I’ve still got the Nissan. It’s parked outside Lou’s. I’m sitting in it writing. You pay for parking by the hour and it’s ten to. Worth a few minutes wait for a few quid
I had an MOT booked at Yeoman’s Nissan in Eastbourne. We left in the morning and made our way over. Beautiful weather. We were distracted numerous times.
Between Brighton and Eastbourne you’ve got the South Downs Way, heading over the tops of The Seven Sisters – a coastline that will show up in the living room of many a family with bulldogs and a George Cross in the garden. Those white chalk cliffs, gradually crumbing into the sea with the buffeting of Poseidon. We stopped and clambered through rocks to find stony beaches and silence. We hoiked up hills and examined strange plants. We climbed over a breakwater and through the kissing gates. We enjoyed what I was willing to believe would be the last trip of the Nissan. But the Nissan had other ideas – or at least the cost of parts did.
Yeoman’s Nissan Eastbourne is an excellent business, and if I was a lot richer I’d be back there to get myself an X-Trail for £25k and hang it all. I even went and stroked one of the X-Trails in the lot while I waited. Lovely capacious beasts. Not for me yet though.
I found myself speaking to a mechanic before I took the thing in for the booked MOT, mostly talking about the exhaust and how it’s attached. He didn’t throw out the idea of it passing with the exhaust held on like it is. So I went to the window and spoke to the receptionist. He was willing to give me an idea of what it would cost me before taking it in. Extremely good of him, especially considering the outcome. Five stars.
He walked around it with the engineers. They took their time. He came back with a calculator and a list.
Not taking into account the possible fix on the exhaust and before the window we were looking at £400. With the window it’s £750 as they’d have to get somebody in. £350 for a window? That idiot really did a job on me. So £750 minimum before MOT cost and unexpected extras, or I’m driving with a broken window for a year. Likely it’ll be a grand with unexpected bits. Sadly I could easily get a better car for that much – it’s a buyer’s market right now. Not buying from them it isn’t though – most of their cars are £15k plus. But back on gumtree or a lucky street find…
I had to drive back to Brighton with her. She’s here now. I’m writing in her.
And that’s that. At least I tried. The cops have it on record now with wheels that need changing. If I’m pulled over again for the cardboard numberplate, which is a very easy pull – then I’m in trouble. It’s time to compact her, sadly. Time to crush her up.
So I’ll park her up tonight here, and I’m sitting in her to write my blog.
We’ve had some adventures. Nobody could say I haven’t made use of her. I’ve put a few thousand miles on the clock and helped Tristan learn to drive and shuttled up and down to Lou and gone exploring and hit Yorkshire hard.
But a grand don’t come for free, as we learnt from The Streets in 2004. Time to be carless for a while.
Tomorrow I’ll take her on her last journey, to somewhere that’ll buy her as scrap. Somewhere with a direct trainline to London nearby. Somewhere not far enough away that I can get pulled over.
There’s a lot of stuff in her too. I’ll have to work out how to get it home, or jettison it.
I’ll miss the little darling. She made a great deal possible over a short space of time. I wish I had deeper pockets, or that I could do my own engineering.
AlBarclay 