Day to Day driving

A different tack for the blog today.

If you have read any of this blog you will know I like cars, I really like cars. Trouble is I'm wondering if for the most part I'm actually enjoying driving. Sure when I take the Daytona out I have a great time and it makes me feel exhilarated and great. Trouble is that is a couple of times a month at best and in the depths of winter not at all, so what about the rest of the time?



On a day to day basis I drive an Alfa Romeo Mito. It's a world away from the Daytona, but its very cheap to run averaging 40mpg and has very low company car tax. Trouble is, it is about as much fun to drive as having your teeth pulled out, and not all of that is the cars fault.  My commute to work is about 18 miles from Chiswick in West London to Slough, almost all of it on the M4.  On a good day I can do the journey in about 30 minutes, but typically it takes between 45 minutes and an hour because of the traffic.

The problem is the roads in the South East on England are too con-jested and that is sucking the enjoyment of day to day driving. I often think about buying another car that is more usable than the Daytona but more fun than the Mito, at the moment my dealer friend Mark is tempting me with a Carburettor 308 GTB, but I also wonder how much actual enjoyment would I get from it and are those times available for a great drive so few and far between that I just want to use the Daytona anyway?

In the past I used to work in central London, This was actually much better for me as a car enthusiast as I didn't need to use a car everyday, in actual fact I could almost get away with not having a car at all, but being a car fan I sold the BMW 3 series I had at the time and brought a Porsche 944S2. This was ideal as it was a fun car for the occasional use but still practical enough if there was a need to carry luggage or a trip to the Supermarket or the DIY shop.

Whilst that is an option that is no longer open to me (unless I change jobs), as a car enthusiast I would urge all the other car enthusiasts to think about the car journeys that they make and consider do they need to make them? If its just a commuting trip maybe public transport is the better option. (unfortunately it's not for me as it is at least an hour and a half to get from Chiswick to Slough). If everyone could cut out unnecessary journeys the roads would be less con-jested  which would help the environment but more importantly, maybe just maybe there would be many more drives for us to savour?