After ringing the personable Lee Flood (Dale's brother?..I had previously been in contact with Dale by email) to see if the car was available, I set off in sneakers, tracksuit pants, coat and beanie. I didn't think about the side of the road being wet, long grass and brambles and A38 being a dual carriageway with 60mph (make that 70+ for most of them) cars, trucks, buses and council vehicles zooming past. I just plowed on in for the 1.5 mile walk that Lee assured me it was down to Castle Motors.
It ended up being a good 1.5 miles (maybe 2-2.5?) to Castle Motors, maybe more if you factor in that I turned down the second Looe road first thinking that the caryard was down there. It didn't take me long to work out that this was wrong due to the lack of advertising and the increasing amount of countryside but eventually I found Castle Motors. My shoes and feet were soaking and muddy and the bottom of my tracksuit pants were drenched. There was no way I was walking back again so this should be an easy sale for Mr. Lee Flood.
The car looked good. A 2004 Rover 25 iXL in British Racing Green with only 28000 miles on the clock and full service history for £4000. It was the upper end for this type of car but the mileage was good and it was the top of the range model with leather seats and everything...after 2 hours of test-driving, thinking, talking, test-driving, calling on the spirit of the knowledgable car guru Christopher Crankanthorp for help, doing all the tests he had shown, checking all the numbers were genuine, doing more talking and thinking - the deal was done, particularly when Lee threw in 12 months MOT.
There was a bit of bother with getting car insurance initially but this was sorted out by using confused.com and getting the services of Post Office insurance. Phew!
So, here we are, the proud new owners of a right-royal British Rover 25 in British Racing Green.
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