My Old Car

This is a picture of my first car. It was a 1.3 litre, 16V Fiat Punto Sporting that simply loved to be revved. It generated a good amount of torque and you could really feel when it was going. Unfortunately it was quite old when I got it, so I had to recently upgrade to a new vehicle. Pictures coming soon.

The Punto was a good car. Older in body shape and used in engine, nonetheless everything worked, including full electrics (windows, air con etc). I'd probably say it wouldn't be the best motorway drive due to some excessive noise, but I did quite a few miles in it and was perfectly happy.

Long Journeys

I quite like driving, but I'm not too sure that I like driving for LONG periods at a time. But we'll see. I've got an interview for somewhere that is a significant distance away and I'll need to work out whether it'll be viable economically (given how damn expensive petrol is, what with us effectively being taxed twice on it) and also wise in terms of the time it will take to get to these offices. Well, I guess I'll find out soon as I'm taking a trip there at the end of the week...

Roundabouts with Weird Junctions and Lights

I had the misfortune to hit a few roundabouts on the way home from seeing 300 (very good by the way) and they were in a bloody awful state. One of them had lights changing AT THE WRONG TIME. Not very good at all. Another one had multiple exit points for various lanes which then converged rather worryingly. Whoever thinks these things up needs to be driven around them a few times to see how badly wrong their designs can go.

Scary Undertaking Drivers

I was a little worried the other evening when I was driving back from a relatives' house. On the inside, on a sliproad in fact, a guy was going maybe double the 30mph, he then crossed in front of me in his modded Subaru Impreza and shot off into the third lane, seemingly oblivious to the speed cameras (or the 50mph sign).

This was one of the most dangerous things I've seen in a while, and it kind of holds up to my theory that the later it gets, the weirder the things are that people do on the road. I guess it comes with the territory, or maybe it's just a case of the nutters getting up at 2pm, having their breakfast or whatever then driving off to score some drugs. Either way, there are places to drive in such a manner and they tend to sealed track days, rather than the average British road.

Insurance

Cars are pretty expensive, whether they are your hobby or just your preferred method of getting from A-B. Regardless, one thing that came up recently was my insurance renewal. Much like everything else these days, it was pretty expensive. Then again, it was roughly how much I expected to pay.

I picked up a leaflet and rang another insurer rather than just accepting the quote given. I was offered all manner of freebies (breakdown cover, a courtesy car etc) for a slightly lower price than given. After saying that the price this new firm had offered was more than my current one. I then rang back my current insurer telling them about the better deal. Fearing I was going to bugger off, they put me through to 'customer retention' - where something very special happened.

First, the special thing was that I was talking to someone in the UK. I have nothing against anybody anywhere, but when we're talking about my personal details I like to be sure that when someone tells me their name that it really is there name - unlike 'John' who was almost certainly not John at all but Chandra in La Hore, India.

The other special thing was that 'customer retention' had amazing powers to not only give me the same deal (after customer service couldn't) but they gave me a bit extra, and were fabulously nice. In fact, if I wasn't 100% sure their call centre is about 3 hours drive away I would have asked the lovely Amy out for a drink sometime. A diet coke of course, so I could drive her around in my car, protected by the insurance she had so wonderfully provided.

I guess the message here is that it pays to shop around, but more importantly firms shouldn't underestimate the value of good customer service. A top flight pro (the likes of which Amy most certainly is) is worth her weight in gold as such service is the best marketing tool of all. Not only that, but the price of the insurance certainly put a smile on my face.