Car saga

Finding a new, used car isn't much fun even when it is easy. Something about spending a lot of money for something which has the capacity to become much more expensive without warning.

Our first thought was we'd find a car for less than $3000. Remember my list? Kevin added "automatic transmission" and "possesses a road worthy certificate". Well, those cut down the list of possibles on CARSALES.COM considerably! We did, however, print out 15 or so possibles and sat down at the table on Sunday morning. It shouldn't have surprised us that the factor that actually decided which ones we'd test drive (and when) was WHO ANSWERED THEIR PHONE. We borrowed a car from gaming friends (thank you Jane and Hubertus) and crisscrossed the city twice seeing 3 cars: a Holden (too big!), a Mitsubishi (too soft!- I don't really know what that means, either- but we knew right away it wasn't our car), and a Toyota (just right?)

Not.

Yes, the car HAS A SWITCH that says air conditioning- but that doesn't mean it HAS air conditioning despite what the seller advertises. We were also concerned about the kilometerage (what a mouthful!)...over 393,000!!! The engine had been replaced at some point in the past and was very quiet. We seriously considered this. We asked if we could take it to our mechanic for a check- but our request was declined because the seller lacked insurance on the car.

I re-organized the search routine. I cut our search area back to 10 km and searched only by known small cars. Two hits...

Another Toyota and a Honda.

I trained myself to Indooroopilly on Friday to see the Toyota. It has been driven for the past 3 years by a "uni" student. The tires were good. It was pretty cute with a sporty back end and those quaint sunken circular dials strewn across the dash. And, the a/c worked! I was ready to bite- despite the lack of power steering- when her dad told me that she only has to add oil to it when she fills the tank with petrol Just once a week.

Saturday morning we saw the Honda. It is very sexy. We feel like speed obsessed 18 year olds. Red and Black and racing stripes and fire and

air conditioning, power steering, automatic transmission, newish tires and only 123,000 km (74,000 miles).

However, as of Sat morning it lacked the RWC. We hope that is rectified soon and we'll be car-ed up again!