Car for Car men

Today we made an offer on a car for Carmen at a Toyota dealership. It is an odd thing here that even if somebody has registration papers, the car could still be stolen or under finance or whatever and can be repossessed. So buying from a dealership is your safest bet. SA's system is better in that the bank retains the reg docs until the car is fully paid up. Anyway, the test drive was a little different. The first thing you notice when you walk onto the lot is that all the car doors are unlocked. Test drive?
'No problem', says the salesman - here are the keys. And he turns around and heads back inside the dealership - I'll be at my desk when you get back.'
'Err, you aren't going to come with us...?'
'No,why?'
'O Ok.'
So off we went. Just a run of the mill 2008 Toyota Corolla 1.8 Auto with low k's so I think we have a deal.
Dealer: 'So you guys starting out here?'
'Yes, hoping to make Aus our home.'
'Ok tell you what, at no charge, I'll throw in an extra 3 year warranty on top of the manufacturers warranty on the car so you are covered for a total of 5 years and you can relax and get settled here - one less thing to worry about, ok?'
'Er, ok thanks!'
Then they called over the service manager - this is who will be looking after you etc. and it wasn't even a new car. Anyway, they all made us feel very welcome. But boy their interest rates are high if you wanted to finance a vehicle. A friend recommended that we finance part of the vehicle and not buy it cash as it helps to build a credit record for when you buy a house, but though the prime is at around 5% or so, rates begin for corporate deals at 9%! and vary all the way up to 17%! So whilst the prime interest rate in SA is higher, your actual rate there may in fact be lower than here! Weird. Also even if they promise you lower rates - like some advertise 2.99%, they hide the real charges in monthly admin fees or whatever. So your payments may in fact be the same - very sneaky little buggers!

Another happy experience of Aussie service: Earlier in the week I had booked a time slot for today with a mobile tinting company to come and tint my car windows darker, because, as I am on the road, my vehicle is kitted out with an inverter that powers all my electrical gadgets,a phone kit, hard drive, GPS and car desk mount for my laptop and with the darker tint,I wouldn't have to remove my laptop from the desk all the time as it wouldn't be a temptation for an opportunist thief. Anyway, the guy rocks up as arranged, takes one look at my car and says: you have the darkest legal tint allowed, so I can do it, but you will get a fine if you get stopped. So on his advice, I decided against it. I offered to pay the call out fee as I should have checked on the level of tinting but he refused in typical Aussie fashion: No, no worries, mate.I wasn't too far away anyway.'

O and we finally visited a wonderful guy shop today called 'Bunnings'. Like Builders warehouse, but rougher and twice as many tools! They have like 50 different types of work gloves! I needed some safety gear for work, but we also decided to get a Dustbuster - those rechargeable little hand held vacuums as our proper vacuum in the container only arrives in a week or 2 and we couldn't face sweeping / brushing the carpets of our flat manually all the time. This is going to be a real test of the little unit - we'll see if it lasts the 2 weeks...

Tomorrow we may be spoiling ourselves and going to movies: $16.00 each and if you want the fancy chairs: $33.00 per ticket on Saturdays and Sundays! Missing our cheap Vitality R14 movies big time! Cheers for now!