I don't often talk about cars on my blog.  But they are one of those things that make life much easier and in my case, I really enjoy driving.  Our current car is a Mondeo estate and we are both very fond of it.  It's a real workhorse, diesel engine with a vast, capacious boot and a straightforward, reliable drive, which is surprisingly quick on motorways and long journeys.  It can cope with us going to a show or event laden with four greyhounds and all our show stuff - no mean feat.  If we didn't have the dogs, I'd have something smaller and sportier, but we do, and when ferrying them around, I've developed a stately driving style that allows them to enjoy the view and not be flung around on corners.  

We'd realised that our current car only got through its last MOT with a wing and a prayer, and the garage had warned us of a few looming problems.  It's started making some ominous clanking noises and the next MOT is due in about six weeks, so we decided to start the search for the next Milgi mobile.  

This is where the internet comes in.  There are now masses of search facilities that let you look for cars by price, model and location.  We decided that we would go for another Mondeo estate and began browsing.  On Saturday we made a foray over to some of the big car showrooms in Newport to have a little browse and checked out our local Ford dealer too where our current car came from. Nothing suitable there, but it was useful to have a look at the newer models, and get a feel for the updated cars.  

Yesterday, Andrew found several on the net that were with a chain of garages around Weston-Super-Mare, an easy journey away.  It was a glorious afternoon, with blazing sunshine, and we headed over.  I like travelling in the car with Andrew - it's a great place for talking, and we can often catch up and have relaxed discussions about things.     

The first garage we went to was a bit disappointing then we headed into WSM itself.  Lots of people out enjoying the sunshine.  Found the garage, found a very helpful guy who pointed out the cars to us in a sea of them, and we found exactly what we wanted, a lovely 2010 Mondeo estate. It's silver, like our current one, is a 2.0 diesel and looks great.  

One of the things that really makes me feel quite old sometimes is to reflect on the wonderful improvements in cars since I learned to drive.  When I first got behind the wheel, power steering and A/C were unheard of luxuries and cars were far less reliable. I think that power steering in particular has really transformed driving, especially for women.  I can remember how physically hard it was to haul a big, heavy car round when parking - no fun.  A big estate like the Mondeo is now beautifully simple and easy to park.  Modern cars are much more reliable, safer, have power steering and aircon as standard and of course have a great deal more electronic wizardry built in.  The new car will have Bluetooth connectivity which will be great and very useful. 

Anyway, we are popping back at the end of the week to collect the new car, and I'm really looking forward to driving it.