My Cars

Over the years I have owned only a few cars. I first learned to drive on my mother's Hyundai Pony GL which I then purchased and drove for many kilometers (300,000 +). While living in England I have had the privilege to drive two separate cars as part of work: a Honda Civic V-Tech and a Peugeot 206 GTI. I now own a slightly more quintessentially English car: A Mini One.

While owning my two company cars, for three years I drove about 80 miles a day for one of my projects and used my Honda and Peugeot to drive to many places in England, Wales, Ireland and Europe. Our Mini is used slightly less often now we live in London but it provides a great way to escape the city and makes shopping a lot easier.

This is the first car I was given when I first joined my company. It was a bit used with 8,000 miles already on the odometer but only about 6 months old. I was given the choice of this or a sporty Mazda but I choose this primarily because of the space and performance features.

It was a 1998 Honda Civic 1.8 litre V-Tech, registration number R645 MGJ. When I traded it in for my Peugeot it had 70,565 miles on the odometer. I have taken this car across to Europe on Eurostar (channel tunnel) as well as numerous trips to Wales and northern England.

Features of this car included:

• 1.8 Litre V-Tech Engine
• 5-Speed Manual Gearbox
• 4 Passenger Doors
• Power Steering
• Power Windows (all four)
• Power Doorlocks (central locking)
• Imobolizer
• Power Wing Mirror Adjustment
• Wing Mirror Defrost
• Air Conditioning - Not that I ever used it too much in the English climate
• Sun Roof
• CD Player with RDS (Radio Descriptive Service)
• Hatchback - Rear seats folded down to provide enormous amount of storage space in the back (easily fitting my mountain bike without taking wheels off)

This is the second car I was given for a company car but the first that I had the ability to choose. I had a difficult choice after owning the Civic but I eventually decided on this Peugeot 206 GTI. When I first received the car it had 30 miles on the odometer but within the first week I had added 1,000 miles to that when I visited Ireland (taking a ferry from southern Wales).

This car had the following features:

• 2.0 Litre Engine
• 5-Speed Manual Gearbox
• 2 Passenger Doors
• Power Steering
• Power Windows (front only)
• Power Doorlocks (central locking)
• Immobiliser
• Automatic Windscreen Wipers (adjust to whatever the weather is like automatically)
• Dashboard Information System (including exterior temperature and CD player information)
• Automatic Environment Control System (simply set the temperature you desire)
• Power Wing Mirror Adjustment
• Wing Mirror Defrost
• Air Conditioning
• 6 CD Multichanger with RDS (Radio Descriptive Service) - Includes steering column controls for player
• Hatchback - Rear seats folded down to provide enormous amount of storage space in the back (mountain bike fits if wheels removed)

This car was purchased in 2013 from Car Giant, a massive used car dealer with a location near by to where I live with more than 21,000 miles on the odometer. Yeah, perhaps not as fancy as previous cars but this one is ours and it works quite well though the only complaint we have is visibility out the small front screen - When driving I often have to lean forward to see traffic lights when stopped.

This car has the following features:

• 1.4 Litre Engine (1397 CC)
• 6-Speed Manual Gearbox
• 2 Passenger Doors
• 4 Passenger Seats (useful for when we have guests)
• Metallic Grey
• Power Windows
• Air Conditioning
• CD Player (sadly, no multichanger)
• Hatchback - Rear seats fold down to provide ample space for transport