Driving back and forth between my fatherland and my motherland: Time for a new car
This spring, we decided to look for a bigger car, so that we could cover our 25,000 kilometres a year with a bit more comfort and space for luggage.
We are fortunate that all four of our parents are still alive, which means we drive to the Netherlands on average once every three months. And as long as our youngest daughter lives in the Netherlands, that will remain the case. Since 1 July 2025, we have been driving very sportily in a lovely little car (zie blog).
"Today we will buy another car"
After a few preliminary visits to various dealers, we settled on the Peugeot 3008. We were just looking for a low-mileage used car with the features that mattered to us. So, early on a Tuesday morning, we ended up at a shop near Grenoble.
We weren’t happy with what happened there:
According to the salesman, the car we were interested in was due to be collected at 11.00 am by a lady from Annecy who had put an option on it. “If you decide quickly, this car is yours,” he said.
Whilst we were discussing the price with the man, it turned out that the quoted price included a discount that didn’t apply to us! So we would have to pay an extra 1,000 euros. Trading in our current car wasn’t an option either. He did take a look at the DS3 but had nothing good to say about it: he offered a symbolic amount, too low to take seriously.
Meanwhile, an elderly couple had come in asking if he was interested in taking over their 15-year-old little car, as they’d bought a new one elsewhere. The man could have simply said, “No, not interested.” But he added words that implied the couple were completely out of their minds to ask such a question.
Too many collisions: do not cross
We’d had enough of an experience in just an hour to decide that we definitely didn’t want to become customers there.
Back home, Rob went through the technical specifications in detail again. It then turned out that the model we were about to buy didn’t have the towing capacity we need.
A blessing in disguise
Thank you, salesman, for saving us from making a big mistake that Tuesday morning!
In the end, we were delighted to buy a Kuga from a Ford dealer.
The moral of the story: at first we were frustrated, but we soon realised why that had actually been a good thing.
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