7th April 25 Maserati. Illusion Shattered

When you take a job and see the car your driving. very rarely these days, does it make the day more enjoyable. After all, they are just modes of transport to me now.

I am very fortunate to have lived in a time and place where driving was actually something you could really experience. The car was all important and luckily for me it didn't really matter what car it was. You could use all it's potential on roads that were, quiet, fast, smooth and with a little care, (Actually that's none at all) you could just as easily be on a racetrack, I knew those roads so well.

That's because I was lucky, in one respect anyway, to have been brought up in South West Scotland. and of course that's when my driving experience's started in the 1970's

At that time I lived in a place called Dalbeattie. Approx. 12 miles from Dumfries. The biggest town in Galloway. Starting my on road career on a Suzuki AP50 in 1976 I was Barry Sheen. had the Suzuki Heron Jacket and everything and gunning that little thing around the roads was part of my leaning to drive. Then moving onto a Yamaha RD 250 in 1977 the first one with cast alloy wheels and not spokes. I really got addicted to speed. Cars soon followed and I was happy to always think differently as I hated Fords and as I worked with British Leyland cars in my job as a Panel Beater Paint sprayer back then. I certainly didn't want one of those. So first car was a FIAT 127, powder blue and followed by a 1974 L reg Opel Kadett. the first series model. then the big one. At 18 I had an Opel Commodore GSE coupe 2.8 straight 6 and just loved it. I passed my test in an Opel Manta A series and I much preferred the pre-GM Opel's. Or anything Italian.

More on my car history to come and there are hundreds of them.

So today's Maserati. I have said for a long time that given a, money no object scenario. I would have a Maserati Granturismo. Now?

So I had to collect a Maserati Ghibli from Tring which was only going to a prep centre in Leighton Buzzard about 21 miles cross country. I thought it might be some great roads to try it on. Wrong.

The car when I arrived at BMW Tring to collect was actually a 2016 version. private plate hid that fact from me. It was hanging. Dirty, with damage on every corner and the wheels looked like someone had taken a grinder and a hammer to every inch around them.. On starting as it was a V6 I was expecting at least some enjoyment. alas no. when I selected drive some very odd noises started and once going forward the noises got worse from many places. The wheels sounded like there were actually no bearing left in them. the suspension made very odd clunks and bangs . Once I did my appraisal. for which I should have charged overtime it took so long to list damage and faults. I brought someone to listen to it and warned them this if anything got worse in the first few miles. the car was coming back. and deemed unsafe.

I limped the 21 miles to Leighton Buzzard and again did the lengthy appraisal and happily said goodbye to Maserati for life.

So a short walk to the station and a train to London to go to Waltham Cross to collect a VW Polo to take north to Nissan Stockton on Tees.

Taking Alda my wife for this long journey as it required an overnight stay. This was due to collecting another car from that city for delivery south tomorrow.

We navigated north up the A1 after the short traverse of the M25 from Waltham Cross and settled in for the long A1 journey. This went quite uneventfully and the Polo behaved exactly as you would expect. Comfortable for such a small car and extremely economical.

If we thought the Maserati would be the most disappointing aspect of the day we were wrong. Once we had dropped off the Polo at the Nissan dealer. Got the appraisal signed again without looking at the car .

We walked the short distance to the pre booked accommodation called Outram26. Remember that name.

It's a very cleverly named place as the name looks quite trendy and boutique like.

Booking.com made it look quite nice and the photos looked ok. Maybe we shouldn't have used our theory, previously used successfully in Italy, that its possible to find a good place for around £40 Lets be clear and honest (In case we are abused again by the owner after our review)

This was advertised and named as a hotel. As such, it should provide the amenities and features a hotel has.

So we arrived at the address. nothing, just a terraced house. number 26 Outram Road. to be exact. The penny dropped ! A man in a car across the road who jumped out on our arrival, introduced himself and explained the "hotel" was full and to accompany his into a different address across the road. Yes another terraced house. At this point due to the length of our journey and day. We followed just hoping for a clean bed and bathroom.

Not a chance. We were shown to a room with a table with a small TV actually glued to it. Not even worth stealing. another table with some tea making things on a rusty tray. A window with a very broken venetian blind.

Beautiful window blinds Outram26

A bed boxed in by three walls so you had to get on by the bottom only. with stained blankets on top. Oh and a shared bathroom. Something we missed to be fair in the small print. But not something you ever expect from something called a "HOTEL" we actually could have cried. It was so horrible. but at this point it was 8.00pm and we would have had to walk to find an alternative. So a row started. It seemed the thing to do, as in the property everyone else seemed to be doing the same, but extremely loudly, just outside our door and downstairs and we fell asleep hungry. having seen the kitchen once and never wanted to again. So didn't want to eat.

The amazing Outram26 stunning views

I think we eventually fell asleep after getting bored with the loud arguments happening from every room in this house. Sorry "hotel"

Avoid Outram26 in Stockton on Tees. at all costs.