My Aygo's Curriculum Vitae

As I write, this car does not yet belong to me. I have not been able to get all the forces that be to work together to put the money in my hands so that I can hand it over to Shellbourne Motors.
So I've been doing some research and I've been able to put together the following profile of my car.

From the Shelbourne Website:

Toyota Aygo 1.0 VVT-i + 5dr
2007
Blue
Petrol
Manual
5-Door Hatchback
6297 Miles
Cost £5995

Drivers airbag, Passenger airbag, Side airbags, ABS, Central locking, Remote central locking, Front electric windows, Steel wheels, Radio/CD, Body coloured bumpers, Rear headrests, Full size spare wheel, PAS, Steering wheel rake adjustment, Folding rear seats, Isofix child seat anchor points, Rear wiper

Emissions are 108 g/km. Road tax: £35 per year.

With Internet technology as it is I was immediately able to identify this car on the parking lot when I took my family to look at the car. I walked up to the salesperson and rambled off all this information.

What extra information did the salesperson give me?

The car has had one previous owner.
The car has been serviced twice since 2007. Most recently on January 11, 2010. The salesperson indicated that the services were the regular services - replacing oil, filters etc. No other big work was done on the car.
I was able to sit in the car, switch it on, look at the car and notice that it appears to be in a good condition.

What do I wish I knew about the car?

Who was the previous owner? What kind of experience did the previous person have with this Aygo? Why was the car sold at 6200 miles? What did the person like about the car or dislike about the car? Has the car given any troubles? What is the real fuel economy of the car. I have all the figures from review websites and Toyota brochures, but how accurate are they?

The Toyota dealer has the full service history. Would they print it out for me so that I can see what work has been done on the car? How much did servicing the car cost over the last 24 months?

I feel as though I am about to embark on a relationship with a mysterious entity. I have a slight sense of foreboding. Am I making the right decision? How do I really know if I am buying the right car? Is this company offering me a fear deal? Are they going to try to enter into a mutually satisfying relationship with me?

I am not in a position yet where I have to take the step of buying this car. So on what am I basing my decision to buy the car? I'll try to take some time to explore this later on.

Why would anyone read this?

I'm about to buy myself a Toyota Aygo. It is a small car and many people would regard it as cheap. For me it represents a significant investment.

As I did my research about the car, I found a number of journalist reviews of the vehicle. These are generally based on test drives of new cars and some expert knowledge of the motoring field.

I found a few review websites where people posted their complaints or praise. Still I felt disconnected from the car, and I wondered how relevant these comments were. How do you get an overall sense of a person's relationship with a car? What stories can people tell about their cars?

Well, I hope that I can do that in this blog. I suspect that the person who reads this blog would have done a search for "Toyota Aygo". On this blog they will find the story of me an my Aygo. I suspect that sometimes it will be more Aygo, and sometimes it will be more me. I hope it will be informative.

There is a likelihood that other people would also like to read this blog. A quick list of possible readers might include:

• Somebody from the future who wants to document my fall into insanity
• People who are interested in consumer ethics
• One or two people who read my other blogs
• Bored Amateur Philosophers

Here I go. I hope you enjoy the ride.