This summer was like a summer unlike any other for me and my family, in so much as we didn’t leave the country over the summer holiday we have in the UK. My wife is a teacher so even prior to having a child we still had to holiday in our government mandated periods of enjoyment at the increased expense that comes with that. With my wife being on maternity leave this year we took our big yearly trip earlier, so we spent the summer holiday here.

My plan was to try and enjoy the Stagea more, after all, it’s summer and I don’t have one of those pesky holidays in the way. I have managed to drive it three times this month. Once was for a bit of fun, to go and do some shopping for the animals and the other was during rush hour to drive to the station to go to London, thrilling as you can imagine. Even so, the pure silliness still put a smile on my face.

As with most things life has just got in the way, the lack of ISOfix also doesn’t help. I know there are ways of securing car seats in order cars, pre-ISOfix, but the simplicity and peace of mind you get with a specifically designed system means my comfort isn’t quite there with the Stagea. This means that it is relegated to trips without our little one or me doing solo trips, which is very few.

Instead we have been using the Range Rover and the Jag as the family cars. It did mean that we got to take the Jag on its first big road trip after being fixed though. That trip was over to Northampton to see the opening double header  of the Women’s Rugby World Cup at Franklins Gardens. Overall it’s about a 150 mile round trip which is a pretty good test and it passed that test, no issues there or back. Good to know that I am not a completely incompetent mechanic. 

Having got used to the fuel inefficiency of the Range Rover the Jag is also surprisingly economical, that trip averaging about 40mpg, for me that’s less of a concern than others as I work from home, however given that it’s the same engine as what is in the Range Rover it goes to show what a difference weight and aerodynamics make on economy numbers. This being said, I am getting to the point where having 2 daily cars, when I don’t drive a car daily, seems a little bit silly.

So what next? It is likely that I will finish up a few bits on the Jag and list it. Cars such as the Jag are very much at the bottom of their deprecation curve right now but it doesn’t make much sense for me to keep it and I don’t see the value of a diesel executive saloon ever being vast so whilst keeping it might net me a bit more cash, the cost of keeping it for that time would likely offset any additional value.