No more 'rust buckets'!
Before acquiring his first open-topped car through specialist clergy car supplier Newgate Motoring Solutions the Internet trading site was his main source.
"Previously I drove 'rust buckets,' mostly bought on eBay. I had Volvos, Mitsubishis, Espaces. If I spent L800 I felt I was pushing the boat out!" the Methodist Minister from Gillingham, Kent commented.
Reliable transport can be important for the clergy but Melvyn said he was fortunate in not suffering many breakdowns and his wife's company car meant there was usually at least one operational vehicle in the household.
"I'd always fancied a convertible - maybe I was just trying to discover what I missed out on years ago!" said the Minister who in addition to his charges in Gillingham and Hartlip is also Superintendent of the Methodists' Medway circuit which comprises 13 churches.
For many weeks after he began financing the gold coloured 1.6 Renault Megane convertible through Newgate, it seemed the rain never stopped but he is enjoying the wind in his hair - and the admiration of his granddaughter and grandson. Aged seven and five, they are great fans of open-top motoring "and reckon granddad has suddenly gone up in the world!"
The Rev. Cooke admits the convertible's arrival became quite a talking point among his congregations. "It certainly caused a degree of mirth and comment among my flock," he said. "My old 'rust buckets' had created a certain cringe factor so the transition was particularly steep and led to some serious leg-pulling!"
Financing the car through Newgate "has been an incredibly easy transaction, much less complicated than I had envisaged," he commented. "I had anticipated lots of telephone calls, a mountain of paperwork and to be kept hanging on for days, but nothing like that happened with Newgate," he went on. "I listed my requirements, got a call back and from then on it was plain sailing all the way."
After 30 years of Ministry, Melvyn returned to his home town of Gillingham in 2000 when four separate Methodist churches came together into one new group, occupying the premises of one of them in Third Avenue following a L500,000 modernisation.
Before acquiring his first open-topped car through specialist clergy car supplier Newgate Motoring Solutions the Internet trading site was his main source.
"Previously I drove 'rust buckets,' mostly bought on eBay. I had Volvos, Mitsubishis, Espaces. If I spent L800 I felt I was pushing the boat out!" the Methodist Minister from Gillingham, Kent commented.
Reliable transport can be important for the clergy but Melvyn said he was fortunate in not suffering many breakdowns and his wife's company car meant there was usually at least one operational vehicle in the household.
"I'd always fancied a convertible - maybe I was just trying to discover what I missed out on years ago!" said the Minister who in addition to his charges in Gillingham and Hartlip is also Superintendent of the Methodists' Medway circuit which comprises 13 churches.
For many weeks after he began financing the gold coloured 1.6 Renault Megane convertible through Newgate, it seemed the rain never stopped but he is enjoying the wind in his hair - and the admiration of his granddaughter and grandson. Aged seven and five, they are great fans of open-top motoring "and reckon granddad has suddenly gone up in the world!"
The Rev. Cooke admits the convertible's arrival became quite a talking point among his congregations. "It certainly caused a degree of mirth and comment among my flock," he said. "My old 'rust buckets' had created a certain cringe factor so the transition was particularly steep and led to some serious leg-pulling!"
Financing the car through Newgate "has been an incredibly easy transaction, much less complicated than I had envisaged," he commented. "I had anticipated lots of telephone calls, a mountain of paperwork and to be kept hanging on for days, but nothing like that happened with Newgate," he went on. "I listed my requirements, got a call back and from then on it was plain sailing all the way."
After 30 years of Ministry, Melvyn returned to his home town of Gillingham in 2000 when four separate Methodist churches came together into one new group, occupying the premises of one of them in Third Avenue following a L500,000 modernisation.
