Not back yet!

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Last month I wrote about how we had dropped our car off for the routine annual MOT test (roadworthiness, basically) and the garage somehow ‘broke’ it. Well guess what – we still haven’t got it back! The first couple of weeks we kept calling and they kept telling us they were trying different things, to no avail. I know how hard it can be to track down mysterious faults and they are busy, so I was sympathetic. We managed on our bicycles for local trips to do the shopping etc. But after two weeks we had a holiday booked, and it was in a rural part of the country so we needed the car. By this time I was starting to feel a bit stressed by the whole situation. In the end we had to hire one for the week (which they said afterwards they would pay for). The most infuriating thing is that they never contact us, we have to keep calling and they say the boss is out or on holiday or has taken his child to hospital or whatever, and he’ll call back. But then he doesn’t, so we have to call again. This goes on and on – but when we do manage to get hold of him he’s always lovely and sure the problem will be solved soon… It’s now more than four weeks since we took it there! Yesterday we called, because we needed the car for an evening outing, and the boss said yes it was just about done, we could collect it at the end of the day. But then later he said actually it wouldn’t be ready, but they would give us a courtesy car instead. My partner was going to go and get this, but at 4:30 he was still stuck in a virtual meeting and worried he wouldn’t get there in time so he asked if I could go instead. So I walked down there and arrived at 4:55 just as everyone was leaving. The boss saw me coming and waved some keys at me saying ‘Here you are, it’s only the same length as your car’ and handed over… the keys to the work van!! Obviously they don’t actually have a courtesy car – or if they have someone else is using it. So I drove back in a big black van with the business logo all over it! Luckily I'm happy driving all kinds of different vehicles. It does have five seats and plenty of space but the back is still full of stuff - four spare wheels, two axle stands, several sets of straps, for some reason a stool and a set of wooden shelves, plus a whole rack of things like bottles of oil and spare bits and pieces. I thought it was hilarious – but we are planning to go to Wales this weekend and don’t really want to have to drive that far in a big van with a rack of stuff rattling about at the back (even if we take out the wheels etc.) Fingers crossed they actually manage to return our car today! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2025.