I am reminded of an old joke which, as with all good jokes, starts with two men in a pub:
Fred: I bought the wife a jaguar last week...
Bill: Really? Bet that was expensive, was it worth it?
Fred: Oh yes, it bit her head off.

This is of course incredibly unkind - I will suffer for it later - but is a neat introduction to our latest sensible car acquisition. OK, make that only sensible car acquisition.. well apart from the LandRover that is.

In an earlier post I said we'd settled on either the new Zafira or Mazda5. Both practical seven seat transport with diesel engines for economy and both with good reliablilty records. So, once the cars actually arrived in the UK we went to take a look and, well frankly we were quite underwhelmed. Cleverly packaged, well made, spacious and economical they may be... but interesting places for us to spend time they were not.

So.. what to do? Well the thought process went like this: we've got the Disco when we need seven seats or to carry loads so we could have something nicer - so long as it met the budget and was economical etc. We didn't want a Beemer, just because we didn't.. the Audi is a bit wooden to drive and rather dull inside - if perfectly put together - so we narrowed it down to the Volvo S50 and the Jag X type Estate. We don't need bigger, but we did want an estate car rather than a saloon.

Both companies were obliging with test drives with Volvo allowing us to take the car for a day and Jaguar allowing Shivs an all afternoon drive which included a round trip to the school. I had a decent session in both cars too and they were both excellent. The Volvo goes well, a sweet gearbox with 6 cogs, firm ride and excellent seats. The Jaguar seats aren't quite as good, but the ride was quieter, engine smoother and cabin ambience a clincher: it really feels special against the grey blandness of the Volvo.

We agonised about the SatNav (pointless expensive toy in my view: possibly essential when we want to sell the car), we were agreed from the start that we wanted tan leather which is standard, a dark exterior colour (we went with Indigo: my friends will allege once again that I have bought a purple car) and pretty much everything else is standard. One interesting new feature is the built in Bluetooth. Jaguar will sync your phone with the car so, when you are driving, if your phone rings, the radio mutes and you can answer a call with a press of a button on the steering wheel... neat eh?

A bonus - which surfaced during the test drive - is the excellent pollen filter. Big Mike, who is currently afflicted with a peculiar and specific brand of August Only Hay Fever, spent the entire drive being able to breath freely. The purchase had his unwavering support.

Deal done then.