Estate with low tailgate for labs who don't like jumping into a Golf with a lip!

Loving my 4x4 Subaru estate. No one ever says you'll have to jump in the truck at training as it seems to cope with most stuff we have to cross. The ride height isn't as high as a proper 4x4 but it does have extra clearance and it has a scoop on the bonnet so I feel like such a boy racer

 

Ugh, I need to buy a new car. The thought fills me with dread. Second hand cars in Andorra are battered, bruised and SO expensive!! The choice isn't exactly massive, either, in such a small country. Bah.
I can see it being a second Jeep. They're amazing workhorses, great in the mountains and on the off-road tracks we drive. The downside is they are very high to get in and out of.

 

What is the US equivilent of the Subie estate? an Outback, Forester or regular Legacy. Ours is a 2005 Outback 2.5XT which means it is a Turbo and gets terrible gas mileage. We love it except that it requires premium and typically gets less than 20 mpg.

 

Mines an Outback. I don't do huge miles so the mileage doesn't worry me too much and I don't put premium in it but I do choose branded fuel stations like Shell and Esso as they have better quality fuel generally than supermarkets. Something to do with additives I think.....

 

Nothing to do with Labs, but before I bought my car I got told by people in Italy, Spain and France that I should get a used car from Germany. Most of my neighbors in Spain are transplanted Germans and they do the same - hunt online, reserve with a dealer in Germany, fly out and drive the car back. It is very common for Germans to dump their new cars after only a year or two plus auto manufacture employees get new ones every year as a perk, so all those one year old cars get dumped on the market, too. I was really amazed at the huge number of pristine 1-2 year old cars available at great prices. Only trick would be if Andorra charges import duty as it's not in the EU.

 

Yes, they do charge duty and import fees, plus matriculation can be expensive. You also can't import a car older than three years. With the type of car I'd be after, it would need to be older than that to be affordable (what with buying a farm and having to do it up!).

I talked it over with hubs last night, and we may be cheeky and buy a Spanish one. It won't be used much in Andorra anyway, so the chances of being stopped and fined are pretty tiny. We'll see what we can find.

If we get another Grand Cherokee, then we'll have one to use for parts when it dies! But I'm also looking at other options, such as the Berlingo and Doblo.

 

Ah darn... yes, the duty and import fees would make a used German car NOT a good deal. I looked at the Berlingo and really liked it... though too big for me with only one dog and having to mash myself down some tiny Italian streets for part of the year.

Thanks for giving me an excuse yesterday to go down a very interesting rabbit hole finding out about Andorra. Sounds like a lovely place to live!

 

It is! I live in the ski resort of Soldeu, in the Grandvalira ski area. It's beautiful, winter and summer. The mountains on our doorstep are a beautiful place to enjoy with the dogs

 

Do they salt the roads? One of our advantages is that most of the Western states use little or no salt, so cars don't rust away like they do in the Midwest and East coast.

I remember when I moved to Oregon from Chicago 40+ years ago, one of the surprises was "Where did they get all these old cars" Now I have one that is 19 years one 12 and one 11, and none of them have any rust.

 

Yes, they do. They don't have to very often on the main thoroughfare, though, with the combination of the ploughs, traffic and the sun (Soldeu translates as "Sun God" and we get 300 days of sunshine a year). I haven't noticed too may rusty cars, I have to say. Our last car was well over 20 years old by the time we got rid of it, and our current Jeep is probably about 15 years old, with barely a patch of rust. The Roadster is also rust-free, but since it's made of plastic, that's not too surprising