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About the cars
Thursday, 15 August 2024 23:05So. We got a new car. Well, secondhand, so technically, we got an old car. But it’s newer than my car by 1 year LOL.
Anyway, the yellow car is the borrowed car. The family-friend-mechanic was nice enough to lend us one of his spare cars while he went looking for a secondhand car. It's a Toyota Will Cypha. Apparently it's got some clout as in being rather rare and currently only having 3 neon yellow ones in Macau. We did try to ask the mechanic if he will sell us this car, but he gave a resolute No. Pity. It IS a smooth drive and comfy interior. I guess it's because he's a mechanic so he put a lot of time in fixing up his own car and so it's such a nice drive. (But the back windows are stuck shut, and i suspect the gasoline meter indicator thing is wonky, coz it goes down to having 4 bars only, and then suddenly one day it's full up to 7 bars for a couple of days then going back down to 3 bars. I've given up looking at the bars, and instead reset the distance driven indicator and fill up the tank when approaching 250km)
Two days ago the mechanic sent me photos of this orange car. It's a Nissan March. Nice compact car as well, but honestly I found the steering wheel a little tougher than I'm used to. But it probably was time to accept it as I've been driving his car for almost a month, and he lent us the car for free. The Nissan looked to be in pretty good condition, and we doubt he'd cheat us as he's a long-time family-friend-mechanic... and if anything happens he knows we've got him on speed dial. He's selling us the car for MOP $10,000 (around USD$1200 or EUR$1135), which includes all the upgrades he's going to do and the new body wrap he did.
I went to sort out the transfer of property ownership thing, and then had to immediately go to the insurance companies to get the car insured. And THIS is when I found out the shit part of getting an old secondhand car is that insurance is CRAZY EXPENSIVE. For my car, I'm paying around MOP$900 per year. Because this car is over 12 years (it's 19 years) the insurance is gonna cost me around MOP$2,400! Almost triple! Hopefully as the years go by the no claim bonus will discount it further.
The mechanic is still going to fix a few things, mainly the... whatever of the back door (hatch?), it's supposed to stay open after you open but those bars holding up the hatch need to be replaced, so he's going to replace that, then we're going to swap cars again (me returning the yellow car to him and him passing the orange car to me).
I didn't pay too close attention to the details of the car, but I can say with confidence that the seats are less comfortable, but it's ok. It's a means of transportation. The first thing I'm going to do? REMOVE ALL THOSE STITCH STICKERS. It's not that I don't like Stitch (Lilo and Stitch), it's just that, I'm not one for car decals ALL OVER THE WINDOWS. I'm ok with one bumper sticker and that's it.
Now I have 2 cars under my name. It's probably going to wreck my local "poverty index" LOL but whatever, whatever.
Anyway, the yellow car is the borrowed car. The family-friend-mechanic was nice enough to lend us one of his spare cars while he went looking for a secondhand car. It's a Toyota Will Cypha. Apparently it's got some clout as in being rather rare and currently only having 3 neon yellow ones in Macau. We did try to ask the mechanic if he will sell us this car, but he gave a resolute No. Pity. It IS a smooth drive and comfy interior. I guess it's because he's a mechanic so he put a lot of time in fixing up his own car and so it's such a nice drive. (But the back windows are stuck shut, and i suspect the gasoline meter indicator thing is wonky, coz it goes down to having 4 bars only, and then suddenly one day it's full up to 7 bars for a couple of days then going back down to 3 bars. I've given up looking at the bars, and instead reset the distance driven indicator and fill up the tank when approaching 250km)
Two days ago the mechanic sent me photos of this orange car. It's a Nissan March. Nice compact car as well, but honestly I found the steering wheel a little tougher than I'm used to. But it probably was time to accept it as I've been driving his car for almost a month, and he lent us the car for free. The Nissan looked to be in pretty good condition, and we doubt he'd cheat us as he's a long-time family-friend-mechanic... and if anything happens he knows we've got him on speed dial. He's selling us the car for MOP $10,000 (around USD$1200 or EUR$1135), which includes all the upgrades he's going to do and the new body wrap he did.
I went to sort out the transfer of property ownership thing, and then had to immediately go to the insurance companies to get the car insured. And THIS is when I found out the shit part of getting an old secondhand car is that insurance is CRAZY EXPENSIVE. For my car, I'm paying around MOP$900 per year. Because this car is over 12 years (it's 19 years) the insurance is gonna cost me around MOP$2,400! Almost triple! Hopefully as the years go by the no claim bonus will discount it further.
The mechanic is still going to fix a few things, mainly the... whatever of the back door (hatch?), it's supposed to stay open after you open but those bars holding up the hatch need to be replaced, so he's going to replace that, then we're going to swap cars again (me returning the yellow car to him and him passing the orange car to me).
I didn't pay too close attention to the details of the car, but I can say with confidence that the seats are less comfortable, but it's ok. It's a means of transportation. The first thing I'm going to do? REMOVE ALL THOSE STITCH STICKERS. It's not that I don't like Stitch (Lilo and Stitch), it's just that, I'm not one for car decals ALL OVER THE WINDOWS. I'm ok with one bumper sticker and that's it.
Now I have 2 cars under my name. It's probably going to wreck my local "poverty index" LOL but whatever, whatever.
