Thirteen shades of grey

Never mind gold, silver or bronze the ‘in’ colour seems to be grey. Just, how many shades of grey do we need? I ask myself. Last weekend we went to look for a ‘new‘ car for my husband and by new I mean new to him in other words second hand. On Saturday morning we started at dealer A. Out on their forecourt there were plenty of cars but they had very little choice of cars of the model and age that husband is interested in. After a quick look around we had a chat with a salesman and a look at their website and still there was nothing of interest. Husband’s present car is grey and he would like a different colour this time. We live up a muddy lane. We do not want black or white and we are both old enough to remember the post war years, when you could have any colour car  that you liked as long as it was black!  Blue would be nice, but finding a blue car is like finding a needle in a haystack. I should know. Mine is blue and it took me five months of looking to find it. So a car from dealer A would be grey and these are the options -  Cuvee silver, Ice silver, Dakota grey, Daytona grey, Lava grey and Monsoon grey.

After a quick lunch at home we set off to dealer B. Here there were not many cars at all on the forecourt. However, there were two possibles. The salesman let us have the keys to both, so that we could have a look at the inside.  We both preferred one to the other and decided to ask for a test drive of that particular car. Not possible on Saturday afternoon. They were busy. We could have a test drive at 11.30 on Sunday morning. The colour options here were Lunar grey, Stratus grey or Rhodium silver.

The afternoon was still young. Husband was not fussed about what dealer C might have to offer, but we had the time to drop in on them as we were passing by their showroom and forecourt on the way home. Here again there were not many cars on the forecourt. We went inside and asked to see a salesperson. They were all busy. One would come out to see us, if we had a look at the cars outside. Actually it was not long before a salesgirl or rather woman with bleached blonde hair  wearing a black dress and beige platform shoes appeared. She explained the layout of the forecourt, leaving us with the now familiar dilemma. All options were grey and there were no cars that fitted husband’s requirements. At this point husband was about to throw in the towel and go home, but I persuaded him to have a look at the sports version of the car he liked, as there is not a lot of difference between it and the saloon version that he had in mind. There were two, one was blue and the other the inevitable grey. We had a sit in both and plumped to test drive the grey. The main difference being that the grey has a panoramic roof which makes it a lot less claustrophobic. So off we went, husband driving, me bundled into the back and the blonde in the passenger seat. The back was quite comfortable. There are some advantages to being 5ft 4in tall and fortunately no one seems to have seen husband driving around with a blonde in the passenger seat. The car drove well and husband was impressed with it, but it was not the car that he set out to but. That I think was at dealer B. If not blue, the other colours available from dealer C are Tenorite grey, Iridium silver, Palladium silver or Diamond silver.

Sunday morning found us back at dealer B for the test drive. This time I got to sit in the passenger seat.  Again the car drove well but we both had reservations about it. We told the salesman that we would think about it and went off to have another look at dealer C. A chat with the manager, there, gave husband some more to think about. The car that he test drove was becoming more and more attractive. In fact it has become a case of once driven forever smitten, but it is not a vauxhall. Today he paid the deposit on it. Never mind that it is grey. Well actually it is silver.