A few weeks ago, tragedy struck yet again in the form of an icy uncleared road while Claudia was going to pick up Liam from kindergarten. Sadly, in the war between our blue car and the concrete wall, our car did not come out on top.
Claudia was totally unharmed, just annoyed, but our beloved BMW compact sustained damages far in excess of its value. Luckily we still had the 2nd car to keep us mobile, but we did not want to trust a 16 year old 230 thousand km vehicle as our only source of transport. Also, the inspection is coming up in June and it is very likely that big car does not pass this time.
So, the car search was on with big time pressure. Claudia wanted to be involved in the decision, but with 8 months of pregnancy decreasing her mobility somewhat, we needed to look fast.
I heavily favoured a German car, both from a quality point of view and a political one. This brought down the range of choices a lot and we were at first considering another BMW, but the fact is that newer models are more expensive than I am willing to pay and we did not really want to buy a 6 year old car.
After research, pricing comparison, and quite some car lot viewings, we settled on a Volkswagen Caddy. This is an interesting vehicle which started out as a commercial truck model that was adapted to life as a family vehicle.
The first Caddy was the Polo (Rabbit) pick up truck:
A cab was added to the truck bed to make the first odd looking vehicle.
This was actually pretty successful, so the next version introduced a family concept with seats and windows, but still keeping a pretty freaky look to the overall package.
In the most recent revision, the VW Polo (rabbit) shared parts have been replaced with VW Golf versions and the overall shape refined a bit more.
That is basically it. It is a little 1.9 litre diesel engine, lots of space for 2 kids + 2 adults and all our stuff. It is as close to a mini-van I could stomach, and its relative odd style is somewhat appealing.
The one we bought is not quite one year old and had only 7500km on it, so it will now be the newest car I have ever owned. Here is what it looks like again.
We will only go and pick up the new Anderson-mobile next week, so I will be sure to share some more photos when it is brought home to Entringen.
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