Automobiles
Two days ago I signed a "contract for the purchase of a new vehicle." Scary!
We'd been talking about it amongst the family for months, and since I started working it became even more evident that I really need a car. We'd looked at alternatives to buying a new car - perhaps I could buy Mum's, a friend of a friend of a friend is selling a car, blah, blah...but in the end it appeared that buying a reasonably affordable new one would be the best option...even if that's only because it would take less effort.
So a few days ago Dad used his lunch break on my day off to go look at some dealerships, and we had a range of small cars in mind. We had a very amusing experience at Mazda, looking at their 2s, with a story that would probably lose it's charm in written form so I won't go into it, but we could have gotten a fairly good deal on a Mazda, but we'd happened to walk by the Holden place on the way, and noticed that their small cars were a lot cheaper, with plenty of the same features, and perhaps even a bit more to offer, for example, 4 airbags as standard.
What is the 'Holden' that I speak of? Well, it's actually the Australian leg of GM, and the Barina is actually a Daewoo Kalos (South Korea) car, rebranded as a Holden Barina in Australia, because Holden partially owns Daewoo....or something like that. In other parts of the world it's knowns as a Chevrolet Aveo. In the past couple of years Barina had gained a bit of a bad name, because it only had a 2 star safety rating in Australia, however they've just recently given the whole range a facelift and brought the safety rating back up to 4 stars, apparently it's one of the few small cars to have 4 stars.
So anyway, I let Dad work his magic and get us a good deal, and that he did, getting Alloy wheels, ABS, rear sensors and mats all thrown in too. We originally asked for a different colour, but it seems that since they're so new, none of the cars are actually in the country yet except for those in showrooms, so the guy's sourced this blue coloured one in country Victoria and I should get my hands on it early next week. Exciting!
Of course once the payment's made when it arrives I will be forever in debt to my parents, since of course I don't have the money right now. I am sure that I can pay it all off within a year, though, and that's my aim. It just means that I will be living at home for a while longer, but since I'll finally have my own car, I will have a bit more freedom to go places and so what I want. I think not having a car has really been holding me back in many respects, so this is a very good thing!
We'd been talking about it amongst the family for months, and since I started working it became even more evident that I really need a car. We'd looked at alternatives to buying a new car - perhaps I could buy Mum's, a friend of a friend of a friend is selling a car, blah, blah...but in the end it appeared that buying a reasonably affordable new one would be the best option...even if that's only because it would take less effort.
So a few days ago Dad used his lunch break on my day off to go look at some dealerships, and we had a range of small cars in mind. We had a very amusing experience at Mazda, looking at their 2s, with a story that would probably lose it's charm in written form so I won't go into it, but we could have gotten a fairly good deal on a Mazda, but we'd happened to walk by the Holden place on the way, and noticed that their small cars were a lot cheaper, with plenty of the same features, and perhaps even a bit more to offer, for example, 4 airbags as standard.
What is the 'Holden' that I speak of? Well, it's actually the Australian leg of GM, and the Barina is actually a Daewoo Kalos (South Korea) car, rebranded as a Holden Barina in Australia, because Holden partially owns Daewoo....or something like that. In other parts of the world it's knowns as a Chevrolet Aveo. In the past couple of years Barina had gained a bit of a bad name, because it only had a 2 star safety rating in Australia, however they've just recently given the whole range a facelift and brought the safety rating back up to 4 stars, apparently it's one of the few small cars to have 4 stars.
So anyway, I let Dad work his magic and get us a good deal, and that he did, getting Alloy wheels, ABS, rear sensors and mats all thrown in too. We originally asked for a different colour, but it seems that since they're so new, none of the cars are actually in the country yet except for those in showrooms, so the guy's sourced this blue coloured one in country Victoria and I should get my hands on it early next week. Exciting!
Of course once the payment's made when it arrives I will be forever in debt to my parents, since of course I don't have the money right now. I am sure that I can pay it all off within a year, though, and that's my aim. It just means that I will be living at home for a while longer, but since I'll finally have my own car, I will have a bit more freedom to go places and so what I want. I think not having a car has really been holding me back in many respects, so this is a very good thing!