Thursday 12 July 2007

Vehicular nightmares

Man, having a car is a stressful business. We phoned and confirmed the car this morning which is awesome, and we have to go do the paperwork tomorrow and can pick it up on tuesday which is great.

Unfortunately now I have to enter the tedious world of insurance! I got a quote from a leading four-sided company which was much better than the other ones - bearing in mind this is my first car, I have had my license for 6 months and I've been on my parents' policy so don't have a no-claims bonus yet. So I went onto the website having got a quote from a baffle-free-we-get-all-the-quotes-for-you site, and lo and behold, it wouldn't take my password, so I had to call them up. When I get through, I am told that the quote I have been given is only valid if I pay IN ONE GO, as if I have £712.98 lying around! Was very cross, the price if I pay monthly is £170 more than this but I don't have that kind of money.

Grrrrrrrrr. Back to the electronic drawing board I think.

The other thing about this car is, it's pristine. I'm used to driving a slightly battered Nissan Almera which has rusty bits and scratched bits and a dent where my brother backed it into a lamppost after going to see a particularly exciting Pirates of the Carribean showing. So if I scratch yon Nissan, tis not a big deal. Or at least it is easily hidden. Or blamed upon somebody else. But if I scratch the new shiny car which is mine and mine alone, I have nobody to blame but myself! Also I have never driven a Ford, what if the clutch is weird and I drive it into a wall the first time I try to get it out of the shop?! Can I just get it home and then just leave it in the driveway and not drive it and polish it lots?!?!?

I think having nothing to do is playing havoc with my rational thinking faculties - I keep playing over and over all the terrible things which could happen to this pretty car in my hands and wondering if it's a bit too much responsibility and perhaps I should just leave it in the drive!

My word, if I can't handle having a car, how on earth am I going to cope with being a doctor and having to make decisions about people?! Or owning a house? Or (heaven forfend for the next 10 years or at least until I'm a registrar) having a baby?!?!

Oh what a disaster I am, I think I'll go and play the piano to calm down a bit!

Sorry for the slightly hysterical rant, will be calmer next time I promise!

PS Thanks for the comments people, it's great to know that people actually read this sometimes!

3 comments:

XE said...

Oh dear. I'm like that with everything new --- I don't want to hurt it so I don't want to use it. After a couple of weeks I don't think it'll bother you anymore though.

I'm still jealous that you get your very own car!! :)

Elaine said...

Did you not test drive it when you went to look? Dad made me do crazy fast acceleration just to check how it went (and as i had passed my test the week before, I was too scared to press anywhere near hardenough and so he had a shot too and petrified the sales girl!!). And it's ok, you get used to it. I promise!!

Dr Joey said...

Elaine: No, didn't test-drive, we're getting it from a small dealer near where I grew up, I don't know if they do test drives...but it's a ford, you can't go wrong with a ford!

Xavier: Oh, I have to pay for it, my dad's buying it but I will be paying lots for the next 2 years! but yeah, it's pretty cool, and it feels good that when people ask what my first car was i can say it was a nearly-3-year old pretty fiesta and not a rustbucket! what a poser!