10:20 am, November 7, 2008
WITH the highs you’ve got to take the lows… or so that’s what I had to keep telling myself. What am I babbling about? Well, the arrival of my new car and a letter from the fuzz.
I’ll start with the latter. Phone call yesterday morning from the Volvo press office letting me know they’d received the speeding ticket through the post (see post from last week below).
I knew it was going to arrive. Somehow I just knew that despite what mates told me about one in eight cameras being empty – the one that snapped me wouldn’t be.
Yes I was slightly cheesed off – I’ve had a clean licence for a year or so now and was getting used to the bragging rights I had over the wife – but then I looked at it a different way. Every single one of us that uses a motorised form of transport breaks the speed limit at some point.
And I’m probably guilty of bending the rules a bit… so considering I got snapped for doing 71mph in a 60mph isn’t too bad. Believe me, it could have been a lot worse. And it’s not like 71mph is speeding is it? Technically it is, I know, but on a dual carriageway (the A1) – it’s hardly the most dangerous road in the world is it?
Anyway, rant over. On to the good part of the day – the new Focus ST arriving. I bought the car from Hendy Ford in Fareham and dealt with a cracking chap called Steve French. He was an absolute credit to the motor trade and dealt with us very professionally – from the beginning of the deal to the end.
The car arrived when he said it would (actually slightly before), he bent over backwards to help us out and explained every part of the deal – from the GAP to the finance, to the Bluetooth handsfree kit – all in expert detail.
With guys like this selling cars it’s hard to believe the industry is struggling – I’ll be recommending him to anyone I know who wants a Ford. So, if you’re reading this Steve, thanks very much!
The car is superb. I even managed to persuade the wife in the end to go for the blue side stripes and am chuffed that I did. I mean without them it might as well be a diesel right? It’s comfier than I remembered and feels superbly screwed together – rather unlike my last fast Ford, a Fiesta XR2 D-reg!
So, there you have it – I’ve done my bit to prop up the government’s finances with a pain-in-the-butt fine AND helped bolster the industry’s flagging sales figures by buying a new car. Well, we all need to do our bit, right?
Happy selling…
James
