Our life in cars: Part 2

Continuing our drive through the highways and byways of our car ownership, we reach the point where we moved from being a one-car family to being a two-car family. Domestic circumstances were such that Mrs P and I needed our own transport. Our last 'solo' car was the white VW Polo and now I'll deal with the strand of cars that were our 'own'. The other strand had many company cars and I'll deal with them in another post. Going through the cars we've had, I'm struck with how sensible they all are: some might even say boring. We just don't go for anything flash, preferring function over form every time.

Another car we bought from new (I think), a Peugeot 205. Nothing remarkable about it, really, although the rather garish green upholstery has left an indelible mark on my subconscious. Perhaps I didn't drive it enough for me to form any sort of bond with it? Actually, thinking about it, didn't it have a very noisy diesel engine that rattled like a set of joke false teeth?

Our next car was a little bigger and was like driving around in an armchair, a Rover 214. A soft, wallowing ride that was so comfortable. This one ended up with our son and came to a rather ignominious end, which we'll not dwell on.

And now we went to the Far East when the Rover roved away: a Hyundai Accenture. Built like a tin can and with very little in the way of sound proofing, it was not one of life's pleasures to drive. Having said that, it was reliable and economical to own. I understand that Hyundai have long since upped their game and their standards are much better than they were on this model. Let's face it, they had to improve for the survival of the company.

One good thing about the Hyundai is that I remembered that we got a better than expected price for it when we part-exchanged it for another Rover; this time a Rover 25 hatchback. We had this for a quite a long time and it served us well. Two trips to Tuscany were met with aplomb and it ended up being a bit of a workhorse, with its usual share of mechanical ups and downs. Long before this one, the novelty of DIY maintenance had lost its attraction and deep and meaningful relationships were fostered with local garages.

And that brings us up to the present with our Nissan Micra. Small. manoeuvrable and eminently suitable for the narrow lanes around us in this part of Cornwall. I suppose, sometime soon, we really need to seriously address the issue of whether we still need two cars. At the moment, Mrs P and I go off in different directions simultaneously often enough to justify our own transport but for how much longer?