Meet M’selle Evie, my new French girlfriend. She’s a Peugeot 407 Coupé. I’ve been looking at them on-line for months but they all seemed to be in the eastern states. I assumed they hadn’t sold very well in WA – they never came up locally. Well, now she’s mine!

Suddenly last Saturday, there she was, on Carsales, in Manning on the south side of Perth. I could hardly believe it, the model I wanted with the engine I wanted, and at about half the price I expected to pay, compared to all the ones in the eastern states.

I picked up the phone and arranged to come and see it. The guy said he’d had lots of enquiries but no-one had turned up yet. I said “I’ll be there in an hour.”

When I got there, it was still untaken and I said, provided there’s nothing major wrong, I want it. So we talked about it, I went and got some cash for a deposit and arranged to come again on Monday, that’s yesterday, with the balance. Price? $4,400. It’s not exactly a big outlay for what is a very fancy car, in excellent condition, only 133,600km.

So what is it? It’s a 2006 Peugeot 407 Coupé, with a 2.7L V6 twin turbo diesel engine. These were $72,500 new in 2006 so it’s depreciated as far as it’s going to go, I think. Due to their relative rarity, they may start to increase in price.

It’s all leather upholstery inside, with every driving feature you can think of: six speed automatic with Tiptronic manual, Electronic Stability Control, Electronic Brake-force Distribution, electronically controlled dampers for Sport or Comfort mode. Emergency Brake Assist, power seats, laminated double glazed windows for sound insulation, JBL sound system, automatic headlights when it gets dark, automatic rain sensing wipers, air con of course and heated seats … you name it, it’s got it. No tow bar though.

The thing is, being a diesel, torque is 440Nm at a low 1,900 rpm and power is 155kw (208HP) at only 3,500rpm. That means it’s powerful at lowish revs, right where you want it. And it pulls hard when you’re trying to idle along in dense traffic.

It has a couple of problems – apparently the aircon doesn’t get cold and the parking proximity sensors are not working (there’s a switch to switch them off low down on the dash – I wonder if the guy had switched them off and didn’t realise it – he seemed a bit clueless about the car).

I was a bit concerned that it seemed sluggish to move off from stopped, at first, but I realised after a while that it was switched to Snow mode, shown by a snowflake symbol in the dash display. That meant it started only in second gear, to avoid slipping. No wonder it felt funny. Switching that off made a big difference.

Being a French car, the damned turn indicator lever is on the left and the wiper wand is on the right. However, I drove home the long way last night, via Fremantle, taking about an hour, and I was soon used to it.

I am pleased as Punch! It fits what I wanted – a very stylish car, a 2 door coupé (I don’t want four doors! Four doors are for family men with kids! I’m a bachelor!), a rare car – I don’t think I’ve ever seen another one in Perth. It says “rare”, “unique”, “style”, “taste”, “discernment”. And at a very cheap price too. The guy said he wanted a quick sale. He got it.

Now I have to sell Vera, the Mitsubishi Verada. I’ll say I want a quick sale too, I’m ready to haggle. $2,900 and I’ll come down from there.

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My car is silver, to my mind a very boring colour.

I want one like this, black. I wonder what it would cost for a re-spray.

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What is it about battery suppliers? I’m looking for replacement LiIon batteries for my old Sony Clié PDA (Personal Digital Assistant).

I found a supplier in the USA, New York, I think. I ordered two batteries and paid on Visa. A month later, no explanation, no email, just a refund into my account. I assumed no stock.

Last year I found a stockist in New Zealand so fired off an order, paying by Visa. Nothing happened for about two months, so I said, “What’s happening?” The guy said, “Uh oh, I’ll check the order.” Again, no answer for a month or more, over Xmas and New Year. I enquired again. He was on holidays. I enquired again a few weeks later.

“Oh, sorry”, he said. “We don’t send overseas. I’ll refund your money.” Don’t post overseas? From New Zealand?! Anyway, I got my money back.

Next was a supplier in the UK. There was some foul-up when I tried to order, but the answer came back, “No stock, sorry.” There was nothing on their web site to say no stock.

Next was a Canadian web site. It all looked good so I ordered two batteries, for a total of A$54 and got an order confirmation email. Again, I waited two months with no delivery, so I shot an email off last week asking why.

No reply, no explanation, but I’ve noticed a refund into my Visa account from them, so at least that’s something.

Four attempts, four fails. What is it with these companies? I’ll try again.

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I’m having my Astra Zeneca COVID vaccination at 2.15pm today, and I’m looking forward to it.

But I’m not looking forward to tomorrow. I go back to the doctor to get the result of the biopsy on my squamous cell carcinoma, and I assume the operation to cut it out. From what I’ve been told, he will cut 1cm out (wider) all around from the roughly circular lump, which is going to mean a hole roughly 3.5cm in diameter in my right temple, and probably quite deep. Ugh. It would seem to me that he’ll need to do a skin graft to cover it.

I guess I’m nervous about the unknown. I’ll know tomorrow.