Does anyone else keep a personal 'Car Diary/History'?

[McLarenLad]

Or is it just me being slightly weird?

[Pebbles167]

I have a list saved, it's not fancy, but now I have a garage I'll be doing a picture board of them all. I don't think it's weird, people keep a diary, log or collection of whatever interests them, humans like to order and quantify stuff.

Edited by Pebbles167 on Tuesday 5th September 01:04

[Steve-B]

Our 1973 TR 6 has a ledger book of all work done on it from the 2nd owner in 1981 to date with me being the 5th owner. All neatly dated, clear succinct descriptions so the next keeper in the future can have a proven provenence.

[Condi]

Just you, I think...

[Truckosaurus]

I've filled out my PH Garage page if that counts:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?me...

[Alex_225]

I don't set up a spreadsheet or anything like that. I have kept mementos from cars like old brochures and stuff. Plus I have photos of all of my cars so have a good record of them all from 2000 when I had my first Clio to now.

[McLarenLad]

Truckosaurus said:

I've filled out my PH Garage page if that counts:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?me...

Didn't even know this was a thing and now I feel like a sausage.

And it tracks depreciation, which I just spent the last 10 minutes doing...

[brillomaster]

i'm sure i logged my car's history to document how i went from 1.4 litres and 70bhp, to a heady 3.5 litres and 360bhp. but now both numbers are on the decline i havent done so since.

i do try and have a bit of a target as i get older... i like my cars brake horsepower to be my age multiplied 10, and i like my engine capacity in litres to be my age divided by 10.

therefore i've got 4 years to get my first 4 litre / 400bhp car...

[BertBert]

I've got quite a big trello board that has documented all the jobs I've done in my Caterham refurb. I'll add a running section to it as well.

Does that count?

[ChocolateFrog]

I have a list of cars I've owned but that's as far as it goes.

My brother has logged every fill up he's ever done on his cars and resultant fuel economy. His Audi is on well over 300k miles now.

Does help to spot trends and issues early.

[AndyFiftyFive]

Yep, similar to yours, I've tracked every car/bike I've owned in the last 14 years of driving, including all their stats as well.

Decided to note cost down recently as well which is useful info but also scary to see how much money I've lost over the years
Especially when you look at what some of those cars sell for now. (Even previously cheap cars like an EP3)

[Dannbodge]

Yep

Started using an "app" called custodian to keep track of it all.

It's really good.

[hunt123]

Nope but i wish i had started 1 years ago, biggest regret is not having photos.

[LesXRN]

I have a list of all of the cars I've owned since 1976, but that's it.

I did meet a chap at a car show here in France last Sunday who has a record of everything, including fuel usage, relating to his Rover 3.5 P5 going back to 1972.

[MikeM6]

McLarenLad said:

Or is it just me being slightly weird?

Not as weird as me, I have a OneNote list of all the (different) cars I have driven. No idea why, I just like updating the list. I'm up to 144 mostly mundane cars now

[McLarenLad]

ChocolateFrog said:

I have a list of cars I've owned but that's as far as it goes.

My brother has logged every fill up he's ever done on his cars and resultant fuel economy. His Audi is on well over 300k miles now.

Does help to spot trends and issues early.

That seems excessive, but at the same I'm thinking it's not a bad shout...

[squicky]

I've recorded my petrol usage/price/mileage for my current car since I got it 11 years ago. Once I started, it just became a habit I can't stop!

[aterribleusername]

For the daily I don't, just a service history suffices for that, but for my old Mini I do.

It didn't come with any history at all but since I've owned it I have a piece of A4 on the garage wall that logs the mileage and where it's been every time it goes out. There's also a 'Notes' bit where I log any parts replaced or issues noticed on the last drive. It's purely to keep track of things so that it's always ready to go if I feel like it or, as currently, a list of stuff to push me to get it back on the road. It really needs the bodywork being done, a full strip down with repaint, but until that happens I'm just working through the mechanicals so that when I do get it de-rusted and made new again I can just bolt everything back together (I know it's never that easy...). Current work list is new rear brake cylinders and shoes, a leak from the sump nut and a loose CV boot. Other jobs are in the Pending list, like new rubber cones, but that will get done when it's stripped as they're not urgent.

[Mr Tidy]

First up I'll admit I'm sad!

My Dad kept a meticulous record of every fill-up, mileage and destinations for his cars so I thought that was normal. So I did the same when I got my first car in 1976.

But in 2005 I put it all on an Excel spreadsheet - I just try to avoid looking at the totals.

[Muddle238]

I sort of have something similar. At our peak, we had six vehicles and trying to remember which ones were due tax when, when the MOTs expired, which insurance company each one was with and what the policy numbers were, along with other bits of trivia, it made sense to have an Excel spreadsheet which explained everything on one sheet.

So I made a database that had everything from date of acquisition, all the way through what dates everything expired on, breakdown cover details etc., at the time more for my wife so she had somewhere to start if anything ever happened to me.

I don't record mileages between fill ups or when the cars were washed, but I do go round the fleet on January 1st and make a record of the mileages, just so I can see what each car is doing per annum.