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NATIONAL
Page 41
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Although barely a mile from Beddington Lane, the Croydon Airport estate is a much more welcoming environment (see Northgate) . National's site, dual-branded with Alamo, is a large shed with storage at the rear and a tidy office at the front. Smartly uniformed staff gave an initial air of efficiency. Again, we were asked for our missing full-licence counterpart and charged £5 ex-VAT for the call to Swansea.
The efficient impression was dispelled when the card reader decided it didn't like Amex, and then all the usual printers appeared to be out of commission. The only one that was working printed out only part of the page width, missing out the prices. On top of this, our name was wrongly spelled —which could have caused more credit card problems.
The final delay was caused by a transporter-load of new Golfs arriving while we were sorting out the paperwork, blocking in our van. Then 20 minutes passed before a rather battered Volkswagen LT28 on a 53 plate appeared. All told, the collection process took the best part of an hour.
In fairness, the van drove well enough with no significant faults apparent, although it did serve as a reminder of how far behind the LT has fallen in driver appeal, and how much the forthcoming new model will be welcomed. The only annoyance was the failure of the display lighting on the Blaupunkt radio, which couldn't be tuned and was eventually turned off by removing the security panel.
Fortunately, the return of the van was efficiently uneventful with a properly printed invoice arriving by post within three days.