Cars, cars, cars

As you may have read in our last post, we had a bit of an exciting New Year’s Eve when our car decided to tell us something was wrong. Cars these days. In the past you might have gotten some kind of hiccup, or smoke or some strange sound. These days the car simply tells you that something is wrong. Our car is from 2016, but it is still young enough to have this sort of computer in it. “Engine trouble” is what we were greeted with when the car didn’t seem to be moving as well as usual. 

Since New Year’s day fell on a Thursday, our garage wasn’t open until today (Monday), which meant that we spent the weekend without a car. Not really a problem in these days, except for Sunday morning. Thankfully we have plenty of brothers and sisters who were willing to pick us up if needed (and bring us back home). So we enjoyed a wonderful Sunday morning worship time and also had some good conversation with our sister Gaiane while she picked ups up and dropped us back home. 

Today I took the car in to the garage. It drives just well enough to get it to the garage, about a 10 minute drive away. Of course I would have to leave it there until they could look at it and let me know what was wrong. That meant a good 50 minute walk home in the snow, but that brings its own charms. When the garage called back, they let us know that the fix would be far too expensive for this car with more than 260,000 kilometers. Thankfully they also told us, after I walked back in the snow, that the car would still work for small distances - city driving. 

So now we have spent a good bit of the day looking at second-hand cars and wondering what we are actually looking for. We enjoyed our Citroën, but are pretty sure we will not be able to find another like it for the price we want to pay. You know how it goes - you make up a list of all the requirements that said car must meet in order to be picked. 

Are there any brands you absolutely would not choose? (Renault, Mercedes or BMW) Does the type of fuel matter? (We want a diesel because it fist our needs) Are there other requirements? (Must be Euro 5 designated exhaust in order to get into cities, preferably a bit taller so we can step in easily, and if possible with a trailer hitch for our trailer) We don’t worry about color, at this point, even if we may have preferences. We pay most attention to how many kilometers, how old, and what the price is. 

We hope soon to be able to find something and be completely mobile again. In the meantime we will enjoy the snow which is slowing everyone else down on the roads.

(Photo is of our previous Citroën back in 2018, stuck in the mud at Bible camp)