From the driver seat of the 2014 Mazda MX-5 Miata, I wave “farewell” to my loyal, longtime readers.
The Denver Post is discontinuing my automotive columns after this weekend.
I joined the Post in September 1968; actually got my start 12 years earlier at the Sterling Journal-Advocate in 1956 – some of my readers go that far back with me.
The little Miata, finished in jet black exterior with spicy mocha interior, brings to approximately 1,850 the number of new cars and trucks I’ve driven and reviewed over the years.
A brief mention last Saturday of the discontinuance of my columns brought dozens of e-mails to me.
Heartfelt, all of them, such as: “Enjoyed your reviews while sipping my coffee; you’ve had an amazing run; your writing style is what I like best; call your departure sadness; I never read an automobile column before yours (from Jennifer); concise and informative; straightforward and entertaining; best wishes to you and Jan.”
Upon my retirement from The Post 11 years ago, Fran Wills, a vice president, asked if I would care to continue my car columns for the paper. I thought about it for 15 or 20 seconds, said, “Sure,” and it has been my great fortune that it rolled on week after week, year after year.
So, what’ll I do now? Well, most immediately, I’m involved in a book project with Tim Jackson, head of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association; the occasion is the 100th anniversary of the dealer group. My family has been involved in the car business dating back more than 80 years and I maintain a license to sell. Jan and I continue to oversee a large family, with lots of gatherings. Plus, after all these years, I don’t believe I’ve expended my allotment of words and I may write a bit more about cars. Of course, there are fishing and gardening and traveling, too.
I became the Post’s Page One Editor way back in the early 1970s when the Vietnam War was winding down and troubles were piling up for President Nixon. It became my responsibility in the mid-’70s to create an automotive page for the Post, and soon I became the automotive reviewer. I’ve been at that off and on since, taking an odyssey in the 1980s for Wells Auto Sales and the history book division of Curtis Publishing Co. and a stop at the Pueblo Chieftain, where I launched a car column. I spent the ’90s over at the Rocky (Rocky Mountain News) writing about cars and heading up a team producing special sections. I returned home to The Post in 2000.
Among highlights was a flight to Whitehorse in the Canadian Yukon in February 2004 to drive Porsche Cayenne SUVs on lakes frozen 3 to 4-feet thick; an earlier trip to Canada, to Winnipeg in 1978, where I found the elusive Charles Pogue, inventor of the famed high-fuel-mileage carburetor of the 1930s. Did he sell out to the oil companies, as was rumored for years? I don’t know; he said he didn’t.
There was the lunch with General Motors’ car czar Bob Lutz and Post publisher Dean Singleton at Ellyngton’s in the Brown Palace in the summer of ’04. I bumped into Lutz in January 2013 at the unveiling of the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette in Detroit, where, after our greetings, he asked, “How is Dean Singleton?” The Colorado Car Book was published in 1996.
And numerous trips to Detroit, and, following our first January stop there for the big auto show, Jan informed me, “I won’t be doing Detroit in the winter anymore.” And, she didn’t.
In June 2009, I was honored when the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association named its board meeting room in its large William D. Barrow office building, “The Bud Wells Board Room.” Three years later, at the Gunnison Car Show, Mike Callihan presented me with the Lee Iacocca Award.
Favorite cars? Too many to mention. I’ll always remember the great drive in the 1980 Porsche 928, ticket and all. And, of course, the wonderful 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL550 which carried Jan and me to Gunnison for the award. Oh, my.
Being hospitalized in late January 2012 cost me my claim to never having missed a column. That week was the only miss, ever, even for vacations. Gaining a position with The Denver Post was a dream come true for this kid from Wray, Colo.
Regarding the Miata, it’s barely bigger than a large skateboard (much more expensive, though, $32,735), and it’s a fun drive.
They’ve all been fun.
Thank you, readers.
