Sunday 16 May 2010

reliability more important than looks?


b4 anyone goes bananas here - wondering if Iv suddenly received enlightenment regarding matters of the heart - I am talking about reliablity of the 4 wheeled kind!


Im not one of those people who got remotely excited by a car - asked to describe a car I generally went no further than its colour and a shape. Ask me about the make, engine size and i was totally lost and drifted off to sleep. However a car is an essential part of my daily life. I travel over 300 miles/week on a round trip to work and back and coupled with many weeknds away throughtout our lovely island its a necessity evil for me.


However, this summer I decided that I would throw caution to the wind and get a car that I considered looked sharp. Anyway I got a dealer to search for and import for me a convertible beetle. Not any beetle - it had to be harvest moon (or cream to you and I ). Imagine my excited when a week or 2 later the dealer had indeed found a car to fit my requirements.

So on a nice sunny Thursday I excitedly drove down to bangor to collect my "new baby" And I must admit "she" looked pretty damn good and to b fair still does. However, once the initial excitement has worn off Im not as totally excited by her as I once was.

Firstly the shape of her is incredibly bulky - the days of squeezing into a tiny parking space or parrell parking has pretty much gone which is incredibly frustrating especially as I have to park On street at night.

The trade-off for the hood is that the rear mirror is pretty non extistent so even tho I got parking sensors put on , Im not always totally confident when reversing or indeed switching lines.

However, the biggest pain in the arse happened for the 3rd time today - hence the blog. As I was away from home for a week and therefore not driving for a week, when I went to drive her today the battery was totally flat. This happened twice b4 over the christmas holidays when again I didnt drive her for 4/5 days. At the time I put it down to the cold temperature. However,the fact that it has happened again makes me think its a problem with the electrics and cud happen again.


So my friends I pretty much am frustrated by her (btw i named her Bertha as thats apparently what u do with beetles - a male friend told me)


However, maybe if we get this summer that everyone is promising and when Im sailing up the coast with her hood down MAYBE Ill change my mind!

But at the moment when choosing my nxt car Ill consider more than the external appearance. And whilst it might b something boring and convential I'll take more notice about how it is to run!

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