Findus Fop wrote:
Hearthly, noun.
An act which is simultaneously the most and least expected thing to happen.
Usage, To do a Hearthly.
It's down to several factors, and making the move to ditch the i30N has been building up in me since the Covid thing kicked off.
1) We've been talking for a little while about getting a family campervan to use for holidays once the DAYS OF PLAGUE have passed. (Jnr is super keen.) Those things are expensive, and I had £20K tied up in the i30N.
2) I've always liked having a nice car for when I had the daily commute, particularly over the derestricted mountain road, with the move to full time home working (or near enough), that's vanished.
3) I've also realised over the last few years that I've pretty much stopped driving for pleasure, back when I had the S4 (which was not that long ago, documented earlier in this thread), I'd quite routinely just jump in it and go for a drive of an evening, I've scarcely done that in the i30N at all, even before the world ended.
4) The enforcement of a 40mph speed limit since we went into lockdown has made me realise that (1) There's no real justification for barrelling along the mountain mile at 150mph+, and (2) That driving slowly can actually be quite pleasurable. The speed limit is increased to 60mph from Monday and goes back to derestricted (where applicable) at the end of the month, but I just couldn't see myself ever going back to how I used to drive before the whole Covid thing kicked off. I'm sure that the Camry will cruise quite happily at 60-70mph once the speed limits are increased, and I've come to think, 'Hey, that's fast enough', and whilst it isn't a quick car by any stretch of the imagination, it's got enough poke to overtake when required.
5) There's something quite relaxing about having a car that's pretty much worth fuck all and has no more depreciation to do. It was pretty galling having the i30N sat at the back of the house, damn near literally gathering dust, losing about £300-£400 per month in value. (TBH, thinking about it, far more like £400 per month (if not more), than £300.)
It was a bit of a wrench initially to see the i30N go, but in the days following I've become sure it was the right thing to do, it was only going to carry on depreciating like a bastard, during which time it'd (1) Hardly be getting any use and (2) I wouldn't be much minded to 'drive it properly' anyway.
Rewinding the clock, if I'd have known this Covid thing was coming over the horizon, I'd just have kept the Focus ST.