After some messing around and bad luck exacerbated by Olympic-class dithering and procrastination on my part, I've bought a little car to replace my van.
What I was looking for was a cheap small car with some sort of warranty (enough to show I wasn't being sold something with a known fundamental flaw) which was just big enough to tow a small trailer. Nice-to-have additional features would be:
- Petrol
- Light colour (I can't help thinking they must be at least a bit safer, particularly in dark and wet conditions)
- Scottish registration (so as not to be assumed to be a tourist!)
Looking around online and off there didn't seem to be many garages dealing in cars cheaper than about £6 or 7'000. There were three, though; one in Thurso, one in Dornoch and one in Nairn. I bounced around looking at cars with all three but had a lot of bad luck with cars having problems or my missing them. It didn't help that I just didn't do much for most of September.
I started writing up the details of the story here but it got tl;nswr (too long; nobody sane would read) so let's just say that last week I bought a 2012 58'000 mile Citroën C3. Here it is sitting outside the garage after I'd paid the deposit and was waiting for the bus home.
Minus points for being at the top end of the range of prices I was willing to pay (£4495) but I'd got fed up with messing around on some cheaper cars I'd seen and for being a dark colour. It's got features that really aren't of much interest to me (electric wing mirrors, cruise control, …) and could one day be a liability; I'd rather have paid a bit less for a simpler car but I don't suppose they'd make that much difference to the price. I'm gradually getting used to just how different it is to drive compared to the Hiace.