Out with the old, in with the slightly newer…

Yesterday morning, we got up relatively early and took the train down to Orpington to pick up our new car. Everything went smoothly, we picked up the keys and transferred all the documents in about ten minutes, and then it was ours to drive back. Exciting stuff! We had lunch with Philippa’s parents, and then drove back home – stopping off to get our shop at Tollgate Sainsbury’s (that’s a rant for another day – it was a nightmare! So busy, ugh. Horrible. I’m glad I don’t have to shop there every week, or even every year come to think of it).

So, first things first, our previous car – the Hyundai Lantra – is now up for sale on eBay. I gave it a wash and vac this afternoon, not that it will make much difference! I don’t know whether anyone will be interested, but looking at the price of the other Lantras on offer (most of them are more expensive) I think we might be in with a shot with some bargain hunters.

I would like to talk about the Saab though. It’s a 2000 (W-reg) Saab 9-3 (not a 93 apparently, that would be too obvious), 2.0 Litre Turbo version. The engine size is bigger than the Hyundai, which will mean that it’s less petrol efficient. However, it doesn’t seem to be a gas guzzler so far (30mpg roughly), so hopefully it won’t make too much difference to my wallet! I did notice that on the A12 driving back yesterday, at 70mph the rev counter was only at about 2,600rpm – on the 1.6 Hyundai it would have been just over 3,000. It also accelerates much quicker (when the turbo kicks in), and is a bit quieter in the car going at those kind of speeds.

And it feels ten times better to drive – everything is solidly built and well put together. It also has a few more features than the Hyundai did (which I suppose is not surprising given that Hyundais are budget cars): remote locking, alarm (not sure whether an alarm is a good thing but still), on board computer, climate control, and lots of other little niceties which demonstrate that Saabs are well designed, well thought out cars.

Aaaanyhoo, I’ll stop going on about it now – I just hope that it proves to be a reliable car to run!