A Singaporean In Australia

Unfortunately I couldn't take a picture of the original advertisement before it was updated. It was sold because I bought it. It must be the fastest car purchase I ever made. I saw the ad, sent the guy a text, he replied it was still available, I test driven it after work (drove Ugly Green to work today because Jen wasn't using) and agreed to buy it.

The seller even agreed to drive the car to my doorstep after I told him I couldn't take his car because I drove. He got his brother to follow him and took his car back home. His name was Brian, an Irish chap no more than 30 years of age. Young, handsome, blue eyes, tall and even better, isn't a douche bag. Lately I heard some woman sold a house that came with an option to marry her. Not sure if the buyer took the option. I bet if some girls would be interested if Brian offered such options.

Jen reminded me that the owner of Barry White was actually Irish too. That wasn't a bad deal. Barry White was steely and saved me during an accident. Else it would be very likely I would still be driving him to work everyday. So Brian the Irish might represent a good deal after all. I was beginning to form a mental picture of Irish guys car salemen with a beer on one hand.

Unlike Stargazer's replacement, I didn't have compensation money to play around with. Any replacement for Goldilocks was going to cost me money. Goldilocks had paid her dues. $800 a year of depreciation was very decent for a car. However, whatever I would be paying for a replacement car would be a prepaid sum. That would be against the risk of not running it for more than a minimum number of years to make it a great, great deal. So I needed to choose wisely.

Brian's advertisement caught my eyes. He listed his car for $1,800. It was a 2002 Daihatsu Terios, equipped with a 1.3L engine which had ran 159k, a tow bar and some crazy bullbar with spot lights in front. There was even a retro flick switch to activate the lights. "Country driving," Brian grinned. My mind was only on the bull bar and how Yoda's Black Vio would come against it. No chance for him, Satki or not.

The advertisement took me to Ascot. The neighbouring suburb of Redcliffe, the first suburb I when I arrived. Driving along the streets with random horse dumping brought back a lot of fond memories. We used to take long walks from Redcliffe to as far as the Swan River edge along Ascot before I found work. We were advised that such walks will do pregnant women a lot of good. It happened that those walks did me a lot of good instead, calming me down and got me laughing about life again as I joked about Jen's nose so bad that she couldn't even smell horse shit.

I didn't do the thorough inspection that I should. I was actually quite tired with my recent project which I decided not to tell anyone about. Part of me had decided to buy the car, regardless of its condition as I was too tired to go car hunting lately. So I chose to trust my instinct and went for the longest test drive I had ever done. I drove down to Tonkin Highway. Then I turned into Perth Airport and trolled motorists by turning almost 2 rounds at the roundabout. I was trapped in the peak hour traffic along the way back. It felt like that car was my car all along, as if I had owned it for a long time.

Surprisingly, Brian didn't look surprised when I was finally back. He didn't seem too pushy or eager to shove the car to me. Instead he took some time showing me how to push the back seats flat to create a deep boot space when necessary. So it was the best part of buying a car.

Let me tell you this, if you ever buy a used car here and ended up buying one without discount, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you do, make sure you never tell anyone about it or jump into the Swan River, choose one. After so many times of doing this, I realised I had improved. No more looking eager about the deal. In fact, I was prepared to walk away without even naming my price. 

Rule #1. The first person who name his price loses.  Brian seemed to know about this and refused to name his price despite me asking him to tell me his "best price" twice. Eventually, he yielded and told me people were offering him unreasonable prices because the bonnet wasn't resprayed nicely (it looked shit) by the previous owner. I took the opportunity to point out to him that the wind screen had a slight crack and it would take me "a couple of hundreds" to replace it if "it happens". I told him I would also like to respray and do a better job. After mumbling a few more imaginary faults, he told me he was hoping to sell it for not less than $1,500. Rule #1. The first person who name his price loses. Brian lost. He took the price down from $1,800 to $1,500 without me asking.

Rule #2. Negotiate. Since Brian brought down his pricing, I didn't want to go too far. I made sure I didn't appear too impress with his discount. But the truth is before I even see the car I was prepared to pay $1,620 for it. So anything lower was, of course, fine by me. I mustered my most disappointed face I could and casually asked, "Would you do it for $1,400 then?"

Rule #3. Meet halfway. Like I suspect, Brian knew the basic rules and told me he would "meet me halfway." The final price he would offer was $1,450. Deal. We shook hands firmly. And that's how I bought this new old car. The strange thing about this car was that it was actually a 4x4 with a 1.3L engine?! hmm. Since I named the car after the first Irish guy I bought the car from, I'll do the same for this one.