Long Term Car Hire (or Italy and back in a banger)

Over at The Year of Living Frugally, Fran is in two minds about keeping a car.  They are expensive tings to keep, even if they don't turn a wheel.

A few years ago, Mrs Gerbil and I were having a discussion that centred around hiring a car for the summer.  We were in the process of arranging car hire for a trip to New Zealand, and some of the prices from the main companies were eye watering.  We worked out that it would be possible to buy a car, tax it, insure it and run it for a whole summer before selling it when you wanter rid of it for a whole lot less than hiring a car for a week.  Following on from this, one of us suggested that it would be fun to take an old banger for a final hurl round Europe.  And Mrs G thought this would be a great idea.  I was surprised she went along with the idea.

So when you're doing something like this, you just have to get it sponsored.

And so began what became known as Bob's Big Adventure, named after "Bob the Bible" thechurch mascot that was accompanying us on the trip.

The car was a pretty basic Citroen AX diesel that had 125,000 miles on the clock when we departed on our trip.  I paid £500 and the mechanic I bought it from gave it a very thorough service before we left.  The challenge was to leave immediately after the morning service, take the car through 10 countries and arrive back in time for the same service two weeks later.

Well we thrashed the bum off that car.  Over the Forth Bridge then down through England, into France, while blagging our way onto the bridge of the ferry, then through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, back into France, for the night.  Next day it was an adventure through Switzerland, passing the army knife factory, before stopping at the foot of the Splugen pass.

Well this was the point that the car started misbehaving. It was tuned for sea level, and here we were, 1475m (4839)  above sea level telling it to climb another 700 or so metres to 2113m, just so we could set a wheel in Italy.  20% less oxygen at the top of the pass meant that the can was pouring out white smoke and misfiring all the way up.  But we did it.  Italy ticked off the list.

Now all we had to do was come back down - a 700 metre descent.

Brakes slow your car down by converting motion into heat.

Brake fluid can boil if you brake too much

Brake fluid doesn't work if it's boiling.

brake discs can shatter if excessively heated.

Adrenaline is brown.

Remember the Italian Job.  Whistling the theme tune does very little to reassure your passengers as you career from one hairpin to the next, and all the while this mad German was flashing his lights at us, pulling allongside to tell us "you haf duzt coming from your auto.  you vill break down soon!"  Thanks for the warning, but this car is made of tougher stuff - it is one of the best bits of engineering to ever leave France.  Which is a shame, because they hang on to the best engineering for themselves, leaving us in this upholstered rollerskate.

But survive it did, and it even allowed Mrs G to discover that a three figure speed on the autobahn is possible, even if the car feels like it will shake apart around you.  So all that was left was a mad dash accross Austria, Germany and into the Netherlands.  We stopped to visit the CofS minister in Amsterdam, before re-entering England, through Wales and back To Scotland.  We even had a bit of time to kill so we visited INdia, or at least set foot on Indian diplomatic teritory by going to their embassy, and managed a photo call with the First Minister of the time, Jack McConnell.


We raised around £2,000 for a leprosy centre we were helping, and had an amazing holiday at the same time.  3000 miles in a car that should have been scrapped.  I hang on to the car to the end of the summer, and used it as our little runaround.  It was still giving around 60 to the gallon.

But all good things have to come to an end, so the AX was sold on Ebay after 4 months for £420.  While I was sorry to see it go, it was surplus to requirements.  The car had tax, so I needed to insure it which cost around £120ish.  So 4 months car hire for £200 less fuel.  By way of comparison, 1 months car hire for a similar sized car from a major company is £800.

Would I do it again?  Well it's not that far from Africa to the Arctic Circle...

Edit.  Mrs G mentioned that we MOT'd the car before selling it.  So add £50 or so.  £250 for some great motoring.