Meanwhile, settling in to our new home & battling with the consequences of combining old women & technology, we were looking at options to purchase a car. We had a permanent address so could!
Like any major town, I assumed, quite rightly, that all the car dealerships in Malaga would be close together & we’d had a couple of mornings browsing used vehicles.
We’d looked at the longest estates that we could find within our budget/specified minimum age & as this was difficult, looked at spending more on a new, or very nearly new car. It’s not often that you can get a decent spec car for the base-price advertised & before you know it, the cost had increased by nearly 50%. As large engined estate cars were expensive, we considered a hatchback with a trailer. I thought about what would survive being bounced around & whether the more delicate items would fit in the hatch or roofbox. It was doable, but Rob wasn’t keen.
Then we looked a the van-shape cars, a Merc & Fiat in particular, side-by-side in a showroom. They were roomy, but boxy & didn’t really have the feel of a ‘car’. We left agreeing to a test-drive in a Fiat the following week. Being practical, I liked them – plenty of space for our stuff & the pets – what more did we want in a vehicle? But I know Rob didn’t really see himself driving one of these almost-vans.
The law of attraction…
We were in the midst of sorting the internet, so after vising the Coin Movistar shop, we sat with a beer in the central square – & noticed so many of these van-cars, & I mean a lot. I know about the law of attraction, that you’d start noticing whatever’s on your mind & having looked-at a large Peugeot, then saw them everywhere. There were seven parked-up in view of our bar & every second vehicle that drove past was a Fiat Doblo, a Peugeot Partner, VW Caddy, Citroen Berlingo, Ford Connect, Renault Kangoo, Merc Citan or similar 🙂
We began counting them driving past as we sat & also when we were driving – sad I know. Whichever manufacturer was the first to knock out the panels in a van & stick in windows, then add back seats was onto a winner in rural communities with a need to cart farming implements & animal feed about. These vehicles are just right for a bale of straw 🙂
Meanwhile, we were seriously considering keeping Blue & asked in a local English owned bar if they knew of a reliable English speaking mechanic to give us a repair quote.
I know, that’s really such an ex-pat thing to-do!
However, we know from experience how difficult it is to communicate when you don’t speak the language. We weren’t sure what the wobbling at 58 miles ph was, or the intermittent strange grating sound, never-mind have to explain via Google translate…
Therefore, we told Pat our story & dilema & he had a look under the bonnet, at the headlights & reversing lights which would need replacing for Blue to even be considered fit for importing. He went away with a copy of the log book to source costs of parts & had a word with his Gestor about an estimate for importation.
Then Rob drove the Doblo & actually liked it.
The more up-to-date 1.6 diesel engine, was powerful enough to replace the 2litre Honda & it was very spacious inside, around & above us – a bonus as we’re both so tall. We could also communicate well with Manuel, the owner of Europa Autos, a Spaniard with an Australian accent. But we put off making a decision until we’d heard from Pat.
It would cost more than double what we paid for Blue to import the Honda into Spain. Not a surprise, but also not really a viable option. Blue had been reliable, but we couldn’t guarantee this with a 15 year old car with approaching 200k miles on the clock although I know this isn’t an issue for a diesel engine. If we’d stayed in the UK, we’d never have considered getting rid & hopefully driven Blue for many more years, but it was always a potential part of our plan to buy a left-hand-drive.
So we were a little bit sentimental as we part-exchanged Blue for Dobbie & if the dealer couldn’t find someone specifically wanting a roomy car to drive back to the UK, would likely scrap the Honda 🙁 Daft it may be, but we weren’t that excited about collecting the Fiat & immediate missed the chilled aircon in Blue. Dobbie’s was, disappointingly, no-where near as efficient (a real surprise for a car in Southern Europe) & we drive with the windows open.
Bad hair day? Definitely – time for a haircut.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks