Bye bye C4

Mission accomplished yesterday as Dad offloads the beloved C4 on the Main Dealer (Thank You, Hidson's of Rainham). This is not without pain as the economics work out badly when you try to surrender early - cars depreciate very fast to start with and slow down later, whereas you are paying a fixed amount per month (paying for depreciation in a 'straight line'). It all works out OK if you keep the car for the planned 3 years, but we aren't. There was a bit of a settlement fee anyway which had been worked out on Dad's description of the car as clean and never having had anyone smoking in the car. What no-one had thought to ask or mention was "does it smell at all doggie inside?"

We now know that there's two things that put off 'nice customers' when they stick their head inside a possible new car, the smell of fags and the smell of dogs. Ours mings of dogs apparently. So much so, according to the Dealership blokes that they are going to have to take out all the seats and soft furnishings to shampoo and freshen them, so that'll be another £300, thanks... Ker-ching!

Ah well, Dad didn't have a lot of choice; we need to cut our spending per month and the car and it's insurance are a way of chopping nearly £500 per month off the budget, so we swallowed hard (sorry, Dad!) and signed all the paperwork. Dad walked out of the showroom not owning a new-ish "nice" car for the first time since he chopped in the old Land Rover over 20 years ago. He walked to the railway station and caught a train back to Faversham and to Diamond's.

Bye bye C4. You were a good a reliable car, fast and comfortable. We did some good trips together and enjoyed owning you for these 18 months.

Deefer