For newcomers

At the bottom of each post there is the word "comments". If you click on it you will see comments made by followers, and if you follow the instructions you may also comment and I always welcome that. I have found many people overlook this part of the blog which is often more interesting than the original post!

My blog nick-name is SIR HUGH. I'm not from the aristocracy - my middle name is Hugh which relates to the list of 282 hills in Scotland compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891. I climbed my last one (Sgurr Mor) on 28th June 2009

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Saturday 21 October 2017

Ikea


Yesterday I was sandbagged into a trip to Ikea but at least it was a chance to give my new car a good run. I swapped the Kia Soul (35 mpg only) for a Kia Ceed 1.6 CDi Sportage GT Line Automatic - how's that for a mouthful? The car was registered in January this year with only 3000 plus miles. It is very lively and so far doing about 50mpg against its claims for circa 60mpg, but whatever, that is a huge improvement on its predecessor and it is early days yet.

It seems granddaughter Katie is in need of a new bunk bed and various related accessories, so off we went along with daughter High Horse.

I have always pretended to hate Ikea, but in truth it is not a bad experience, and Katie was in her element. She was in and out and up and down amongst all the room layouts, and sampling all the cuddly toys with glee, but not demanding purchases, and not a single strop all the jolly day; Ikea is better than one of those new soft-play attractions designed for children.


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Just to finish there is a short video - click the YouTube link below. 

10 comments:

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  2. Goodness Conrad, the Soul didn’t last long. Was it just the mpg? Given the drop in diesel part exchange values I’m sure you negotiated a good deal. I’m told that a 4 year old Yeti with 60000 miles on the clock has dropped from £17000 to around £10000 in part exchange deals.

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  3. Hi Conrad, I've no particular axe to grind with Ikea, but I have visited the one local to us and, on a number of occasions, not found the cupboard/cabinet/shelving unit I was hoping for and ended up buying something like a colander, cheese-grater or chopping board just so that I could say I hadn't had a wasted journey. Of course you then have to wait in the same queue as people buying a complete kitchen, so it's a pretty pyrrhic victory.

    Gibson, I'd have thought a Yeti with 60,000 on the clock would be just about 'run-in'. Our venerable Mark 4 Golf estate (a 1.9 Tdi, affectionately known as 'The Old Girl') is just nudging up to 150,000 and is part of the family; we dread the day we have to look for a replacement.

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    1. Dave, the drop in value is the consequence of the bad press diesel engines have been receiving. Nobody knows whether or not all diesels will eventually be banned from towns or be charged for doing so. What will Mr Hammond do regarding road tax on diesel cars or fuel duty on diesel? My local dealer tells me that mostly it’s only people who tow something or other who are buying diesels, at least for now.

      I might just ask our dealer what the px value would be of our two year old diesel Yeti even though we’ve no intention of changing it. I think I’ll be shocked.

      Thank you VW.






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  4. Afoot - Hi Gibson. The Kia I bought has more than six years warranty left on it. It has only done 3,000 miles and I do about 10,000 miles per year. The road tax is only £20. I am 77 years old, coming up 78 in December. The fuel economy is 50+ per gallon, it is automatic and a very high spec all round and I am satisfied that it suits me better than any previous car I have owned. If the Kia does 150,000 miles (ref. Dave's comment re his car) I will be 93 and If I'm still there I'll tackle the issue of its second hand value then, which would in any case be minimal, diesel or otherwise.

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    Dave - I do understand your cynical assessment of Ikea. If you are retired you can go there mid-week, out of school holidays when it is not too busy. I have what may be a definable clinical condition with my aversion to queuing - this time I left daughter and granddaughter to go through the till while I went to bring the car round to front of house for the loading.

    One of my favourite anecdotes which others reading here may well have heard several times before !

    My climbing friend of seven years Tony who sadly passed away several years ago was trying to buy shoes in Saxone at Preston. They didn't have his size. The girl assistant said "I think you'd find they would have your size in our branch at the Trafford Centre." Tony's reply "I'd rather go to the top of this building and jump off."

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  5. Sir Hugh - my point was not that resale values would necessarily affect you, but rather that given current conditions in the market, you ought to have got a good deal when changing the Kia Soul.

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  6. Afoot - Well I walked away at the first offer and went back a couple of days later and suggested a more or less halfway split between our positions which they accepted. I then went for the final pinch and got a set of mats and a full tank of fuel thrown in. I felt I had got them down as far as anybody would have done, and as I said above I ended up with something that was much to my satisfaction which is something over and above the monetary issue.

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  7. Love those photos of Katie - particularly the 'hiding in cupboard' ones.

    I have never been a fan of shopping as a leisure activity, but do find I can lose a good hour in a Decathlon store. Even if I just nip in to use the wifi, I always seem to come away having bought something. Went to download some podcasts a couple of weeks ago and found myself drawn to inflatable canoes and wetsuits! Sense prevailed and we came away with just a couple of small purchases.

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  8. Gayle - beware of "blur moments."

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    Phreerunner - I'm not sure what part of all this you are referring to, but thanks anyway.

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