We've got the car back!

 Our car has been repaired and looks s good as new.  It only had 20 miles charge left in it though so it's sitting on the drive getting a quick charge before I have to pick up the kids who are at a summer club. 

Finished

It took a while, but I finished it yesterday in time for Arthur getting home. 

Driverless car

 I'm in London today and have just spotted my first driverless car.  It's very weird. 

Puncture

 I had an alert from the car on Saturday after picking Flo up from her sleep over and then dance class.  The rear left tyre had low pressure.  I managed to get it pumped up at the garage but when doing so spotted this.  Bloody hell. They couldn't fix it till Monday so we were car less.  All paid for by the leasing company though so could have been worse.

A bit of a scare

 We went up to Oundle on Saturday for a nice meal with my Dad and his wife Anne.  The trip up was good, although the range on the new car meant we had to charge up mid way and also on the way back.

I missed the turning for the charging point we were supposed to stop at so risked it and went to the next one.  With careful driving at 55 miles an hour and the air con turned off, we coasted into the charging bay with 4 miles left in the battery!

New car

 The new car arrived on Monday.  I had my first shot in it yesterday picking the kids from school.  It's lovely.  Will take a little time to get used to the size.  It just about fits on the drive...  Audi Q4 Etron.

Fixed

 A couple of weeks ago the guy that delivers our firewood fell off the back of his truck and landed on our car.  He offered to put it through his insurance but that seemed like a lot of effort with very little gain.  I said I would try and get it repaired locally cheaper.  I went to a place and they said they could do it but it would be £500, he suggested I use another company that comes to your house and pulls the dent out.  I used their recommendation and the chap popped round earlier and did a good job and only cost £240.

Finally got it sorted

 Since we got our new car in December it's been giving us warnings due to the tire pressure not being high enough.  I finally got it sorted yesterday.  We've now got happy blue tires on the screen.

New car turned up

 Our new car got delivered last Tuesday.  We've gone for full electric.  We were on the waiting list for a new Audi Q4 (electric) through a car scheme at April's work but didn't want to be tied in.  So have opted for a cheaper option as a short term stop gap.  So far so good.

Full electric

Our new electric car arrives on Tuesday so we got this installed. Fairly discreet. And better than posting a plug through the letter box each time we need a charge like with our current car.

New car

 We've decided to go full electric and go for an Audi Q4, a bit bigger than we originally planned but there's no full electric version of the A3 (our last 2 cars).  April has a scheme at work that makes it very tax efficient.  I've never had a new car before so is very exciting.  Only problem is that it's got around a year lead time! There's a new unit of measure called a jukebox.  It's roughly 1.2 jukeboxes away.  Hopefully...

Grand parent visit

My Dad and his wife came down for the weekend to see the kids and it was good to see them.  The kids haven't seen them since mid January.  My dad's had a couple of mini strokes in the past couple of years and is no longer comfortable driving the 2h down to Tonbridge.  

We'll head up soon for Christmas so they'll be able to get their presents, but it's been too long.  It's just a pain with leaving the dog on her own (we usually get a friend to walk her mid way), but it means we have to basically head up -> stay for a couple of hours ->  then head back so not much fun.

Here they all are doing yoga on Sunday morning

 

Rally day

 April and some friends went on a rally car experience at Brands Hatch on Saturday.  It was one of April's Christmas presents.  She had a great time although span the car a few time.  Yikes!

Car update 2

  Well, we have the car back now and it has a new smell, but it's better than the smell of a smoker.  We've also managed to get the hybrid part working and get it slowly charging from a normal plug.

So, we've decided to keep it.  It's a lovely car.  But I guess it should be at that price.

Car update

 So, the car was valeted last week but when they returned it the smoke smell was still there, the driver took it back so we're stuck with the courtesy car whilst they try something else.  They've basically paid £500 to get a special biohazard clean.  I think this is what they use to get rid of the smell of dead bodies.

I should get our car back today, although if it still smells or smells badly of something else we'll need to swap it out for a new car or get our money back.

New car update

 The car smells of cigarette smoke!

I didn't really notice it when I was looking around the car as I had the doors open but when I drove off I did smell a slight whiff.  When I went out with April in it yesterday the smell was pretty strong so have spoken to the dealership and they are going to sort it out.

Pretty annoyed with them really but no point getting angry.  We can give it back within a month anyway so if after their works there is still a smell we will swap it for a different one.

Old versus new side by side

 

New car

We paid a deposit on a new (2020) car yesterday.  Our A3 had recently had it's service and about £1000 worth of work was recommended.  We have been thinking about getting a newer car for a while so whilst this was a little sooner than we'd originally planned it makes sense to do it now.

 We did toy with the idea of getting a Golf instead as they're a little cheaper but the seats are awful (plaid, couldn't find any with leather).  We also toyed with the idea of getting something a little bigger but with a bigger car it meant a much bigger price.

The main criteria we had was that it had to by at least hybrid.  Full electric of the size we wanted and brand (me) was just out of our budget.

We liked Audi and the last two cars from them are great so opted for another one. Basically the same car but 7 years newer and with a small electric engine with a range of about 40 miles.  Which would cover us for 95% of our driving.

I pick it up tomorrow.

Fairly busy day tomorrow

My mum's coming down tomorrow to meet her Grandson Arthur for the first time, but before that we have someone coming round to replace the windscreen of our car.  Next door is getting work done on their roof so has scaffolding all the way up to the 2nd floor.  One of their idiot roofers dropped a tile and it's cracked the glass right in the corner.

There's a guy coming round tomorrow to replace it (they've arranged it) but if he doesn't look up to scratch, i'm going to get Audi to do it and send them the bill.

I finally feel like an adult

We got Halfords to fit this bad boy today. We're off to Anglesey in a couple of weeks with my dad and my brother's family and have just realised that there really isn't enough room for the four of us and a weeks worth of stuff. 

It wasn't cheap, but it's either that or a new car. 

Annual clean

Our car had it's annual clean (service) with Audi yesterday.