100,000 miles later...

19th July 2002 I started my relationship with my car... Honda Civic Type R. At that moment in life I was inbetween work. Just having finished from Carphone Warehouse and about to start a new job in Bedfordshire. I was in a fairly serious relationship. I had no particular plans and lived each day as it came.

100,000 miles later I have just attended my MBA graduation ceremony. I am in a stable job. I have a couple of properties but I am single. But we all know that... *yawns* I want to talk about where my 100,000 miles have come from.

To begin with I did very little mileage in my car as my new job provided me with a company car so the only time I had to drive my Civic was over the weekend. For a few months this was fine, but I wanted to drive my car more and the company I worked for offered me a car allowance and petrol costs if I returned the company car and used my own. I said yes and the mileage started to increase!

I racked up a lot of miles travelling to and from client sites, going home, visiting my girlfriend and friends. I also got my first speeding ticket in many years when I was driving to collect the keys to my first house. 37mph in a 30mph zone... it wasn't excessive, but I was speeding.

I left Bedford after 18months and rented out the house. It was at this moment that I tried to set up my own company and business which was not very successful as the uptake was slow and I could not progress further without funds.

In the end (Nov 2003) I worked for my dad at his newly purchased restaurant on a full time basis and that meant a 60mile daily commute along with a weekly drive to London to see my girlfriend. This went on for about 6 months. After that my relationship ended and I was going out to London less. In fact I was pretty much doing nothing except staying in. There were odd trips to London to see friends, but not so frequent. This coincided with starting a new job in a software development company.

Another 6 months passed and suddenly I found myself working at Carphone Warehouse again and playing football for a team in Birmingham! Weekly drives up were not unknown... even as far as Manchester for a match! I was doing nearly 500miles a week at time... and always over 400miles per week!

It wasn't until I started my MBA that I slowed down my mileage. There was no time for me to go out. I could not afford to pay for petrol... It was a difficult time to be social. During this time I was close to 80,000miles. and it has taken me 18 months to do the final 20,000 which is almost unheard of for me!

Other than the daily drives and trips to Birmingham there have been a few significant and memorable drives...

One that springs to mind is the round trip from Basingstoke to Bristol to Birmingham to Manchester to Birmingham to Basingstoke to Bristol to Basingstoke all in the space of 30 hours! a good 800miles!

Another from Bedford to Leeds to Basingstoke in 6 hours.

Basingstoke to Bristol to Cardiff to Taunton to Basingstoke.

Basingstoke to Kent to London to Kent to Basingstoke.

Other single trips to Worthing, Brighton, Bournemouth, Stansted, Alton Towers, Old Trafford, Manchester Airport....

This car has been places with me and it has been the most reliable to date. I have only ever had to replace tyres, brakes, bulbs and the clutch. Never had a mechanical fault nor has it ever broken down (touch wood).

I think it will be amazing if I manage to reach 200,000 miles... but then I will probably have sold it by then. That will be a very sad day for me...

100,000miles gone. I have my MBA, a career and a couple of properties. What will another 100,000miles bring?