Buying a new car

… and the car we tested was the GT. It’s the most expensive model in the range and at eleven hundred and sixty-nine pounds it is, I think, a little overpriced: you can buy the equivalent Volkswagen for almost eight hundred pounds less. But it’s a beautiful car and I’d been looking forward to driving it for a long time. Unfortunately, I had problems right from the start. The day I tested the car was one of the few sunny days we had this summer. So, naturally enough, I decided to open the sunroof. But the handle was so stiff that it was almost impossible to move it. I did, eventually, get the sunroof open but as it finally began to slide back it made the most awful noise. Noise, I’m afraid, is quite a feature of this car. The car’s interior seemed to be very badly insulated against engine noise, and with the sunroof finally open the noise of the wind was very loud indeed.

In general, the car was quite comfortable, but I didn’t really have enough leg room, and I found it difficult to adjust the wing mirrors to the position I wanted.

The test car was, of course, brand new, but I did find quite a lot of small scratches and badly finished paintwork around the headlights and radiator grille. And the silver plastic strip which runs along each side of the car wasn’t properly fixed to the car body on the left side of the car I tested.

So, quite a lot of irritating faults in a car you’re going to have to pay for…

 24.4 Complete the passage with the following words:

(rear-view) mirror	steering wheel	accelerator
glove compartment	brake	clutch
gear lever	horn	petrol gauge
handbrake	speedometer	seat belt

She looked at the map one more time before putting it back in the a)_________. It was ten past nine. She should make it just in time. She checked the b)__________. Yes, she had plenty of petrol for the drive. She released the c)_________, put the car in gear, and pressed down on the d)_________. The car moved smoothly from the kerb.

Half an hour later, when she looked in the e)_________ and saw the police car she realized that she was going too fast. The f)_________ registered 95 miles an hour. But she had to get to his house in time or a terrible wrong would be done. She gripped the g)________, forcing herself to be calm; in a practised routine her left foot depressed the h)_________ while her left hand enveloped the i)_________ as she changed from the fourth to the third in a faultless synchronization. Maybe the police would leave her alone.

The car slowed, but not enough as, just ahead of her, a deer suddenly sprang up in the headlights. Her foot hit the j)________ at the same moment as she sounded the k)_______. Then suddenly, she was fighting desperately to control the car on the oily surface of the road – and the police were closing fast. It was that moment that she realized she wasn’t wearing her l)________.

 24.5 Listen to a radio programme about the world’s most loved car, the Volkswagen Beetle, and mark whether the following statements are true or false.

Before you listen pay attention to the following proper names:

Volvo, Ferdinand Porsche, Major Ivan Hurst, Michael McEnvoy, John Baber, Beetling, the Rhein

1. People like Beetles because they are so comfortable.

2. The man feels that his car is his friend.

3. His friends who own Beetles have thought of lots of ways to improve their cars.

4. Ferdinand Porsche was asked to design the car in 1938.

5. American and British soldiers in Germany didn’t like the Beetle cars very much.

6. Some Beetles were taken back to Britain and America by the soldiers.

7. Peter Baber opened the first VW garage in America in the 1950s.

8. His father started a magazine for people who owned or liked Beetles.

9. Peter Baber’s schoolfriends first called the car a Beetle.

10. No Beetles have been made in the world since 1974.

Now answer the following questions.

1. What is the meaning of the word ‘beetle’?

2. What is the Beetle called in your country?

3. What does ‘Volkswagen’ mean?

4. What is the message of the song?

5. What is your favourite car? Why?

6. Which other cars do you know that are loved in the same way as Beetles? Which modern cars do you think will be loved as much in the future?

 Conversational Skills

1. You are going to buy a car. Ask your friend for advice.

2. Student A is a customer. Student B is a car sales person. A decides on the kind of vehicle he/she wants to buy and goes to the car showroom to look at one. B has to try and persuade the customer to choose a different kind of vehicle.

 Speech Practice

1. What kind of car would you like to have?

2. The worst / the best car you have ever seen.

Appendix 1

Cambridge Active Vocabulary