New Wheels

In this 60th anniversary of Volkswagen in Australia, it was appropriate to go for a cruise in one.

No.  Boring.  Start again...

Doortje and I took delivery of our new car today.  It's a Skoda and we're very pleased with it. (click on photos to enlarge)

 Woops! It's not a Skoda Felicia, it's a Skoda Octavia;  ours has a roof.

 And it's not this 1963 Octavia, fifty years old this year.  But it is red!

 Here's the new beast in front of our place.  It was built in 2007 but was compliance-plated in 2009, don't ask me why.  It has a Skoda body and interior built on the VW Golf/Jetta/Audi "platform" and has a 2 litre VW turbo-diesel motor and 6-speed DSG gearbox.  It's done 59,000km.

 The Skoda sedan looks like a sedan but has a huge hatch opening and lots of storage space.  This is the "bells and whistles" Elegance model with everything electric, cruise control, etc.  The wipers are rain-sensitive and the headlights light-sensitive.  Or you can operate them manually!  Oh, and like all the other VWs I've had, the indicator stalk is on the left.  I tried to indicate a left hand turn today with the windscreen wipers, but only once.

 Doortje wants me to mention that it's "corrida red", corrida being Spanish for running, as in corrida de toros, running the bulls = bullfight.  (The Honda has been relegated to the outside weather until it finds a new home).

Our car has two connections to the world of international cycling.  Red Octavias are always used by the race officials in the big stage races like the tour de France and the giro d'Italia (which is on at the moment); and Barloworld VW, where we bought our car, were sponsors of a pro tour team until a few years back, competing in two French tours.

I could bore you silly with lots of detail but one snippet will do.  When we picked the car up the trip computer said we had 1,000km until fuel should be added.  When we got home, 30km later, it said we had 1,060km left, and that's after stop-start driving down Nepean Highway.

Anyway, I think we'll be doing lots more driving in the coming months on our new wheels, and let's hope it's all safe with no mishaps.