Bad Motor Scooter

First off, big thanks to the voters out there. The Volvo V50 was a clear and present winner of the 'Pick Kept Man A Car' poll.

You may recall I mentioned that some cars were more available than others for leasing. I spoke to 'my guy with the connections' today -- who just came back to civilization after some deal with BT caused him to lose Internet at his office for almost 2 weeks -- and all of our efforts to achieve some type of normal financing have ultimately failed. This was a surprise and disapointment since the latest attempt included Rachel's company as a co-signor; the underwriters didn't care since we're not citizens. This means forget about the Ford Focus, the Vauxhall Astra, the C30R, and also the Qashqai.

Of the cars that were discussed via the poll, the only two that we have any chance of getting through a very non-standard deal are the Volvo V50 and the Audi A3 SportBack. This deal gives us basically no control over miles per year, color, options, engine, etc. -- it's either take it or leave it. The good news is that the V50 is in high-demand -- but for one of the smaller engines -- which means the leasing company is offering the same price with an upgrade from the 1.6 diesel to the 2.0 diesel. Everyone except Mike Antoine can probably stop reading this paragraph right here: Performance-wise, this is a huge boost from 109 to 136 horsepower and from 240 to 320NM of torque and changes the 0-60MPH time from 11.5 to 9.0 secs. The downside, to reiterate that we get no control over options, is that it is a standard SE (not a bad package though) with no Bluetooth. I think I can add a roof rack, though, aftermarket.

I am working on securing a reasonable quote for insurance before we seal the deal on the Volvo. What I have been told so far is insurance companies in the UK don't like to insure lease cars, non-citizens, people without UK licenses, and people who have been in the UK less than one year. The quotes I've gotten so far were a bit ugly but the agent is going to keep looking... here we go again.