Monday 6 January 2014

Style over substance?

Before you ask, this blog post is not a homage to Frances from the British Bake Off... it is actually car related! I am pleased to say that after months of discussion, deliberation and well, debate our family car has now been purchased!

In case you are unfamiliar with our story, here is a little recap. The hubs and I return from our wonderful honeymoon, which followed are spectacular wedding and found ourselves rather down in the dumps...


Life was back to normal, and that feeling of elevation had well and truly faded. A week or so before the  wedding Percy had packed in. Percy was my long time partner in crime. My little Polo that had taken me through my teenage years... off to University and back again, and accompanied me through most of my twenties. After a sad farewell, we parted. 

As we always have had one, we felt it important that we had a car (although at this point we were living in a flat close to town so didn't REALLY need one).  To cheer ourselves up from the post wedding blues, we decided to treat ourselves to a fancy pants car. Now please note, at this point I was in fact pregnant but utterly oblivious to the fact. 

In a moment of madness, we purchased a second hand Audi TT and suddenly felt on top of the world. Weekend driving trips around Europe were being planned, and we felt excited again. 


This feeling was short lived. 

A week or so after purchasing our new toy, we discovered I was pregnant. After the emotional roller coaster slowed, and the reality of having a baby started to sink in, we realised that our lovely car was pretty much the most impractical car on the road. Whilst it isn't pitched as a two seater, the back seats are so tiny (so not compatible with a car seat!) Even if they were, the front seats only bend forward, they don't roll so you'd most likely injure a baby, and yourself in the process of trying to get the child in!

For a long time, we decided to ignore the issue and plan everything for Baby J aside from this.

Over the last few months, the subject has come up again and again. The problem is that we are both young and both felt that we weren't ready for the "big family car".

We looked at a lot of cars. Yes a number of them looked cooler/funkier than the big space wagon types but given that we'd agreed to keep the TT (we couldn't face selling it so soon and losing so much money on it! plus the hubs really loves that car) I really didn't want to make another mistake. I also am not one of these people who wants to change their car every few years. 

This weekend our research came to a head. 

Cars had been test driven, arguments had been had and research (price, safety etc) has been conducted.

It came down to two cars for us.

The Golf Vs. the Qashqai

One is obviously the younger, trendier car. The other is practical, safe and something we could keep for a long long time.

One more test drive??

After whizzing around town in the Golf, I had one more hard look at the boot space. We'd taken our pram with us to get a real sense of space. After angling it in, and seeing the majority of the boot filled up, I had to listen to my head over my heart. Baby J is (I hope) the start of our family, not the end and I need a car that can be with us for the foreseeable future.

So, in the battle of the The Golf Vs. the Qashqai, the Qashqai won. 


If I am honest, it is a little terrifying. I am still in my twenties after all and I am driving what I class as a "mummy car" but I am very soon to be a mummy and this is, I hope the first of many mature decisions I will have to make.

I imagine you all think I am a little nuts... who thinks this hard about their car choice? Who ties the decision to so many factors? 

The answer is me...

No longer and I the girl about town, running to meetings in my heels, constantly attached to my phone. I am now a wife, and nearly a mother living in the burbs with two key roles (for the next little while anyway) looking after Baby J & the hubs and I know that this car is going to help me do it. 

Hopefully it will help me do it for lots more babies too ;-)


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