Finally! Longtime readers will remember the grief I had this time last year when I tried to buy a car from a private seller. The guy sold me his car without the log book (I know, naivé on my part, I’d never bought a car privately before), told me after I had given him a deposit that the MOT had expired (he said he would do it before handing it over, but didn’t quite get the time, but was confident that it would pass no problem as it was a good little runner) and then asked if he could keep the car for another week, despite my giving him £100 deposit on the Friday with a view to picking it up on the Sunday. Not only that, when i took it for its MOT on the Monday it failed miserably, needing about £200 worth of work. When I contacted the seller and suggested that we split the cost, he threw a strop, accused me of not trusting his character (not occuring to him it was why I was in said pickle, because I trusted his word) and bought the car back off me and paid in full for the MOT. What a drama that was.

This time around it was a lot smoother sailing, being a little wiser about private car selling helped I’m sure. A couple of weeks ago I spotted a ’99 Nissan pulling into the car park of my local Sainsbury’s. I went over and introduced myself to the driver, a lady of around my age who wanted to sell it to get something smaller. I was very interested and it was well within my budget. All I need is a runabout, nothing too flash, so it was ideal. I wanted to buy it there and then, but I thought I should go home and have a think about it. My own car was due for its MOT the following week so I thought I’d see how that goes.

Well, it went badly. My old car has had it. After 21 years in existence and 11 years of ownership, it failed its MOT spectacularly. The garage called me back and said that it needed over £400 worth of work on it. They said it wasn’t worth it and I agreed, it’s ready for the knacker’s yard. I went to pick up my car and as soon as I got home I immediately called the lady with the Nissan and asked if it was still for sale. It was so I arranged to meet with her for a second look the following day. Long story short I now have a new old banger, but still a lot newer than my old H-reg – and things work!!

You could imagine the scenario when I took it for a test drive. Two women of a certain age, jumping into each other’s car, exchanging large sums of money in the car park of Sainsbury’s supermarket. I wonder what people must’ve been thinking. Well, at least this transaction went a lot more smoothly.

Here’s to many happy (hopefully) years.