mechanics

Apologies up front to those honest and skilled mechanics out there that can fix a car. Obviously this rant/post is not directed to you. No, indeed this is directed to those shonky rip off merchants that obviously do not know one end of the car from the other and do not accept any responsibilty for their actions.
You know that the big squirrel had car troubles. We were progressing with fixing what the mechanic had diagnosed to be the problem. When he had finished the work and tested the car, it seems that was not in fact the problem, there was something else. Would you not imagine with the level of skill and training we could expect him to find the underlying problem?????
To cut a long story short, not happy with our mechanic and if it wasn't so hard and time consuming we would take action against them. I just hate that we have just taken our business elsewhere rather than address the issue. Now they will just continue in business with someone else ending up in the same position as us.
Regardless, problem solved, not too much money, a lot of inconvenience and stress, but car back on the road.

Car Troubles.........

The big squirrels work car has died - and being as mechanical minded as we are, we don't know why! Anyway as we are one car down, we thought it was a good opportunity to test drive some cars.

With the new car seat laws in place, the issue for us is fitting three large booster seats across the back of a station wagon. (Incase you are wondering, they dont fit!!!) I am not a real 'car' person, but I never imagined myself driving a people mover!

We had a few days with the Tarago, and moved to the Kia Carnival. There is a significant difference in price and functions. The Tarago is a nice car that really drives well, but feels like, a van. I was sitting to turn right in traffic and my head was wobbling like on of those dash toys from the movement of the other cars. The rear row of seats folded away but there wasn't a lot of storage space, or cup holders etc.

The kia sits much lower and is a lot more car like. It has lots of little hidey holes and cup holders. It drives well - probably not as well, but I am really only doing running around jobs. The best bit was the way the seats folded down in the back row. The folded flat to the floor and when the back row was up, there was actually decent storage space, which could fit my double pram!

The seats in the kia were better, three adults could easily fit across the back - the seats were big and wide with plenty of space. For us, this is a much better option and when we are ready it will be the runabout (I will still dream about a little zippy car that could be parallel parked in the city....)