My New Car :D

I'm quite excited about this :)

My 306 goes back on April 6th, and frankly, good bloody riddance to it. Stupid pile of French horse droppings. Most of my dissapointment is from the dealer and the awful driving position.

I've driven a whole load of cars, and considered all of my options, and finally, decided on a car which I really like, is very pleasant to drive and usually has good dealer support.

I've ordered a New Beetle Cabriolet, 1.6. Cheaper insurance, not much slower, with a Winter pack (heated seats, foglights, heated washers) - no CD player as I intend to use my iPod for it with a radio adaptor. In mellow yellow, with black roof and interior, it'll be like driving a bumblebee! Unless there's something very wrong with the company accounts - and there shouldn't be - it'll all be nice and straightforward :)

I can't find a picture of the car anywhere - but I'm definitely bringing it to Whitby!

Coool!

When ordering the New Beetle (which is would appear has been confirmed as being a "mellow yellow" one), I decided against the six-CD changer in favour of using my iPod. I decided the thing that was needed was a cupholder mount, with a power cable.

Apple and VW beat me to it. In the US last summer, they did a "Pods Unite" deal (excluding the Cabrio), where Beetle owners got a free iPod and 'connection kit'. Now, the idea that there was a proper kit intriqued me - was it linked like a CD changer? Could I control iPod from the radio?

No. It's a cassette adaptor. Yuck. So I'm going for the 'bitsa' approach - Griffin iTrip FM transmitter, Belkin (probably) power cord, and unless I find a better one, a Belkin cupholder adaptor :) Since it's powered by the car, the transmitter won't kill the iPod battery, and I get to be all funky and naff with all these trendy things.

Yes. I have saved the Apple stickers from my G5. Yes. One is going on the Beetle :)

Now, I have a month (first couple of days in March, expected) to name my bug. I have already dismissed Chicken II (people who've known me a while know my first orangey-red Beetle was called Chicken, after the cat in Hothead Paisan the Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist) as being silly. The Peugeot acquired the half-hearted name of Sebastian, but I've never really felt the car had any personality. It's very hard not to want to name a car that is so obviously designed to be 'cute'.

I really have no ideas for a name. I nicknamed the MGTF I nearly bought 'Elvis' because of the blue suede seats, but this is less obvious. It really deserves a name, though.

Oooh. It's going to be registered in Manchester. What letters do I get there? Everything here is SN or SK, so when we got 02 registrations, every car made me think "Snot". This will be an 04, but I doubt Manchester gets 'WH', so the possibilities for silly words by accident are limited.

It probably won't get my private plate. It's a two year contract, so if I find yellow too much I can change colour, and if I don't like Beetles after all, I can change car.