Our now beloved 17 year old van, seen here on the Timmesjoch in Austria in 2009, which was an ecological hero when we bought it before Xmas 2001, is now to be condemned in London, as a nasty polluter & the restriction zone is going to be extended over where we live next year. It has taken us all over the place: to France; Italy; Germany; Hungary; Switzerland; Austria & Euskal Herria.

Something had to be done! We hawked it around the family members who live in places without this problem. No one was interested but Denise was. There was to be a snag. Although the insurance firm were happy to insure Avis, now nearly 84, to drive a commercial vehicle, a private car was a no-no, so, while I drove the new car, Avis’ last drive was following me up the M11 in the van to Denise & Harriet‘s pad at Cottenham, where it has been sitting in their parking place while Denise saves up for driving lessons.
 
 
 
 

So we had to go shopping &, as hybrid cars seemed to be the sensible option, all-electric cars having negligible range & the most important use we have for a vehicle being long trips for Ken to take photos for his History lectures, we went to the shop of the most experienced makers of such things, Toyota. The guy who served us kept a straight face when is was evident we intended to buy a Yaris over the counter like a Mars Bar & it seemed ok on a test drive. Little did we know what monsters modern cars have become! They think (probably correctly in most cases) that they are driven by idiots & have a plethora of audible warnings. Ken, who notoriously, does not like people telling him what to do, won‘t take this from a chunk of iron & has managed to suppress most of these but not all, the reversing noise being particularly annoying. Nor does the build quality seem as good as the Peugeot. The hybrid part is a downright swindle, the battery being tiny & the maximum speed about 30MPH for a couple of minutes. Then, it goes flat.The final insult is it is not even a proper, socialist, red.