Rob's Blog

RIP Polo: the 2 gear challenge
30th Mar 2007 13:03

On Tuesday someone asked if they could buy my car when I wanted to get rid of it. I said "Sure. She's a good little runner, hasn't had any real problems in the last two years". Why did I say that? Why!! It had to happen sooner or later. Unfortunately it happened sooner, and that's a bit of a problem. For a few weeks now the Polo has been a bit funny about 3rd gear. It would sometimes seem to just 'pop out' of gear. I wasn't sure if it was just me not putting it in gear properly or a genuine problem. It turns out it was a genuine problem, and it just got a lot worse. I drove back from London on Thursday morning with only two gears working (on the way back from Hazels, where I'd been saying an overdue 'bon voyage' and helping her pack her bag for her big trip). I lost reverse, first, and third gear. They just jumped out of place when they were in gear, and if I tried to hold the gearstick forward there was some serious grinding. I figured “well… it’s basically motorway for the entire journey, so I’ll just be in 4th… so it won’t matter for this trip”. Boy was I wrong. I crawled around the M25, which meant constantly slowing to a stop, and then having to start again in 2nd gear. That wasn't so bad though, I just made sure I stayed in the nearside lane so I could roll onto the hard shoulder if anything got worse. I survived that leg and stayed in 4th for the entire M4-M5 leg. No problems. It was when I hit Bridgewater that the lack of 1st gear really proved to be a problem. Have you ever tried to pull away at a roundabout in 2nd gear? It's not a very speedy getaway. Oh, the good old Polo could do it... but damn was it slow. Still, I managed to get back, without blowing up the engine (although I'm sure it wasn't very good for it) and without having a single person honk or flash at me. Not bad going I thought. I might get a mechanic to look her over, but she's probably not worth repairing. The MOT expires at the end of the month, and the tax runs out around the same time. The odometer doesn't work, the passenger window doesn't work, reverse, first and third gears don't work, and it's been making horrible noises for quite a while... she was 20 years old. RIP Polo. The problem is... I hadn't realized quite how totally stranded I was in Sampford Brett without a car. I can walk to Williton and that's about it. I can't get to Taekwondo, I can't get to the train station, I really can't leave the village. I'd already got my direct access motorcycle test booked in for the last week of April, but I'm not 100% sure if I want to totally replace having a car with a motorbike. Perhaps I do... that might be the best option. I can't really afford to take the motorbike test and get a car. Perhaps I should just take the gamble: do the motorbike test, buy a motorbike, and see how it works out for me. If I miss having a car, I get a car a bit later on. I don't really want to buy another banger, if I'm going to spend my hard earned cash on a car I want something half decent. But I'm not sure it's worth getting into debt over... Having to buy a new vehicle suddenly makes living in the middle of nowhere seem a lot less cheap!