Our Transportation

Bell Helicopter supplies Ron with a rent car and gasoline while we are in England. This was our first rent car. It was a 2007 Ford Mondeo, 2 liter engine, automatic, 5-speed. It averaged 26 mpg around town and 36 mpg on the highway. In the Bell paperwork the car's new price was listed as about 16,000 pounds, which is about $32,000 U.S. ----so the new price of this car was not double that of the U.S. prices, like many products, but it was quite a bit higher. Gasoline is about $8.00 per gallon (costs about 1.97 British pounds per liter, and the exchange rate is about $2 for every British pound)!


Hertz did not want the car to get too many miles on it, so they asked that we trade that car for our current one. It is a Vauxhall (G.M.) Vectra, 2.2 liter gas engine, automatic, 5-speed. It gets 24 mpg around town and 34 on the highway. (Some of you will probably know that I had to ask Ron what to say about the cars----I basically knew we had a silver one and now a black one! However, I do notice that there are no automatic door locks, no back-up sensors, no automatic headlights, and that the cup holders are very inadequate! )

Since my name is not on the rental car agreement, I have not been able to drive in England. So, my only means of transportation during the day are my feet and the bus! I have actually taken the bus into the shopping area of Yeovil only one time, but I really enjoyed that day out! But it sure seems expensive to pay $10.40 for a ride (15-20 min. by car) to go window shopping, which is why I have only done it once! (I guess I did buy a few things!) I enjoyed it so much,though, I think I will go again!
The photo shows the bus pulling up to my bus stop, which is about a block away from our apartment. Notice the width of the street. The cars on the left are parked in front of their houses. No wonder so many cars here have damaged mirrors! (Most of the people that park on the streets pull their mirrors in when they park to avoid the mirrors being hit by passing cars.) In a road this narrow, which is quite common, cars have to pull over or back up to let oncoming traffic pass. The signal to tell an oncoming car that it can come ahead is two blinks of the headlights.


The ride home was a little less convenient, as I had to walk to the bus station from the shopping area (which wasn't far) and then wait for the bus, which was 15 minutes late. My total wait was about 30 minutes, which on a pretty day was OK.