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Saturday, April 19, 2014

Driving around

The Gorse Fox may have mentioned that we are considering changing our existing cars as part of the transition to retirement. Whilst we still need a "family car" the second car only needs to be a little run-around for the GF. So it was that a few weeks ago we started looking at the specs of various vehicles and considering the pros and cons of each - on paper.

Today we stepped up a gear (see what I did there?). We had an appointment to try the VW Move Up! and so it was that we found ourselves driving round Chichester and the surroundings in this cute little car. Actually it was surprisingly good, and for most people would be a perfectly adequate second car. The gearbox was light and the car very responsive. Unfortunately, though, the seats didn't quite adjust enough for the Silver Vixen to be comfortable - and so it drops down the list.

We always had a "favourite" for the main family car. The question was whether that would be comfortable for both of us. (The Gorse Fox finds the Silver Vixen's RAV4 uncomfortable and get back ache and sciatica if he is in it for long - whereas it is perfect for her). We headed for the Nissan dealer and took a Qashqai out for a drive. This was a much longer test drive and gave us a chance to get comfortable and have a really good look around. Our initial review was that it fitted the bill perfectly - at least as far as we could tell with only the Gorse Fox driving. The demonstrator was a manual gearbox, so the Silver Vixen was unable to try the driving - but we have booked an automatic to test drive in a couple of weeks time.

Whilst in the dealership we also looked at the new Nissan Note. This had not been on our original list, but having looked at it, it has nudged its way into contention. We have more cars to test drive next week and will make our decision based on comfort and running costs.

With rain forecast for Sunday, Gorse Fox cracked on and mowed the lawns when the fun part of the day was over.

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