Those of you who know me well will know that there's nothing I like more than a bit of in depth research. Especially when it comes to cars. I can spend hours locked in data. And then more hours making more data out of that data. And more hours still coming up with weighting ratios that would add a layer of personal requirement to the numbers on the page. So when Jude said she was thinking about a car - to help her get to physio appointments, airports and off to the vet with the dog on occasion I was elated. She had a few criteria though. The car needed to be a hatchback. Easier to get the dog into and out of. Convenient for the kind of weirdly shaped objects that we sometimes tote and just more European. That immediately ruled out any Ford but an SUV, the letters SUV ruled out that option anyway.
So the list was narrowed. Maybe a VW Rabbit (think 2.5L Golf with all of the extras for about 8k British money), Or an Audi A3 (though it looks like a hearse here). A Mazda 3 is in the Ford family and has the zoom-zoominess that Jude loves in a car. And of course there's the Volvo C30 - again a Ford product and eligible for a discount.
Then she kicked into the Mix - "I'd like it to be AWD. We have terrible winters here. You live 35 miles from the office. You drive in during ridiculous snow storms. In a rear wheel drive sportscar. I'd like to think that you had the option of AWD"
That changed things. Toyota make a Matrix Wagon that's AWD and just updated. But driving a Toyota is like driving an appliance. There's no fun there. The new Subaru Imprezza has a 2.5 litre engine, AWD and a neat (if bland) hatchback shape. But it drives like a brick and the interior seems to be made of melted lego. Which leaves the oddly named Suzuki SX4 Crossover. Small, fun to drive, AWD, 148bhp, a key that works from your pocket and great reviews all around. Full of big boy toys and with 64 cubic feet of storage it's not at all bad. So we're off to drive one. Feeling guilty about an import - but hey the numbers don't lie... (except I'm hoping for the fuel numbers - because they suck)
We'll see what happens - meanwhile I have some number crunching to do