human hand, brand-new car.

We have, once. It was a Honda Civic. It was black, shiny and perfect and lasted for two weeks.

I reversed it straight into a large shiny lamp post in the middle of Shoprite car park. Then, to add insult to injury, I pulled out to line it up for a re-run, and did it again.

It needed a complete new boot and several other bits and pieces to put things right. But after that shaky start, we became good friends.

The problem with a new car is that it loses such a huge amount of it’s value just by driving it down the street, never mind reversing into lamp posts.

But it does feel good to show off your new toy, just once.

The first ever vehicle that we owned was a Mini van. We were just married and lived in a top floor flat in Victoria Road in Douglas.

A three-point-turn away, a close neighbour and all-round nice bloke called John Scott operated a motor repair and second-hand car business.

We had to walk past Scott’s garage every day.

On our daily stroll we spotted a tidy, grey Mini van. A quick test drive and it was ours. This was 55 years ago, and we had our own wheels.

It was less than £200. In today’s money and I doubt if that would even buy a rear light for a Honda Civic.

Now, when you think about it, everyone’s life is simply a collection of tales and happenings. It’s the joining up and the telling of that tale that makes it interesting. This little yarn, is one of those true stories that deserves its place in our history.

Over the years we have owned and driven many different cars and vans. All of them were different and some were, at best, called characters.

We had this Ford Anglia that would just suddenly stop and refuse to go another yard. The next day, you would turn the key and away it would go. We never did solve its problem, but we were never short of a tow home.

Our first automatic was a Renault 12. Then we had an Austin 12 that was decorated with small silver flower vases and a cord operated roller blind to stop head lamp dazzle from behind.

We bought this rare beast for the grand sum of £12 and, a couple of weeks later, sold it for £20.

We have worked our way through a small fleet of Morris 1000 vans and cars and many more.

We’ve had a few bumps and scrapes, some with hedges, and one in particular with the Constabulary. This little tale involved both, and is well worth the telling.

Before we were married, we would save up the pennies and, as a special treat, we would occasionally hire a car for the weekend from the local Morris dealer.

Motoring was just on the change, from the Morris Minor with the conventional layout of engine, gear box and rear-wheel drive to the revolutionary new transverse layout and the miracle of front-wheel drive.

One weekend,we had hired one of the all new ’Morris 1100’ models. It really was like nothing I had ever driven before.

We had arranged to meet some friends at a dance in Peel and, after grand time was had by all, we set off to give our friends a lift home.

It had been raining, the roads were wet, and this was the fastest car that I had ever driven. A recipe for disaster.

Before we reported the accident to the police, we had carefully rehearsed our story.

It was all the fault of this black and white dog that had run across the road. There was no other vehicle involved, no one was hurt, the car could be repaired and the dog had vanished.

’Do you know,’ said the policeman, after we had all recited our sad tale.

’That ******* black and white dog gets everywhere!'

More than 13 years ago Pullyman - aka Michael Cowin - was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, a condition that affects people in different ways. Michael discovered writing and Island Life is featuring some of his musings. Sometimes topical, sometimes nostalgic, read about life as seen through the eyes of Pullyman