Filed under: Cars
Apparently there’s some new form of agism/racism that prevents the AA from ensuring cars that are registered before 1993. That means the insurance for the Volvo would have cost approximately four times the car itself. However, having re-entered the car market, it does give me a chance to have a close look at two of the strategies used to sell a motor on the web.
Good points / bad points
One of the most common strategies when selling a car is to set up the pros and cons of the vehicle. Here’s how it goes normally.
Good points :
- Has original steering wheel,
- Reaches 100 mph in first (if dropped from plane)
- MOTed until tomorrow morning
Bad points :
- No gear box
- No clutch
- No starter
- Built on ancient Indian burial ground
- Carries bubonic plague
- Tendency to “transform” itself into a robot at any moment crushing all passengers
The Traveller
The listing :
“I’ve decided to go travelling at the last moment – because I’m such a crazy hippy – so, I’ve got to sell my car, my beloved Algonquin Starshine. I’d love to keep it but really must go and pick flowers in uplands of Kashmir”.
What a steal, I think. I’ll ring this dozy hippy chick and get the car for some Red Afghan, sitar strings and 4 metres of cheese-cloth.
ring – ring – ring
“Awight mate, izzit vee Fiesta ya want? Yeah, 200 notes an’ if ya need a Mondeo gi’ me a bell”
Travellers are the new little old ladies.
Still need to find a car.
I’m buying the Volvo. Despite worrying that it might cause a fracture in my psychic walls, I totally fell in love with the car. It’s a 14 year old beast with 180 000 miles on the clock. More shire horse than thoroughbred, this blue bad boy looks as though it would keep on going ’till Christ returns.
Today, I pick it up.
There are plenty more cars on GumTree if you do want to come.
Argh, this rally has bundled me up and run away with me. 10 days to go and I am only just buying my car. This is exactly the sort of slackness that I have castigated others for. In future I will not try to finish big ass six month projects three days before I go on the rally. I definitely will not compound this by trying my hand at being a standup comedian, four weeks before I finish a big ass work project.
On the bright side of life, I wrote a post on Project Red Stripe – the thing that I was working on for The Economist – that got on the front page of TechMeme (Techmeme is the geek version of The Times, all of you who didn’t think the iPhone changed the world) and I have found out that I can go on stage and make *some* people laugh. However, I haven’t been able to give the rally the love, care and attention in needs. As I like to think that I can chew more than others can bite off this hurts. Nonetheless, we head to Bavaria in 10 days.
For that we’ll need a car. I’ve got two options on the go at the moment.
Option 1 : The Citroenski – being sold by Remus the Pole who also has quite a large stash of Stella in the back of his car. It is a bit small for five days, I’d say.
Option 2 : A Volvo 440 – buying this 7 seater beast might bring on some sort of Freudian crisis because it is the car my father had. I’m worried that some time after buying this I’ll wake up in a large black armour exoskeleton. My breath will rasp like a phone pest with a sore throat, and I’ll be wearing a long black cape : “You’ve come over to Dark Side, Tom. You are your father”. Cue some sort of internal Oedipan light sabre battle. Though you can put down all the seats and sleep in the car. Maybe the risk of becoming my old man isn’t so bad – bring on the pink cords.
If anyone else is keen on one of these cars and decides to come on the rally at the last minute please tell me.
Filed under: Germany
Good news party people, the weather is absolutely great in Bavaria. Now, as the route has been carefully calculated and calibrated to leave us a fair bit of time to play outside that is Gut News.
Here’s the sponsorship form for the rally (Sponsorship Form). Use it recklessly and remember all the good that you’re doing by getting money for the Cancer Research UK. Recently, I’ve had a few friends of mine who’ve had one of their parents cancered. It really is a quite upsetting. Two of my favourite peopel had been all fine and dandy when, suddenly, they have one of their parents just casually wiped out. I really would appreciate it if some doctors spent a little more time curing cancer and a little less time being amateur terrorists.
I would also be very upset if one of the ralliers got themselves in any trouble on the route, so this is the perfect time to remind everyone that the KCDR supports safe driving in a very active way. Car insurance is also greatly encouraged and you can get it very easily at Norwich Union Short Term Car Insurance.
Be safe on the road and help get revenge on cancer by raising money.
