It all started when I went into Greenoaks Mercedes (featured below) to look into what I could afford with the car allowance that I had.

 I had recently had a quite a serious accident in a MKII Vauxhall Carlton when a Securicor lorry decided that braking was for wimps, and although car was repaired it never felt the same to drive again. I briefly looked into the new Vauxhall (Opel) Omega but for my own self-preservation I began looking at Volvo (yugh!), SAAB, and MB.