Goodbye to the Honky Mobile

After thirteen (t)rusty months together, the Honky Mobile has come to an end. As mentioned in a previous article, our journey to Hokitika involved a bump on the rear, which according to the insurer caused structural damage. Not that that stopped us from driving the Honky Mobile for a further two weeks! It seems that we do not seem to have much luck with this model of car: remember how the Cavalier came to its end?

Yes, structural damage means that the insurance company will write off the car, and de-register it. That's not particularly bad news, as we will receive a nice cheque in the post, soon. What's more the compensation will be double the amount we originally paid for the car!

In any case, Pete and I have been thinking of buying another vehicle for a while. The plan was to eventually have two vehicles. One was to be a small, cheap car (preferably red) to get us around town, and the other one was to be a four wheel drive vehicle; to make driving up the mountains easier during the winter ski season. However, the unfortunate end of the Honky mobile put a spanner in the works, and so there we were, looking for a vehicle, slightly sooner than we had anticipated.

Armed with a mental shopping list, we went to the backpacker car market hoping to buy a bargain car: something either small, or with four wheel drive. Even though we managed to purchase a bargain (we hope), our new vehicle does not fulfill either the small or 4WD criteria. We are now the proud owners of Audrey, a Mazda MPV Efini. It is another thirsty beast as it has a 3 litre V6 engine. The attached link will show you a car very similar to ours:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Cars/Mazda/auction-92636383.htm
Yes, it is a multi pupose vehicle. Considering there are only two of us, and we have no immediate plans to extend our family (Tinkerbell is enough for now), I am not quite sure how long we will be driving Audrey. We are still looking for a four wheel drive, and possibly a small, red car to get us around town!

Audrey