Finally fully back on the road again

Think I can finally draw to a close the long running saga of getting my car repaired after it was rear-ended in November 2006 and then declared unsafe to drive.

Since then Zurich Insurance (the third party's insurance company) have hired a Vauxhall Zafira from Enterprise rent-a-car but I had lots of problems trying to arrange to take the hire car to France and ended up with a Hertz hire car with cruise control which was great fun.

3 weeks ago I got my car back from the garage again but the repairs were pretty shoddy so after another week of messing around with my insurance company I finally managed to get the car back to the garage again for re-repair.

Last week the car returned back after the second set of repairs. They've done a much better job this time and I'm reasonably happy with the end result.

I've got my no claims bonus back and on Thursday I renewed the tax disc so I'm finally 100% street legal and in my own car at last. The hire car's gone back (after 3 months and 3,500 miles) and it feels really strange to be driving my Primera again after spending so long in the Zafira.

I'm still having physio for my back and according to the doctor I will need another 6 treatments, possibly taking up to 7 months to fully recover. There's a personal accident injury claim (on a no-win no-fee basis) rumbling on as well but I'm glad I'm able to finally draw a line under the car repairs.