I'm used to buying cars which aren't on the proverbial doorstep. In the last five years, I've bought, collected and driven cars home to the North East from:
* Northampton (driven down in an ex-girlfriends car)
* Coventry (swapped the car I drove down for the new one)
* Liverpool (train down to Liverpool Lime Street)
* Kendal (same ex-girlfriend as the ride to Northampton)
* SW London (train to Kings Cross, tube to New Malden)
* Glasgow (train to Glasgow Central)
* Shropshire (current Mrs Geordie drove me down)
There's a few more, but hey, you get the point. I've never really got it when people say a car is "too far for me". The way I see it is you're buying the car that you like, you'll be keeping it for a while usually, and a road trip is all part of the fun, with the benefit of a 'getting to know you' drive home. Anyway, my latest purchase was a few miles away. Further than any of the jaunts above. 365 miles to be precise, in Newton Abbot, Devon. I had a quick investigatory session, and it became apparent that the cheapest way of getting down there was also the quickest and most convenient........flying.
So yesterday, my lass drove me through the rain up to Newcastle Airport. It was a particularly lovely Caramel Latte....
FlyBe Flight BE702 Newcastle to Exeter....had propellers....
I'm positive I have that SAD. Not that I'm a sad person. Grumpy and curmudgeonly, yes, but sad, no. SAD = Seasonal Affective Disorder. Basically, I feel curse word in the winter months. Hate the cold. Dark mornings. Dark nights. Frost. Snow (remember that? We used to have it when I was a cherub). Wearing big coats and woolly bobble hats. I don't understand it when some eejits say "ooh, I love the winter so you can come inside and thaw out in front of a cozy fire" Why don't I get it? Because to thaw out, you must first need to be frozen through. What's to love in that? Or is it just me? And the reason for this little tangent I hear nobody saying? Well, the best (non-car related) part of this dark, rainy, cloudy January day......SUN and some blue sky :-)
So heartwarming. For me anyway. It did actually make me feel happy.
Anyway, the flight was just over an hour, and touched down in Exeter without issue....
Matt, the lad who was selling the car, met me at the airport in his lovely Integra, and whisked me down to Newton Abbot, which took about 20 minutes. First look at the Maxima....
(battery is on charge after sitting over the Christmas break).
A quick look around it confirmed it was as tidy as Matt had described in his advert and in our phone call, so the deal was done.
Fuel was needed, and handily, a Tesco filling station was only a quarter of a mile away. Time for the ubiquitous forecourt pic....
£60 of Momentum Unleaded later, and we had a lush full tank to share on the way home. If we could get started!!! A couple of turns of the key ended only in disappointment, so on went the hazards, and whilst standing at the back of the car advising people that this particular pump wasn't going to be imminently available, I made a quick call to Matt. Nice guy that he is, he swooped round and boosted the limp 12 volter for me. Next up was to set the sat-nav, which I did after pulling out of the way of the pumps. Cue a knock on the drivers window...."Lovely. How long have you had it?" "Hi, erm, 20 minutes!" haha. Chap was almost drooling over the Maxima, saying he had owned a 93 L plater for 13 years, in the same colour, which was stolen twice, and written off during the second TWOC. "Best car I ever had" said the guy on more than one occasion. He has a Lexus LS400 now, although he was filling up some sort of C-Max thing (probably the wife's), but swears down that given the choice, the Maxima would still be on his drive. Nice when that sort of thing happens.
The drive home, through a variety of weathers, proved to me I'd bought a good'un. It clicked over 70,000 miles passing Bristol on the way back up, and definately feels like a low mileage example. I set the cruise at 70ish when I could, and it just sat there, the 3 litre V6 calmly purring me home at 2200rpm. 365 miles. In one go. No stops (was a bit wary about the battery!). 6 hours. Wondrous beast. Only used 3/4 of that tank of Tesco juice too.
