I’ve been cheating on you

Geoff, there’s no easy way to say this. And I’m so, so sorry.

It was a harmless flirtation, I swear. A one-off. No commitments for a future together were made.

But I was powerless to resist something so tempting: the chance to drive a brand new Honda CRV for the week with a full tank of petrol …

Forgive me Geoff, I took it …

For those who don’t know Geoff, we both went to Kotara High School and he’s now a faithful follower of my blog. We didn’t know each other at school, he was a few years above me. These days Geoff lives in Victoria and is the new car manager at Penninsula Honda. He’s been offering to do me a deal for ages.

OK, so it’s not a complete betrayal. I mean, I didn’t BUY the free Honda, I just drove it around a bit. OK, a lot.

But I felt a bit dirty because Geoff made me an offer months ago, he even said he’d drive the car to Sydney for me, and I … didn’t get back to him.

I said “I will talk to hubby” and that’s the last he heard from me on the subject.

Geoff, you will be pleased to hear the free Honda CRV was pretty bloody fabulous. It had cup holders for the whole family and an automatic sunroof (all the important stuff). Husband was very impressed by the way it sensed he was getting too close to cars in front on the freeway and put its own brakes on.  Ooooh, spooky!

I thought the visibility to the rear wasn’t as good as my decrepit RAV4, but then the RAV4 doesn’t have a special little video screen for you to watch to make sure you’re not going to collect anything behind you. Not to mention a rather persistent beeping noise whenever I got within a metre of a solid object.

Since I am hopeless when it comes to cars, I asked the iVillage readers on Facebook: “Advice please: I’ve been loaned a Honda CRV to test-drive for the weekend but I am CLUELESS about cars (ours is 12 years old). I’m just “it’s new, it’s clean, I love it!”. What stuff should I be thinking about when deciding on a new car … other than what colour to choose?Advice please: I’ve been loaned a Honda CRV to test-drive for the weekend but I am CLUELESS about cars (ours is 12 years old). I’m just “it’s new, it’s clean, I love it!”. What stuff should I be thinking about when deciding on a new car … other than what colour to choose?”

They suggested lots of sensible stuff like: “I’ve just got back from test driving the Nissan Dualis. We looked at things like anchor points, leg room, speakers in back seat area, fuel consumption, ANCAP safety rating (airbags, where how many), roadside service warranty, service warranty, reverse camera, cup holders (lol! very important!) room for groceries? luggage for holidays?”

And: “Safety features, full spare not just a run flat spare tyre, storage and boot space, ease of use of switches like where is the boot and bonnet switch.”

And: “Safety rating, turning circle, good rear, side and blind spot views. All the mod cons you have wanted, enough room for the kids and their stuff. If you are test driving for a weekend you will know if you feel comfortable or not.”

Riiiiiight. What I heard was …

Yep, I’m still just obsessed with the whole colour thing. I quite fancy one of those sparkly orange ones. Husband says there is no way on this earth we are getting a sparkly orange one. He wants something boring and dark grey.

Bah!

Then there’s just the small/enormous problem of money. So the colour is pretty much moot for the immediate future.

Maybe next year, Geoff. If you can ever forgive my cheating ways.

PS Here’s a proper shot of the car …

Though I still prefer it in orange (phwoar!) …

PS Need a good deal on a CRV and live in Victoria? Let me hook you up with Geoff … drop me a line and I’ll send you his email address.