heartbroken. My beloved Vauxhall Zafira , 12 years old and 101,000 miles on the clock has finally died. The radiator collapsed, the head gasket blew and basically the engine is shot. All without much warning.
I am saddened and traumatised as I LOVED my Zafira. It could accommodate anything, towed Arwen everywhere and saw us through carrying kids and grandparents all in one go on countless occasions. Since 2003 it has been my mobile school office full of books to be marked, folders of lesson land and schemes of work, resources from maps to cocoa pods. It has been parked in the same school parking bay for twelve years and is recognisable by everyone in school from students to support staff.
Traumatised. How can I get so upset by losing a car? It isn't the money that now needs to be spent on a new one ...that's just downright frustrating, inconvenient, annoying and somewhat curtailing on future holiday plans!
It's the grief......I LOVE my Zafira! It's awful.
So we have been car hunting on a limited budget and have finally decided on a Skoda Yeti. It was going to be a diesel 4 x 4 but then I made the fatal error of reading around all the articles about Diesel engines and the future of diesel cars in UK over next ten years. So diesel got thrown out around 3am in the morning. Can't afford a petrol 4 x 4 ....having looked at Mitsubishi, Toyota rav. 4's and everything inbetween. The problem is simple really......my drive slopes up at a hellishly steep angle and I need fantastic visibility out the back of a car so I can see trailer as it rises up above height of car. Well all new SUVs irritatingly have thick back sides and narrow rear windows and most slant downwards as well......so zero visibility out the back when reversing a trailer up a steep drive!
We have visited twelve garages, sat in thirty cars, test driven eight, researched car buying review sites for hours. Within our budget........Skoda yeti it is. The other alternative is a VW Touran.....pricey for what it is.
Ho hum! Hate parting with money. Hate having to get rid of my Zafira. This one definitely hurts!
In the meantime Arwen will have to sit on the drive for possibly another six weeks before I can tow her off it in a new car! This one really hurts!
I am saddened and traumatised as I LOVED my Zafira. It could accommodate anything, towed Arwen everywhere and saw us through carrying kids and grandparents all in one go on countless occasions. Since 2003 it has been my mobile school office full of books to be marked, folders of lesson land and schemes of work, resources from maps to cocoa pods. It has been parked in the same school parking bay for twelve years and is recognisable by everyone in school from students to support staff.
Traumatised. How can I get so upset by losing a car? It isn't the money that now needs to be spent on a new one ...that's just downright frustrating, inconvenient, annoying and somewhat curtailing on future holiday plans!
It's the grief......I LOVE my Zafira! It's awful.
So we have been car hunting on a limited budget and have finally decided on a Skoda Yeti. It was going to be a diesel 4 x 4 but then I made the fatal error of reading around all the articles about Diesel engines and the future of diesel cars in UK over next ten years. So diesel got thrown out around 3am in the morning. Can't afford a petrol 4 x 4 ....having looked at Mitsubishi, Toyota rav. 4's and everything inbetween. The problem is simple really......my drive slopes up at a hellishly steep angle and I need fantastic visibility out the back of a car so I can see trailer as it rises up above height of car. Well all new SUVs irritatingly have thick back sides and narrow rear windows and most slant downwards as well......so zero visibility out the back when reversing a trailer up a steep drive!
We have visited twelve garages, sat in thirty cars, test driven eight, researched car buying review sites for hours. Within our budget........Skoda yeti it is. The other alternative is a VW Touran.....pricey for what it is.
Ho hum! Hate parting with money. Hate having to get rid of my Zafira. This one definitely hurts!
In the meantime Arwen will have to sit on the drive for possibly another six weeks before I can tow her off it in a new car! This one really hurts!
I'm assuming therefore buying another Zafira is not an option? (F.w.i.w. I miss my old Scenic as well..!)
ReplyDeleteNaw! Same problem steve, sloping at back and so losing that visibility.
ReplyDeletePity new Zafira tourers are lovely cars and higher spec for less money that yeti but visibility was major issue otherwise would have gone with Zafira and the seven seats
I had a thought on the bike - no idea why - the mind wonders (even more as I get older!) anyway... recon engine?? http://www.replacementengines.co.uk/ etcetc....
ReplyDeleteLooked at that but again cost just creeps up rapidly. At end of day we have decided to bite the bullet and get a new car three years earlier than we were planning to
ReplyDeleteStill irritates though
ReplyDeletekeeping a new car for 12 years seems like pretty good deal to me Steve, speaks well of the build quality of the Zafria.
Another problem with some of the diesel SUV's (mine in particular) is that to get good fuel economy the gearing is very high, pulling away up hill with a heavy tow was near impossible without a lot of clutch slipping.
Hi max
ReplyDeleteIt's daft to be so attached to a car!
I think we have made the right decision but it still irks