Its time to retire the old Astra. Its showing its age a bit, has lots of rust, runs too fast, loses water, and struggles to get up hills. Nothing that could not be fixed, but at what price? The MOT and tax are both due in the next month or so, and it would take quite a bit to get it through the MOT. That just seems like throwing good money after bad, so I figured I should take the money I would have spent on garage bills to fix it up and put that towards a new car.

Yesterday we had a little tour around some of the town’s used car dealers and decided on a Renault Laguna. Its still old, about four years younger than the Astra, but mechanically sound, has more room to take the growing children in the back, and has a few little extras like electric windows, mirrors and sunroof which will come in handy. It also has a larger engine.

We were going to scrap the Astra, but at the last minute decided to give it to the oldest boy. It will go down to his grandfathers and sit in his back garden and Frankie can try and get it back into decent working order. By the time he has it ready for the road he might be old enough to drive it.

Unfortunately, the boy is a typical teenage boy. Although the car needs some body work done, a new windscreen wiper, new head gasket and various other mechanical improvements, his list of priorities seems to be new seats with ‘fast & furious’ seat covers, a new gear knob, and CD player. Maybe I will scare the life out of him by getting an insurance quote for a teenager…