Ancient and modern vehicles!

Our daughter has a new car. A brand new car. Not just a "new to you" but already used by someone else car. She has acquired it on one of those lease-hire deals where you pay so much a month and at the end of three years either you buy the car or you set up a new deal for another new car. I know a number of people who do this. No MOT. No car servicing bills. Worth considering, although for the moment we remain carless. There seems little point in leaving a car parked outside the house here when we fly off to Spain for a few months at a time. 

So our daughter has a spanking new vehicle. The only fly in the ointment is that she cannot drive it. She has a broken bone just above her elbow and, although improving daily, still cannot drive. She signed the deal to purchase/lease the car on a Saturday and fell at work on the Monday. Her partner had to take delivery of the vehicle a week later. 

She cannot drive it but I, on the other hand, can do so because I am a named driver on her insurance policy. I feel quite justified in this, having provided financial assistance for the purchasing of vehicles in the past. 

So today I have been driving this formidable vehicle. It's a big beast, something in the Nissan range, but it is not its size that is formidable. All cars seem to be getting bigger these days. Even the Mini should really be called a Fairly Maxi. But with modern steering technology you can drive a large vehicle and the high seat gives you a lovely view of the road. 

No, it's not the size but the technology. Whenever you drive an unfamiliar vehicle you have to get to know its technological idiosyncrasies. Where are the windscreen wipers? Where is the horn? How do you turn the heating/air conditioner on? I remember having a minor panic in a hired car in Mallorca as we approached a tunnel, which demanded lights, and I had no idea where the switch was to turn them on. And after the occasion when I spent a good half hour trying to get into reverse gear, I always check that before setting off in an unknown-to-me car. 

But this one is special. First of all, provided you have the "key" on your person, you can simply press a button on the driver's door and the thing unlocks itself. And then there is no ignition keyhole. Instead of turning a key, you depress brake and clutch pedals and press a start button. Neither is there a handbrake, just a little tiny switch that you lift up when you put the car in neutral, at traffic lights for example. And to set off again, putting it back in gear tells the handbrake to release itself. No trying to set off with the handbrake on. No, just some amusing moments when I scrabble about trying to find a non-existent handbrake! 

And it talks to you, after a fashion, and I don't just mean sat-nav, although that comes as standard. It beeps to let you know there is a speed camera coming up. It beeps if you cross a white line or drift out of lane. It beeps if someone has not fastened their seatbelt. It beeps frenetically as you reverse into a parking space. And it's fitted with a whole lot of technology on the steering wheel to do with using hands-free mobile phones. That's the bit I am still not sure about; even hands-free, using mobiles when driving is not a good idea, in my opinion anyway. But the rest of the technology is fine. 

Driving along in this huge, technologically advanced, almost cleverer than the driver vehicle, our paths crossed a little red 2CV going in the opposite direction. From the sublime to the ridiculous - our very first car was one of those. No technology to speak of, very little security, light enough for four teenage boys to try to lift it off the ground on one occasion! 

We loved it and we had it brand new on the road, paid for, taxed and insured for less than our daughter has had to put down as a deposit on her new beast.