A new car!

Today we finally did the deed. Bought a new car...

Chris and I had been putting the purchase of a bigger car off since the birth of Madison... until she grew bigger the current Subaru Impreza that we bought on the 20th March 2003 had been sufficient...

Other factors that made us keep the car was that we had bought it at a time when the price was significantly higher at over $82 000 and the car loan was substantial. To redeem the loan would have meant we were out of pocket. Hence we stuck with it, although some days we were struggling for space as her car seat took up half the back seat and her stroller would take up the entire boot space!

However, with the current economic crisis and downturn, COEs had dropped to an all time low and the current car prices are some of the lowest around. We'd been shopping online and at the showrooms for awhile and the only car we'd vaguely liked till now was the Subaru Tribeca. However the rear view mirrors were HUGE and unpleasant to the eye, and the cost was beyond our means at the moment. We were quoted $115K for the car and it was to be discontinued too.

For some strange stroke of fate, one of my patient's friends smsed me today regarding the Tribeca having fallen $10k, to see if we were interested. That prompted us to start thinking about getting a bigger car again...

Chris brought up the Honda Stream, which is a midsized 7 seater MPV and was less than $80K. A little hesitant, we went to the showroom to have a look. Dean looked after us at the showroom and showed us the different variations in the Stream... after looking around and discussing, it was decided that the Stream was the most suitable size and price wise. The CR-V looked nicer, but had less space and would guzzle petrol, and the sedans were all too small. The Odessey was similarly too big and costly.

Dean took us for a short test drive and after that I was more convinced that the car was easy to drive and not too difficult to manouvre. Then we had to decide between: 1. 2008 or 2009 models; 2. colour; 3. standard or RSZ model. The difference? The top end 2009 RSZ model had the works, sport rims with 17 inch alloys, fog lights, halogen lamps and sporty front panel. The interior was a nicer black instead of standard beige. Sunroof was also standard in the RSZ, as well as paddle shifts. Chris was sold on the RSZ but I needed more convincing to spend the extra $7k.

In the end we settled on the 09 RSZ, and sat down to work out the numbers. The Subaru was worth $25k, which was FINALLY more than the bank loan of $14k, so we were able to do a trade in and exchange the loan. Funny thing was that with the new car, our effective loan repayments per month was lower !

We signed the papers and charged the $5k deposit to the credit card. Metal silver was the colour of choice. Dean advised us that the car would be available Dec/ Jan. We kinda left thinking.. OMG what the heck??? We just got ourselves a new car~! Just like that...