Have Wheels, Will Travel

New CarAbout six months ago – just before the beginning of the current academic year – we decided to sell our old car. It was costing too much to keep, we didn’t need it, etc etc.

So, it may come as a bit of a surprise to discover that we’ve bought a new car! As it turns out, it’s not actually that cheap to use public transport: even if you book in advance, you’re still looking at around £40-£60 for a return for two people between home and Colchester / Ipswich. Also, booking trains is really inconvenient… we particularly noticed this at Christmas, when we had to make a few journeys between home, Phil’s parents’, my parents’, and Colchester. All this would be manageable if we were only travelling occasionally, but given that Mum’s not been well and we’re travelling more often we thought it might be worth getting a car sooner rather than later.

So, we contacted Surecar (who everyone seems to use at Oak Hill), and they fitted us up with a 2007 Honda Civic (as pictured). It’s a nice car – it looks pretty space age inside! It has things like cruise control (which I’ve never had on a car before), which should make it easier for longer journeys. The engine should be a bit more efficient than our old car – plus it has a sixth gear which should help with that.

I remember seeing it reviewed on Fifth Gear a while back (I was watching it last summer I think), they reviewed it when it first came out, and the review was positive. One thing they did say was that the car felt solid and well put together, which I agree with: all of the buttons etc feel like they’re not going to come off!

So, there you go – we’re now mobile again. It feels good, although now the temptation is to use the car when perhaps I shouldn’t: this morning I saw the weather outside and almost decided to drive up to college rather than walk… but I didn’t. Anyway, hopefully it will be a good car for us 🙂


Comments

2 responses to “Have Wheels, Will Travel”

  1. The car is more convenient, but I would query whether it is cheaper. The running costs for any vehicle add up once you factor in everything.

    You also should get a Network railcard (1/3 off, covers a large chunk of the South East) if you need to do lots of train journeys.

    1. Hi Karen, you are right in that it’s probably not cheaper than getting the train. It was more of a convenience thing for us – getting the train lots is a real pain, and you can’t book every journey.

      But yeah, you pays your money and your takes your choice really!

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