You hear a lot of people saying it, but we do indeed live in strange times. For us, as a family, we were under a lot of pressure to get certain priorities dealt with before the Coronavirus' effects seriously hit. For instance, getting Basil the Jack Russell to the vet for repeat prescriptions and learning what to do about getting successive prescriptions for him if the crisis worsened, getting Peggy the Bedlington home from the RSPCA shelter (which we did with a couple of weeks to spare) and organising and carrying out the buying of a new car and selling of our current old faithful, amongst other priorities.
Well, we managed the car thing with unbelievable speed. I am one of those people who doesn't like to attempt to multitask, I like to deal with one priority at a time and give it all the thought and attention it requires, checking and double checking that I'm doing stuff right. It might take me months to think about the issue - particularly if it involves anything anxiety-inducing - making sure I have my head around what it is going to require and making sure I am ready for the stressful bits. I will be the first to agree that this is otherwise known as prevaricating. My hubby, Steve, is slightly similar in that he likes to research and plan the process through, but he is one of those who likes to just get on with it and adjust the plan as we go. Well that scares me to death, so I'm afraid he's had to learn to chivvy me just enough to not make me dig my heels in, whilst proceeding at a slower than he would like pace.
Aaanyway, finally all that was left for us to do was the car thing. So I set myself to searching for "the" car much in the same way as I searched for "the" dog - I looked up as many online points of reference for used cars as I could find and bookmarked the possibles that were within our price range. Then hubby and I would compare notes and chuck out the ones that weren't likely or sensible for whatever reason - including checking their MOT history, which is a brilliant way of finding out just how reliable a car is likely to have been and how carefully it has been looked after.
We'd been doing this in a very small way for quite some time and had noted various types of car that were possible and - more to the point - lots of types of car that weren't! However, once we got serious about it we found a Nissan Note that was literally just around the corner from us at a dealership and went off to have a gander. As it turned out, I loved the concept of the Note - the space inside the cabin, the flexible luggage space (for Anthony the mobility buggy), the lightness of the steering, the driving position, the ease of getting in and out - it was all perfect. The only problem with this one was a) the wiring loom looked like it had been eaten by rats and put back together again by Mr. Gaffer Tape and b) the brake calipers were worryingly moth-eaten. Following a test drive (which was a LOT of fun), we decided to leave it there and continue looking. Even though the Note had swiftly ascended to the top of the "possibles" tree, I wasn't disappointed as I felt sure we could find one in better condition.
That evening, I cast my net across the used car adverts and turned up three Notes - one of which looked very nice indeed. We arranged to go and have a look at it the following day - and bought it. We came home, got a taxi back out to the car and brought it home that same day. It's red, it's now called Cherry and is a cut above the one we saw at the dealership in its specification and in its condition and the price would leave us with enough money in the kitty to deal with any unforeseen costs and/or the first MOT. Couldn't ask for better.
The following day, we put Alfie the Amalfi Lemon Coloured Skoda up for sale at a price that was a fair bit more than the part exchange we'd been offered - and Steve's mobile phone went completely bonkers within seconds of the advert hitting the internet. The first fella who came to see him bought him - and took him away there and then. *blink* I don't think I've ever dealt with a vehicle purchase/sale at quite that speed before.
Strange times? You're telling me!
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