Getting a new car
I have a car that I like. I don’t love it, but it does what I need it to do
Like get me from A to B without any complaints
And the boot gives me a space to store the 976 carrier bags and bags for life I seem to have accumulated.
But, and here’s the thing, for all its positives it is still brown. I can try and kid myself that it is gold, but it isn’t It is well and truly brown. My kids call it the shiny sh** and to be honest I am getting bored of that moniker. And the fact it is a diesel. Not a day goes by where I don’t read another article about how diesels are destroying the planet and there will be government subsidies for drivers to ditch theirs.
I am also sandwiched between two of the biggest petrol heads you could ever meet: my son and my dad. My son who knows everything there is to know about cars and can even identify a car from a headlamp or a wheel arch. And my dad who is such a huge lover of cars the only real requisite for their last house purchase was that it had to have garaging for several cars. They are his pride and joy, especially his Jaguar XK140 which he has driven to Sydney in. Yes, that Sydney, in Australia. It took three months and involved some of the most incredible parts of the world. So it (I say “it” she is called Beastie, see I am not kidding when I talk about the love for this car) and my dad are almost inseparable.
So when I say cars are an important part of our family, you sort of see where I am coming from. Which means that my little brown car is letting the side down somewhat and now I no longer need a car that I can get a week’s worth of shopping for five of us into, or the dog, I want something a bit more fun. I don’t do the school runs anymore now that Ellie drives herself (in a Peugeot called Patrick) so any driving that I do is for pleasure and I want it to be fun. When Mr B and I head out at the weekends how much fun would it be to be in a little two seater runaround?
Not encased in brown metal.
Which means I have spent a fair amount of time recently looking at replacing my car, but how to do that without breaking the bank?
I don’t want to spend all our savings on a new car so I have been exploring other options for financing it. Such as maybe car leasing because then I just commit to a monthly fixed payment and don’t have to hand over huge amounts of cash.
A nice little Maserati maybe?
Hmm maybe not, I hate to think what the insurance would be on that, and with a V6 engine I would possibly lose my licence in a fortnight. But I can see me in an Audi TT or a convertible Mini. How much fun would they be to drive at the weekends? A car like that can only make you smile. And at least having leased it I know what my monthly outgoings on it will be, and I still have money my savings.
Sounds like a win-win to me
As long as it isn’t brown, of course.
photo of car courtesy of Shutterstock