Croser Family Blog: Goodbye red car, hello sensible family car

For those of you who don't know, Joe is a car fanatic. From his early days when he played with little metal Matchbox cars to his first of dozens of real cars as an adult. He has estimated that he has owned about 30 in his almost 40 years. He just bought his 31st yesterday - a Honda CRV 2010 - which is actually for me and will replace the Acura. He swapped his Honda S2000 (a little two-seater sports car) for it, so now he is driving my Acura RDX and I have the swanky new one :)

This is all very exciting for everyone, not least Lucy who has got the car-loving gene from her Daddy. Imagine how confusing it is for her that now Mummy has a new car, Daddy is driving her old car and the 'red car' (as it was known) has gone back to the shop for someone else to drive. I think she will miss the red car. With it's throaty engine we could always hear Joe coming home from work when playing outside (or if we were inside with a window open), and we would often run outside to see him. Lucy had some fun 'driving' the red car and sitting in the passenger seat next to Daddy while he drove it into the garage for the night.

I love the CRV. I had one when we first moved here and although I have enjoyed the RDX, I often reminised some of the nifty gadgets on the CRV and wished I had them. My absolute favourite (now this is really girly) is the sunglasses holder in the centre of the ceiling above the rear mirror. It pops out to reveal your glasses, and on the inside has a built in child mirror. It has a way better turning circle that the RDX and the interior feels a lot more spacious without the humos and bumps in the front and rear foot wells.

Of course being a car fanatic and despite how nice the Acura RDX is (it has a turbo engine), Joe will only be driving it through the winter. Come spring he has plans to get a new sporty number, this time with four seats so that for the first time we will have two cars in which we can take Lucy.

It's funny how by looking at Joe's past car collection you can track what stage he is at in life. When I met Joe in 2000 he had already clocked up a number of cars from a tiny Mini to a Peugeot 305 to a white Saab. Each of them had a horribly loud stereo from the sounds of it, and some he only owned for a matter of a few months before he got bored.

Joe had a Mazda MX5 when we met, (one of the first of his sports cars) which we spun around London in playing music loudly. He soon progressed to a silver Honda S2000 and we spent a few years enjoying that (including taking part in a dreadful S2000 fan club weekend), getting the boy racer out of his system. Then as his business really got going he got his first dream car - a Porsche Boxster. He went on to have 3 other Porsches, both in the UK and in the States, including a Carrera 4 which was a gorgeous dark blue colour. We used to have many fun drives out in those cars too, listening to loud music, driving through windy country lanes and through London (early Sunday mornings was our favourite time, when few other cars were about).

When I was pregnant with Lucy Joe decided to get a little more sensible with his car and got a bright red Audi A4 convertible. It had four seats but we were too nervous to out our newborn in the back seat of that one! Then to the S2000 (and the temporary RDX) and next to something else, probably the new Volvo C70.

Joe and I (and perhaps most other Brits) have always associated Volvos with old people. So it's perhaps fitting isn't it, that as Joe approaches the big 4-0 next spring, he will be joining the Volvo club ;-) Only kidding Joe. Love you really x

I am in no doubt that one day Joe's car will get less sensible again, as Lucy's college bills are paid and she leaves us to go her own way in life. Perhaps we'll have another Porsche or something completely impractical like a Mini which we both fancy.