If you’ve ever experienced car problems, chances are that there is only one person you’d trust to tow your vehicle: Marius Wagenaar. But if the name Marius sounds unfamiliar, then ‘Muis’ will surely trigger a memory!

Muis is a familiar face and name in the Cape Winelands and throughout Cape Town. Oil pumps through his veins and he lives to see every car run at its best. Even his own cars.

However, what many probably don’t know is that Muis was a broken man for the best part of ten years when he sold his box-shape Toyota Corolla.

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Almost as soon as the sale went through, he realised his mistake and would search for another one for a decade. But it wasn’t just about buying a new box Corolla.

No. It was also about fitting it with the Toyota-Yamaha dual BEAMS engine setup. A box-shape Corolla is just not the same if it doesn’t have that engine.

Immaculate condition

Just like all the cars he owned previously, Muis is not keen on having his whips in poor condition. Be it the exterior or the interior, it must be in a very good condition. His daughter, who came with when he met up with us, said that even her father’s tow truck is extremely clean.

“You can even eat off the floor,” she says. “He cleans it every day and takes a lot of pride in his vehicles.”

And you can’t help but believe her, because just one glance over the Box’s interior shows that nothing is out of place. It shines and smells of hygiene. Even the wooden TRD steering wheel looks like it just came off the shelve.

But if you really want to rate Muis’ car’s interior, just look at the dials on the display in front of the driver: it’s spotless! Not a single dust molecule.

The exterior may be mint, but it’s the interior that tells the true story.

Not making the mistake

Since selling his first Box all those years ago, Muis has been dealing with regret and disappointment. Some may think it’s strange, but it’s something only a petrolhead will understand. This is why, he says, he won’t be making the same mistake again.

“I’m not going to sell this car,” Muis says as he looks at his pride on four wheels.

“I made a mistake back then, but I’m not going to do it again. This car is going to stay in the family and my daughter already knows that she is the next owner.”

Muis explains that more work will be undertaken on the Toyota, and it will be made safer for his daughter.

“I didn’t dyno it yet, but when I bought it I was told that the engine pushes out between 150 and 160kW. And because it weighs less than 1 000kg and it’s rear-wheel drive, you can imagine how wild it is. So I must protect my daughter first before I can really say, ‘okay, now it’s yours’.”