Smudger Snippets: Zippy
Created | Updated Jun 26, 2011
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days, that all these memories come flooding back to me.
Our Zippy
Well we did it at last; we bought ourselves a small Smart car. I would like to say that we did that in order to do our bit for saving the planet and going green. But truth be told, we did it for economic reasons, due to the price of petrol going on forever upwards. We have had Mobility Cars for the last nine years, which we were both really grateful for, as we have had three brand new cars over those years, which are returned after three years of leasing. Being on the scheme means you hand over your Mobility allowance book and they give you the car along with free insurance and servicing and any other repairs it may need.
Another reason we decided to buy our own car was the fact that we have put only 5,000 miles on the clock since we got our present car, two and a half years ago. The car we had previous to this one went back with less than 10,000 miles on it. Of course the fact that my wife has been in hospital quite a few times in the past couple of years meant that the car was only being used to drive back and forth to visit her in there. Thankfully she has been in good health ever since coming home after her last stay in hospital.
With this in mind we intend to make the best of this coming summer, if we get a summer that is, and get out and about more often. Only problem we have with this is the weather has to just right before my wife can be outside, with no wind, as that makes it really difficult to breathe, and she takes a panic attack, which could be fatal! Yet there is no sign of any summer as yet, but we will take off the very first day we see the sun.
I first saw the car on Ebay and contacted the seller to ask more questions about it, before setting a date to go and see it. One of my brothers-in-law drove me the 94 miles to have a look at it, as I had a feeling that I would be driving it back home later that day, which of course I did. It was just as well that the bloke who was selling it gave me a demonstration drive before allowing me into the driver's seat, as being a semi-automatic and with no clutch, it is, well let's say, different to drive.
Yet after a couple of minutes I soon learned how to drive it, which was just as well, as I had the return trip home to get more acquainted with it. Yet once I got it up to speed and switched on the cruise control, it was easy to drive. Mind you, I kept in automatic mode until I got out of the city, before switching it over to manual. It is well equipped with full leather interior, air conditioning, heated leather seats, which makes it feel like a larger car when you are driving it. We have had it for a few days now, and done quite a lot of running around shopping and the like, and it's still using the 10 pounds worth of petrol, which is just less than two gallons, that I put into it the day I bought it. Well, they did say that these small Smart cars can give up to 65 miles to the gallon, and this one is no exception.
So, from now on we will not be so upset when the price of fuel goes up yet again, and in September when our contract car goes back, my wife will be able to cash in her book and we will have that bit extra income coming in. So our small Zippy car was quite a good investment for us.
