a sign of the times

Tap class tonight. These signs are on the floor in the sports centre.

When the man at the garage starts pointing out some of the good second-hand cars he has, it's not a good sign.
Actually I do entirely trust Norman and if he says the old red one won't get through its next MOT and it's time to stop throwing money at it... I have to believe him.
Today's conversation involved each of us putting forward our ideas about what form a new car might take:

me - price, colour, shape, ability to take the lawn mower in the back.
Norman - price, age, availability, ability to take the lawn mower in the back.
Considerable agreement, then, so now it's just a question of waiting until the 'right' one comes along.

In the meantime I hope the present problem is just a broken spring, which is not too expensive to fix. I'll find out tomorrow.