Never, ever write something stupid like a blog with the title "An uneventful week" because that will be the end of your peace.
We had a perfect Bank Holiday weekend with a walk on Saturday to Hertford from Ware along the river and back only to be greeted with a Land Rover missing its coolant. This was the last straw since this car has been nothing but a liability and we resigned ourselves to finding a replacement. Every penny we spend on pointless things like this means that we have less money for expanding our family so whatever we get has to be cheap and reliable.
We tried a couple of large car supermarkets in North London because they would have a wide range but there was nothing inspiring. The best we could come up with was a Kia, which was on a very new plate (an '08) but still at the top of our price range. The next day we went to London in the baking heat to see an older one but discovered that the garage had to order it in from its storage site, which was closed so completely pointless. We were all extremely frustrated and irritable now.
I checked every website for every model of car desperately hoping that something would stand out. Of course on a whim I looked at Land Rovers too to see what we could reasonably expect for selling ours and looking enviously at what the same amount of money would buy if we had chosen a sensible Land Rover Defender instead of the chav-mobile Discovery.
At the bottom of the page were the cheaper vehicles and I jokingly suggested we look at one which was dirt cheap although it had done 200,000 miles. That garage was closed but we carried on looking and the idea of getting a Defender started to gain momentum. I found it difficult to accept the idea of buying such high mileage vehicles but clearly that was the norm and after all the joy of these Land Rovers is that you can fix them easily enough and if the engine needs replacing, well replace the engine.
I found one company who had several interesting looking vehicles and a helpful webpage that explained to novices like me what was important when looking at these. I gather that the chassis was the be all and end-all. More or less everything else could be mended or replaced cheaply enough and a Defender could give many hundreds of thousands of miles on a reliable frame.
The garage was in Somerset but the idea had reached fever pitch now. Unlike a Kia, Vauxhall, Ford or whatever the Defender looks great. The long wheel-base version has more than enough room for us plus any any guests we might have. The basic nature of the interior means that we would not worry about transporting anything or anyone, unlike the chav-mobile Disco.
So after 150 miles and 3 hours of driving we arrived at the garage to check them out. This was unlike any other car purchase I have ever made. There were five vehicles in our price range - one of which was essentially in bits and being put back together again, one had just had its interior done but was awaiting a new roof and the other three were more or less complete. To view one of them we had to literally walk over the other one since they were so tightly packed in the workshop.
The owner took lots of time with us to explain the different aspects of each truck (that is the correct term, this is not a car I discovered). He warned us not to worry about trivial little details like the interior or the colour or the choice of engine since all of this could be sorted out later (the one that was in bits currently had a V8 but they would change it to a diesel as desired). All the consumables in the engine including the timing belt would be replaced and the first service is free. He showed off some of their projects and their passion for getting the details right and they clearly had a lot of business from some very demanding customers. When we chose the truck he walked round it with us and started marking things that would be changed In fact we felt like we hadn't really seen our truck at all but just given our specifications and they would do the rest.
Buying something that has done 130,000 miles was not really on my agenda at the beginning but I feel confident that this truck will do at least that again whereas I doubt the discovery has got 130 miles left in her.
The day was even better because our 150 mile trip had taken us within 35 miles of Karen and Chris in Blandford so we met them in the pub (a short stagger from their front door). They showed us their absolutely stunning new place and provided us with a welcome and much needed meal. We'll be back down next week but it was a real boon to show Harriet off sooner than that.
The week had turned thank goodness.
