Sarah and I had booked a second test-drive for today, down at the Audi dealer in Zuid-Oost. It’s a bit arse-over-tit, of course, to have a test-drive after having already ordered the car, but we were offered the chance to keep it for a few hours and really get a strong impression of how it will be to own one, so we felt we couldn’t really pass up the opportunity. Besides, this time we were able to drive a 3.2 FSI petrol engine with an automatic gearbox, which is the same specification as the vehicle that we’ve ordered.
Thanks to the on-board navigation system, we never got lost. With my sense of direction, that’s a big deal.
We headed out west on the motorway towards Haarlem, but passed it by in favour of Zandvoort, where we spent a moment looking at the waves coming in on the beach. This was the site of our first date (if you can really call it that), back in January 2000. Eloïse went to sleep in her car-seat on the way there, which left us free to enjoy the car and experiment with some of its many features. In fact, the CD player was responsible for sending Wiesje to sleep, as we had brought along her favourite CD for this very purpose, a collection of nursery rhymes sung by Karin Bloemen.
From Zandvoort, we headed over to Noordwijk, where we stopped for some food in a downmarket restaurant that was absolutely bloody freezing. Why Noordwijk? Sarah suggested it and I didn’t have a better suggestion at the time. It was as dead as a doornail, but we got to say that we dipped into another province (Zuid Holland).
Back in the car, we programmed the address of our new house into the navigation system and headed back to Amsterdam. On the way, I tried to put the car through its paces, but the speed limit got in the way. Having received a speeding fine yesterday for a minor violation in our Greenwheels car back in early October. I was in no mood for another one.
Finally, we made our way back to the Audi dealer. Wiesje was asleep again by this point, so we made a quick detour around Ouderkerk prior to concluding our round-trip at the dealer’s premises. We reluctantly returned the car and then headed home, but not before modifying our car order to include sport seats. I had been very impressed with the ones in our test vehicle — in particular, the extendable groin support (I don’t know what it’s really called) — and decided I just had to have them.
In conclusion, I’m very happy with our decision to purchase an Audi A6 Avant. It’s spacious, comfortable, designed with safety in mind, drives like a dream, has a well thought out interface to its multitude of features, and is powerful (even with an automatic gearbox). I think we’re going to enjoy cruising around Europe in this car!