I am *so much* looking forward to handing this thing back!

It only seems like yesterday when I wrote about the excitement of getting the car.

How quickly things deteriorated:

- Miscellaneous parts falling off (bumper in-fill, bits from under the dashboard, interior trim etc).

- Cracked windscreen at only 100km due to manufacturing defect with the channel in which it sits.

- Faulty gearbox (problems which started at 800km and never beeen fully resolved)

- Random electrical faults ("boot open" alarms; stalling when decreasing cruise control speed; complete blow-out of sets of lighting - eg headlights, tail-lights etc)

- Stain-o-matic paint finish

- Oil leaks

I could go on (and on)

It's sad to be handing back this Shell Card which, since the day I got it, has allowed me to purchase my fuel at a flat cost of $1.05/litre from my pre-tax income.

Now I'm at the mercy of the petrol companies again. With 98-octane fuel currently around $1.78/litre (~USD6.38 per gallon*), i'm hoping the Golf measures up to its fuel efficiency claims!

(*) To our US friends, you can stop complaining about your price hitting USD4.00 per gallon. That's about AUD1.10 per litre. We haven't seen prices like that here since early late 2004!

Having dumped the Ford Focus of Doom at the company workshop this morning, it's a train trip home tonight. Toongabbie railway station is a creepy place, people.