Bye-bye van
The camper van is now sold, as it only had three seats (and we're now four) it's days were numbered. I cleaned it up and stuck it on the road outside and sold it within a couple of weeks at the asking price of £2500 - no trouble at all really, but then again it's not a bad old van.
We'd like to keep our vehicle usage down, as we don't want to fall into the trap of having moved to the country and ending up driving even for a pint of milk. We have a bike trailer we'll be using for short journeys with kids, but we'll still need a vehicle that can take increasing amounts of luggage, shift the occasional pile of tat to the dump (or to a festival) and be practical for daily use. Our old Astra (125k miles but still alive after several years - not bad for £900!) isn't really big enough any more, so I'll start looking for a small MPV - something with decent fuel economy, probably diesel, possibly another Vauxhall as they've done us alright in the past.
I find it hard to get excited about cars: I've had vehicles I've enjoyed (a VW Beetle, an elderly wood-panelled Bedford camper van) but most of the time they're a sink for money and time. Fuel isn't going to get any cheaper, tax will just go up. I don't care about getting anywhere fast, what colour it is, whether it has air conditioning (fair enough it's nice on holiday in Greece, but in the UK what's wrong with opening a window?) or whether Clarkson has an opinion on it (I'm not inclined to take note of anything he says). I don't commute to work and I expect whatever we end up with will be full of crushed rice cakes and battered cuddly toys within a day or two.
We'd like to keep our vehicle usage down, as we don't want to fall into the trap of having moved to the country and ending up driving even for a pint of milk. We have a bike trailer we'll be using for short journeys with kids, but we'll still need a vehicle that can take increasing amounts of luggage, shift the occasional pile of tat to the dump (or to a festival) and be practical for daily use. Our old Astra (125k miles but still alive after several years - not bad for £900!) isn't really big enough any more, so I'll start looking for a small MPV - something with decent fuel economy, probably diesel, possibly another Vauxhall as they've done us alright in the past.
I find it hard to get excited about cars: I've had vehicles I've enjoyed (a VW Beetle, an elderly wood-panelled Bedford camper van) but most of the time they're a sink for money and time. Fuel isn't going to get any cheaper, tax will just go up. I don't care about getting anywhere fast, what colour it is, whether it has air conditioning (fair enough it's nice on holiday in Greece, but in the UK what's wrong with opening a window?) or whether Clarkson has an opinion on it (I'm not inclined to take note of anything he says). I don't commute to work and I expect whatever we end up with will be full of crushed rice cakes and battered cuddly toys within a day or two.