I'll get a build thread started at some point, as I have some nice plans for this one. Well, I think their nice.....
* Northampton (driven down in an ex-girlfriends car)
* Coventry (swapped the car I drove down for the new one)
* Liverpool (train down to Liverpool Lime Street)
* Kendal (same ex-girlfriend as the ride to Northampton)
* SW London (train to Kings Cross, tube to New Malden)
* Glasgow (train to Glasgow Central)
* Shropshire (current Mrs Geordie drove me down)
There's a few more, but hey, you get the point. I've never really got it when people say a car is "too far for me". The way I see it is you're buying the car that you like, you'll be keeping it for a while usually, and a road trip is all part of the fun, with the benefit of a 'getting to know you' drive home. Anyway, my latest purchase was a few miles away. Further than any of the jaunts above. 365 miles to be precise, in Newton Abbot, Devon. I had a quick investigatory session, and it became apparent that the cheapest way of getting down there was also the quickest and most convenient........flying.
So yesterday, my lass drove me through the rain up to Newcastle Airport. It was a particularly lovely Caramel Latte....
FlyBe Flight BE702 Newcastle to Exeter....had propellers....
I'm positive I have that SAD. Not that I'm a sad person. Grumpy and curmudgeonly, yes, but sad, no. SAD = Seasonal Affective Disorder. Basically, I feel curse word in the winter months. Hate the cold. Dark mornings. Dark nights. Frost. Snow (remember that? We used to have it when I was a cherub). Wearing big coats and woolly bobble hats. I don't understand it when some eejits say "ooh, I love the winter so you can come inside and thaw out in front of a cozy fire" Why don't I get it? Because to thaw out, you must first need to be frozen through. What's to love in that? Or is it just me? And the reason for this little tangent I hear nobody saying? Well, the best (non-car related) part of this dark, rainy, cloudy January day......SUN and some blue sky :-)
So heartwarming. For me anyway. It did actually make me feel happy.
Anyway, the flight was just over an hour, and touched down in Exeter without issue....
Matt, the lad who was selling the car, met me at the airport in his lovely Integra, and whisked me down to Newton Abbot, which took about 20 minutes. First look at the Maxima....
(battery is on charge after sitting over the Christmas break).
A quick look around it confirmed it was as tidy as Matt had described in his advert and in our phone call, so the deal was done.
Fuel was needed, and handily, a Tesco filling station was only a quarter of a mile away. Time for the ubiquitous forecourt pic....
£60 of Momentum Unleaded later, and we had a lush full tank to share on the way home. If we could get started!!! A couple of turns of the key ended only in disappointment, so on went the hazards, and whilst standing at the back of the car advising people that this particular pump wasn't going to be imminently available, I made a quick call to Matt. Nice guy that he is, he swooped round and boosted the limp 12 volter for me. Next up was to set the sat-nav, which I did after pulling out of the way of the pumps. Cue a knock on the drivers window...."Lovely. How long have you had it?" "Hi, erm, 20 minutes!" haha. Chap was almost drooling over the Maxima, saying he had owned a 93 L plater for 13 years, in the same colour, which was stolen twice, and written off during the second TWOC. "Best car I ever had" said the guy on more than one occasion. He has a Lexus LS400 now, although he was filling up some sort of C-Max thing (probably the wife's), but swears down that given the choice, the Maxima would still be on his drive. Nice when that sort of thing happens.
The drive home, through a variety of weathers, proved to me I'd bought a good'un. It clicked over 70,000 miles passing Bristol on the way back up, and definately feels like a low mileage example. I set the cruise at 70ish when I could, and it just sat there, the 3 litre V6 calmly purring me home at 2200rpm. 365 miles. In one go. No stops (was a bit wary about the battery!). 6 hours. Wondrous beast. Only used 3/4 of that tank of Tesco juice too.
I'll get a build thread started at some point, as I have some nice plans for this one. Well, I think their nice.....
Ax GTi Turbo
