50+ and proud of it.

Last seen today being driven away the new owners. I will miss it - a lot. I wish them well with it.

The smart Brabus Roadster is just great... This is the only car I've ever driven where at some point in each journey I've either laughed out loud or gone "whoo hoo!" (or the like), can't do "yee har" that's reserved for the Mustang. Sorry, got to keep some things sacred. It's turning a respectable 45mpg at the mo', but I suspect that's due to me not being *entirely* careful with the throttle. There is one problem I can see - I enquired as to how much a rear tyre was. Not because I need one, just to see what I'd let myself in for. "It's £80" the man said, "but, I don't carry them on the shelf, they take a couple of days". Could I be without my roadster for 2 days? Nope. Note to the unwise: smart's don't carry spare wheels, there's no space to put them - but you probably guessed that.

So that's it then. Sold to day at 12:10, my 1990 Mustang GT Convertible. I didn't want to, but it had to go. There comes to a point where justifying 18 mpg on a good day just doesn't cut it and, it needed a bit more TLC than I had time for. I spoke to the lady who bought in on behalf of her currently-in-Asia husband. "He wants it to play with it on the weekends". This is exactly the sort of person who I wanted to sell it to - so I'm convinced it's going to a good home. "Where do you live?" I inquired. "Scotland". Here's a tip to all readers. Go buy shares in Esso.

"Hello, you know when you test drove the Smart Roadster last week and said the brakes felt a bit soft?" "Yes, I actually said that there was something wrong with them 'cos I had to pump them to stop." "Well we bled the brakes" "And?" "Err, it didn't work, so the mechanics said they had to do something else and had to order a part but I don't know what it was." "So?" "Well, you may not be able to pick it up Tuesday." "Oh ok, well as far as I'm aware, the only other component that exhibits that sort of symtoms is a brake master cylinder." "Oh, that was it."

Buying a Z3 seemed like a good plan. After all you could get about 38 to the gallon and all the straight-sixes do the same mileage (nearly) - so the 2.8 seemed excellent. But, around town that drops to around 23 - the Mustang does 19. Get a smaller engine? Yeah, but they're rubbish (not my opinion, but that of most of the reviews I read). I went up the local Co-Op. And, spookily enough, there was a Z3 ("M" 3.2) sitting in the car park with some old chap driving it (he was older than me, so I can say these things...). "That's it - there's someone else in the village with one, can't have one of them". I drove home and spotted another one. Need to go back to Plan A. Plan A always was to get a Smart Roadster, but they're not that quick - but they can do 70 to the gallon. Then I discovered the Brabus variant... I'm picking up my 16,000 miles, '04 plate, silver one on Tuesday.