A New Car

When the old one will not work anymore its the sort of thing you have to make an effort and do. As the perpetual passenger who can not tell one car from another this could lead to stress.

After a few weeks of Steve clicking on car websites and explaining their benefits I was no further on with my understanding of fuel consumption and other technical issues. So I bravely left the decision of which cars do greener things to Steve. Yes a cop out.

Steve came up with several cars for me to look at: Fiat Panda, Chevrolet Spark, Suzuki Alto, Perodua Myvi.

I then had to think of what I expected from our car. We needed enough room for my parents who are not as mobile as we are. We needed to transport Oscar (a rough collie) easily. We should be able to fit a ladder and both of us in. It would be nice if it was distinctive in some way so that I could find it when it was parked with a lot of other cars. We should both like the car for some reason.

In the first car show room we visited I saw the most lovely orange spark. It was most pleasing to look at except it had a lot of crosses on it. We opened the boot and discovered that Oscar would have to leap over the high lip to enter. Not ideal. I did the get into it slowly test and it seemed OK. It had split rear seats to accommodate the ladder and us.

The next car showroom contained the Panda. We have had the original Panda before and loved its versatility. Frankly I was disappointed as it was not cute like the last one. It passed the get into car slowly test but there was not enough room for Oscar with the seat up and when it was down it was uneven with a solid back that would have been slippery for paws. The basic model did not have split rear seats or the option to purchase them so it failed the ladder test. Neither could you buy the basic in bright yellow so it failed the see a car in the car perk test.

What can I say about the Suzuki Alto. Yes it came in pink but the car showroom salesman got on my nerves and I can not really remember much. I think it failed the get Oscar in test. It probably did alright on the get in car slowly test, but I can not remember if you could get a ladder in it. Anyway, I didn't like that man so was not inclined to spend Steve's money and give him commission.

Then we caught the train to Hemel Hempstead to look at the Myvi. It easily passed the get into car slowly test as the rear seats have a curved edge. It has split rear seats and can get three people and a ladder in. Then we folded down the back seat and it did not go flat. We were just saying that that would be no good for Oscar when the salesman showed us that you fiddle with the seat cushion and it all fits nice and flat. It passed. We had a look round at the cars waiting to be sold and it comes in bright red. Steve liked it too.

So we bought the Myvi. A superb bonus was when we were asked which registration we would like from the list. LK10 FTP was the first on the list and we both said file transfer protocol. Imagine a registration we can both remember. So now all I have to do in the car park is look for a cute red car with the right registration. I have never in my life been able to remember a car registration. I am so pleased.