I bought a car!! Well, almost... ^.^

Ahem!

I BOUGHT A CAR!!!!

I am a bit shock about it myself. I went to only two dealership today... but did tons of research on the net last week.

Went to one in Strathmore, and took a Mitsubishi Lancer for a spin on the highway. To be honest, that was the first time in years that I did some proper driving... let alone on a highway!!! I was so nervous during the test drive.

Jun came along with me to take a look and he really helped me out in terms of what to look for and put things into perspective.

Then we walked to the Honda/Toyota dealership at Essendon to look at the Honda new cars. We later popped into the used car lot of the dealership and happened upon a 2000 Corolla Ascent (AE122R) with about 32000kms. I took it out for a spin on the highway and it was much much better...

Then we sat down at the dealership and had a long hard battle of negotiations... hehehe... from the asking price of $16660 drive away, I managed to get it down to $15214 driveaway with some replacements.

I was nervous during the negotiation and heart beating a bit fast and my hands felt numb. I tried to get it down to $15000, but the big boss didn't want to budge.

Anyways, I need to get some finance now... so tomorrow will be another round of negotiations with my bank.

I'm quite excited about this new car... really nervous and dreading the drive... I almost gave up on buying a car today... thinking that I would look again next holidays... but looks like I'm on track with my determinations.

Only thing is that my prayers of sticking to a $2500 budget isn't coming through... but I guess it is reasonable to give way to that prayer no new car like this is going to be at $2500.

I really pray that this car will take me places to fulfill my kosen-rufu mission in Australia. This $15000 money is going to be well spent for kosen-rufu.

Now I need to make a list of things to secure my car... just off the top of my head is a steering column lock, maybe a windscreen heat shield, perhaps a whole car cover as I'm storing this long term, maybe some cool seat covers.. hahaha...

Oh... and some crappy shots of my 'new' car using my camera phone: