Bought a car
… but I almost didn’t!
We got the train down to London yesterday morning and arrived at London Mazda around 12:30 to check the car out and complete the purchase. Alas, the car was still in the workshop and we couldn’t see it yet, which was a bit worrying considering they’d had 3 days notice of us coming to get it.
We decided to wait the 30 minutes in the showroom as they had a ‘fordcafe’ (or is it fordcafe?) so we could get some lunch. The lunch was cack, but they eventually brought the car round the front for us to look at, though the sales guy was looking a bit nervy.
As we checked round the car, it clearly had a few niggly problems that made it not the ’superb’ example we’d been promised before travelling 300 miles to London. As a result, we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting around waiting and negotiating over what would be done about the faults (worst was the broken/missing boot struts).
Eventually (at 4:40) they agreed to discount the cost of the required parts and labour from the price we paid for the car so we could get it sorted once back up North, leaving 20 minutes for the sales guy to get down the Post Office and tax the car.
By around 5:30 all was sorted out and paid for and we could finally set off for the 300 mile return journey in my nice new V6 Alfa Romeo 156. First job was to fill up with petrol (first time I’ve ever had to spend over £50 on a tank of petrol - it’s a big tank!) as there was the usual lack of petrol in a car bought from a dealer.
After that we set off in London rush hour traffic which was fortunately not that bad. The car cruises the motorway beautifully and the V6 engine has so much more power at all speeds/rpms than my Accord Type-R that overtaking was effortless. The car is also very stable at high speed, even taking crosswinds well.
Overall I’m delighted with the car - the A/C got fixed while we waited at the garage, so that was £100 saved while the distorted boot lining can be lived with or replaced relatively easily. The smoked headlight cleared up a bit after a few hours’ nighttime driving so if that’s OK we’ve saved another £200! The boot struts really do need fixing asap though.
I even arrived home to find the set of 16″ Tele-dial wheels I bought on eBay had arrived, so once I pick up my new CD player from the CityLink depot tonight I’ll be able to spend part of tomorrow fitting the wheels and new CD player to complete my new car (I may just spend a bit of time with my brother for his birthday :P).
Let’s just hope I don’t get driven into again while going to collect a parcel 