We are a family who buy well matured and established cars and drive them, until decrepitude necessitates that they are put out to pasture.
At present (due to being rear ended by an inattentive and unapologetic van driver) my own well loved jalopy is being repaired and I am driving a hire car provided by his insurance company. It’s brand new, spotless, keyless and every bell, whistle and bossy instruction activates whenever you so much as scratch your nose.
Do I really need to be informed by a flashing message that I have just deployed the windscreen wipers? Jeez.
Having said that, it is a dream to drive and I’m rather revelling in the newness and modernity of it. Will be sad to return it tomorrow and go back to my 10 year old scruffy and scuffed model (albeit with a brand new, scratch free bumper and towbar).
However, compared with our lawnmower/tractor it’s positively pristine in condition. When Himself dropped the machine off to be serviced yesterday (because it’s sort of just bending the grass rather than cutting it and getting a bit too “clunk clunk” rather than “chug chug”) the mechanic actually laughed out loud as he lifted the cover on the engine.
Ok, so the mice have been nesting in it and have consumed the majority of the rubber covering the solenoid, necessitating a Heath Robinson loop of wire to enable me to stop the engine, and a lot of the pipes have nibble marks along them.
Oh, and the radiator cap blew off when it overheated so it’s now a piece of tin foil over a jam jar lid.
Perfectly functional piece of equipment.