More car shopping

Having sorted Neil's car we now needed to sort one for me. I have much lower ambitions as far as cars are concerned as I do not like driving big cars. All I wanted was a little hatchback that was good for getting the dogs about, getting the shopping in and reliable.

On my trips back to the UK over the last couple of years I have had a variety of hire cars and the one I had particularly enjoyed driving was the Kia Rio and so that was top of my shopping list, well to be honest - it was my entire shopping list.

Again, we spent time on the internet to find cars to go and see on the Tuesday morning while we were waiting for the the 2pm time to arrive when we would get the keys to the house. It was good to keep occupied as I was aware that we were getting the keys to move into a house that Neil hadn't actually seen and so I was a little apprehensive about what he would think about the house when he finally got to see it.

2nd hand Kia Rio's were not in abundance but there was one in a garage close by and it was red. Would it look a bit excessive to have 2 red cars sitting side by side on the drive? Would it be like a couple who go out in matching sweatshirts? No, we didn't think so - so we set off to have a look at the car.

Now, I'm not sure whether we looked like time wasters or what, but the garage decided to give us the trainee to practise his selling skills on. This is a rough translation of our conversation:

Us: We've come to have a look at the Kia Rio you have for sale.

Trainee: Ok, let me check where it is for you........Oh, I'm sorry we have sold that one.

Us: Do you have any others.

Trainee: No, but we have mobility cars coming in all the time.

(Neil and I exchange glances as we weren't aware we looked as if we had a disability that would need a mobility vehicle)

Us: So do you have any Rio's due in?

Trainee: No.

(So that was a rather useless bit of info then)

Trainee: We could arrange 0% finance for you.

Us: Why? We're paying cash.

Trainee: Well then you could buy a more expensive car.

Us: Why, do you have a Rio that is more expensive?

Trainee: No.

Us: (Big sigh)

Trainee: Would you be interested in a Kia Cee'd?

Us: Don't know, what does a Cee'd look like.

(Trainee takes us over to look at a New Cee'd in the showroom and it was fine)

Us: Yes, that would be ok, do you have one for our budget?

Trainee: No.

Us: (Another big sigh)

Us: Thanks for your help

And we left.

Now, this wasn't a Kia dealer and there was a carpark full of 2nd hand cars but we had lost the will to start trying to discuss other cars.

Then we went on to a garage we had bought from previously. They are a 2nd hand car supermarket and always have hundreds of cars in stock.

Us: We're looking for a Kia Rio, our budget is this, do you have anything?

Salesman: No, but what does your car need to have?

Us: Smallish, diesel, hatchback.

Salesman: Well, we have just received a Seat Altea that is a nice car.

Us: What's a Seat Altea look like.

Salesman: It's in our valeting suite, come and have a look.

And so, I found my car. it was smallish, it was a hatchback with 5 doors, it was a diesel, it was sparkly black and had a 6 CD changer. It was for our budget.

We took it for a test drive. It has a 1.9TDI sport engine and zips around the lanes. The rear seats move forward so there is no gap between them and the front seats for the dogs to fall down. There are lots of compartments in the boot (that's the trunk for my American readers) to stop the shopping bags sliding everywhere.

And that was it. I had found my car. I could collect it on Thursday. Neil could collect his on Friday, so within the week we would both be mobile again.

And all this before we'd picked up the keys for the house.

Not a bad couple of days shopping.