The weekend started in the most frustrating way . I had been watching a reasonable looking MGBGT on E-bay. Unfortunately the auction ended at 11.20 on Friday morning – so work interfered with my ability to bid! I consoled myself with the fact that the £1200 price would undoubtedly go through the roof in the last minutes of bidding . WRONG some one bought that little beauty for only £1260!
Saturday morning arrived and the girls were all very excited at the prospect of viewing 4 cars in one day!
First stop Devizes where a dealer had an Austin A30 (who we christened Millicent) and an MGBGT for sale.
Lynn discounted the MG immediately and having started it I can’t blame her- it was very close to the budget and made some expensive sounding clunks from the gear box/ drive shaft area.
The A30 looked great and was just a joy to sit in. To start it up you first needed to switch on the ignition and then pull the toggle switch that worked the started motor.
It started first time and ran nicely so the whole family climbed in and we took it for a test drive. It was great fun – particularly the trafficators (indicators that pop out the side of the car) but the steering got a bit vague at anything over 35 and braking was probably what you’d expect on a 55 year old car.
The safe top speed was probably about 45-50 mph which would seriously extend our adventure from the planned 4 days to closer to a week.
Finally the car would have left only £5 in the kitty and I would definitely have wanted to fit seat belts so grudgingly we moved on.
At Eastleigh we met a 1968 Morris Minor called Molly. The kids liked Molly immediately and although cosmetically she was showing her age a bit (some one had given her the equivalent of Botox more then a couple of times) she was exactly as advertised- a decent honest classic.
She started up on the button and the owner gave us a tour of the small bits and pieces we would need to do. Sadly we couldn’t test drive her as she was blocked in by scaffolding but that comes down this week so we will be back – probably with a fistful of fivers.
The kids were now severely cheesed off having wasted an entire day being hauled around the county in the back of my car (which they hate because apparently I drive too fast).
Our final stop was an MGBGT in Winchester. The owner was fantastic taking pity on the girls and inviting them in to play in his garden while Lynn and I took the car for a rapid spin. It drove nicely with no uncomfortable noises. There was the usual MG rust but the price was very competitive. We drove home for a well earned Chinese and on the way I received a text from the MG owner offering to drop the price by £200 to support our charity run.
We have only got one car left to view on the shortlist (another Morris Minor as previously featured in the blog). At present I think the family are pushing towards Molly – who seems like the practical choice with 4 seats (for children and dog) but I do so love sports cars!
I will reserve judgement until I have test driven Molly.
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