Cars
No Comments »One of the things that has taken up a lot of out time recently is sorting out the aftermath of having been crunched by a 4×4. The insurance claim went quite smoothly, with the settlement cheque received about a week and a half before Christmas, which left us a few little problems to sort out.
The first problem was that the insurance company didn’t want to keep the car, so deducted the expected salvage value from the settlement and left us to get it transported back home and find some way of disposing of it. As I write, it is still sitting in the drive…..although it may have a buyer in a couple of weeks time (fingers crossed). The second was arranging for the new (to us) car to be bought and picked up - which was further complicated by the frame of mind I was in after the accident concerning use of the 2CV during the winter.
After the crunch I was forced to think more about how I use the 2cv - it has been my main car since we moved to the middle of nowhere over 4 years ago, getting constant use driving backwards and forwards to work in all weathers, gathering salt from the roads in the winter, and generally suffering more wear and tear than I would like, given the amount of time/money/effort spent on it in the past. Had I been driving that car at the time of the accident, firstly I would have been probably rather more worse off physically, and secondly (strangely more important to me, I obviously have rather odd priorities) had it been that car which was written off it wouldn’t have been so easy to replace/repair again. The thing about modern cars is that even if they are unusual, generally they are more easily replaced.
So (yes I know it is bad grammer to start a sentance with the word “so”) after a bit of thought, I came to the conclusion that what I needed was a modern car for winter use to preserve the 2cv a bit. Also I am getting a bit fed up of being so cold in the car that a thick coat, hat and gloves are advisable. Of course, it couldn’t be any old modern car - I’m not good with conformity - I decided to buy a Smart ForTwo in Numeric Blue (special edition body panels). The real selling point was the electric heated seats…..
As it happens, we saw both the Numeric Blue Smart and a replacement Roadster (a Bluewave special edition) at the same garage - a visit was made to Guildford to view, and a commitment made to buy both. This is where Stephen’s bargaining skills came into play, and some of the headaches began……but to tell all about that would just bore everyone, so suffice to say there have been delays.
We were hoping to pick both cars up before Christmas but as it turned out only the Roadster was ready, as the hire car had to be returned the Monday before Christmas that was an essential. The part we were waiting for for my car still hadn’t arrived before Christmas so I arranged to pick the car up without it and return another time for it to be fitted (cruise control). Unfortunately the Roadster developed a fault with the gearbox sensors/computer fairly quickly after we got it home, so what actually happened between Christmas and New Year was that we picked one car up, and took the other back! We are currently still waiting for the Roadster to be ready to be returned (one failed attempt at returning already when the fault resurfaced on the motorway) and in the meantime I am still freezing my bits of in the 2CV on the way to work and back each day….hope this cold weather doesn’t last too long…..
Ah - nearly forgot - photo:
