‘Like an addict searching for a fix, I’m going crazy looking for a new car’

From a Park Lane showroom to a day out at Car Giant – including a late-night recce of all the electric charging points in her borough – Charlotte Cripps must have transport

I was in the bath when the door bell chimed and my neighbour told me that somebody had driven into the back of my clapped out VW Golf car and then rebounded into his brand new BMW. Luckily, nobody was hurt and it turned out that I knew the driver who had crashed into both cars. “I know you,” she says. “Your dog is Muggles. Mine is called Benji.”

But it doesn’t make it any easier that we know each other from the local park and my car is deemed a write-off. I am offered £2,345 for it, which is an absolute miracle considering the state of it and I sign over ownership to a scrap yard. My brother is trying to get rid of his wife’s very old BMW estate. It was the right price but it is diesel – so by October 2020, I would be charged £12 a day to have it parked outside my west London flat.

How about a new car? They are so much more reliable, I say to myself. I start scouring the internet. It’s Thursday and everything remains a blur until Sunday while, like an addict looking for a fix, I stumble from one website to another, analysing the spec and engine size of new cars. I’m still fantasising about new cars when, from the bus window, I spot the Park Lane BMW showroom. I’ve forgotten my bank card, but I decide to get off to do a bit of window shopping with the kids. Yes, I have champagne tastes and a lemonade budget but I rather fancy a free gourmet coffee – and it is not like I don’t genuinely need a car. It might give me some ideas!