New car time

Well - it's that time again.

The old stagecoach has done nearly 100,000 miles, and I'm sure has another 100,000 left in it, but it's starting to show its age. The ESP has a warning light on, the power steering takes a while to start up some mornings and the last MOT had an "advisory note" attached to the back of it telling me it was time to start spending some money.

My old Skoda has done me well, but the search for a new car is never easy. My in-laws have tarred me with the brush of never being able to make a decision (whereas I think they're impulsive - the kind that invariably go into a garage "for a look" and come out with a new car or caravan).

I like to do my research you see. I don't spend money easily and I know what I want.

The Skoda had a range of "toys" that I appreciated - cruise control, heated seats, heated door mirrors, air conditioning, reverse parking sensors, etc etc. but the top of my list of "must haves" are:

• Cruise control - I spend many weekends driving up and down between Scotland and England and it's a painful enough journey (in many ways), but the CC makes the journey a bit more bearable. I can move around and relax by old back/hips/knees.
• Heated seats - being a bit of a nutter, I spend weekends standing in wet, muddy, cold fields shooting arrows at a target, then collecting, then repeating. I've been unfortunate to shoot in temperatures as low as zero degrees, with hailstones battering my face and hands.... there's nothing finer than getting into the car, cold, wet, miserable, putting on the seats and just relaxing of a lunchbreak, or on the way home

Yes I could live without these "toys", but I'm afraid I've come to realise that life is all about the pleasures, and both of these gadgets give me pleasure (or at least ease the pain) in some way.

So - having seen my wife's Hyundai i30 perform admirably over the last year, I decided to go hunting for either that or an Octavia Estate (again, boot space is a premium for me as my sport requires me to cart around a ridiculous amount of "stuff" when I compete - even worse when my wife is competing too!)

Not many Octavia's took my fancy, but doing my research I found that the 2-litre i30 Premium had both of my must haves plus a range of other toys... such as leather heated seats, climate control, nice big alloys, six speed gearbox, buketload of airbags, typre pressure monitor, reverse parking sensors, rain sensor, light sensor, auto dimming rear-view mirror, electronic stability control, RDS radio AND an iPod/MP3/Flash memory stick connector for plenty of music options on those long drives south (and north). Toy heaven or what? PLUS the balance of a five year warranty to boot.

So - went in to test drive last Saturday, chucked it around the local roads and motorways for half an hour and half an hour later I'd bought it!

Who says I can't make a decision!?

So... I pick up my year and a half-old i30 with 9,000 miles on the clock next saturday and awaaaay we go! Here's hoping it's as reliable as the Fabia was... I'll miss that old car (in fact it's probably the first car I've had in a decade that I will miss).