The car

On Wednesday we picked up the car. We had to drive quite a way to get it, so we hired a car from Enterprise, on a one way hire. They come and pick you up from where you are, and then the return place was close to the garage. Hiring a car was 60 dollars, a cab would have been 80. On the way we had to go and see M, from State Farms Insurance. He played basketball in a spare office with A and D, while someone else sorted out all the insurance business, and then we had proof we were insured, so they would give us the car.

Weirdly, we got house contents insurance for better than free. Car insurance is fairly expensive where we are (we are paying about $700 for 6 months cover). House contents insurance is cheap (it's pretty secure, we haven't got much, and the house itself is someone else's problem), but if you take up the house insurance, you get a percentage discount on your car insurance. It turns out that the amount the car insurance goes down is more than the house insurance costs. So they effectively pay you to get insured.

When we arrived at the garage, we had to meet a chap called W. W, it turned out, was out, so we sat around for about an hour waiting for him. (We were late, so he was just about forgiven.)

When W turned up, he turned out to be about 107, and used the computer very, very slowly. There was an important form, which it was not possible to duplicate, that he had to run through a dot matrix printer. That made me somewhat nervous. He practiced three times, and then did it with the form (but it worked OK).

We got the car, and S was going to follow me in the new car, while I drove the hire car to the rental place. But we couldn't start it. Eventually, we gave up, and I went to find W. (He'd pushed his computer to one side to use an electric typewriter on his desk). The trick is to press the clutch when you turn the key - then it starts.

The car is moderately exciting - we spent a while pressing buttons and opening windows and little storage cubbies and things. There's only one drink holder in the back, which is a slight pain. There's also an arm rest that I bang my elbow on when I change gear (S doesn't, 'cos she has the driver's seat slightly further forward).

There were a lot of things that were optional extras, which you wouldn't expect to be. Electric windows, remote control opener, central locking, ABS, were all options. Surprisingly (to me) despite having most things you could ask for, it's got drum brakes on the back.

It's got traction control, which annoys S, because she doesn't understand what it's for. You can turn it off by pressing a button (but you have to press it for 1 second, I had to read the manual to find that out).

My favorite thing about it is that it's no problem at all to find it in a car park.