That new car smell...

Well, due to one thing and another, my Dad's wife replaced her Mercedes C-class with a BMW 320i a few weeks ago. Nice, but due to a weird seat design, it does her back in and has to go. So we went looking at the Land Rover Freelander 2 as a possible alternative. I was never that keen on the old Freelander, it always looked to me like a miserable bulldog or something. Also it was the vehicle where Land Rover truly sold out to the soft-roader market. However, the new one looks far better and is apparently a massively improved vehicle.

The showroom was quite nice with a couple of Range Rover Sports, a full price Range Rover and a Discovery 3. All very nice, but I was far more interested in the lovely metallic grey Defender pickup. It may have a new dashboard and a new Ford 2.4 diesel engine, but it's the same old look that hasn't changed since the 1958 Series II. The chassis and coil sprung suspension are the same as the original Range Rover which dates back to 1970. It's an absolute classic vehicle. I was actually after a Defender but found early Discoverys were cheaper and more comfortable.

The Freelander 2 was nice though. She sat in one which had the electric seats which she wanted, and then drove another one which had the diesel engine and an automatic gearbox. In motion, it's quiet, refined and feels like a tall car. Not bad, and a world away from my old Discovery. The new Range Rover and Discovery have excellent off-road ability, not sure about the Freelander but it should have some.

I don't like car showrooms. It's just the way that those new cars sit there, gleaming and shining with that new car smell. The salesmen waiting to greet you with their best sales talk also annoy me. But there was still something about it. It was just that feeling that if I was earning more money, it could be me signing my life away for that shiny new car. This persisted throughout the test drive, the shiny interior with no scratches, marks, dents or smells. The perfect handling and the odometer reading only a couple of thousand miles.

Then we got back to my Dad's house and reality returned. The Discovery may be everything the Freelander 2 is not, but it's mine, and it's paid for.

Incidentally, my Dad's got one of the new Skoda Fabias, the one they made out of cake for that advert. It's a really nice car, the only fault is the slightly gruff noise from the three cylinder 1.2 litre engine.

Saw a nice V-reg Mercedes S320 for sale. Apart from the engine size and being right-hand drive, it was very similar to the S500 Rob and I drove in Atlanta earlier this year. Stunning cars. Cheap at £8000.