New car - sort of that is.

As some of you might have heard, my not too trusty Toyota Corolla died a good week ago. Quite a few warning signs actually, since I got it in May 2006, I have spent US$3000 on fixing it, new aircon, head gasket, timing belt, brake system, I rebuilt the somewhat ratty suspension, and I was looking at spending another US$1000 on getting a new automatic gearbox thrown into the damn thing, as the old one was shot. it looked nice, here's a picture.

The car was one Rebecca managed to get off a colleague, who claimed that the car was in great nick, and that it drove really well. We therefore bought it for a mere 300 bucks US.

A few of my gusts here might remember that I was driving a blue Yulon (Nissan) Sentra, which I bought off a used car dealer for a song in 2001. I called it the "blue bomb". It looked like shit, the paint job was peeling, a bit rusty around the edges, and apart from fuel and taxes, I could keep it on the road for US$500 per year. I spend less on it in 5 years (including what I bought it for) than what I wasted on the horrible toyota. There was nothing wrong with it when I scrapped it in May, it would have had to get the steering fixed and that would have been US$300 at the very most. I really miss that old rattly thing. It had 140,000 km on the clock when I bought it, I got another 110,000km out of it. Very cheap and extremely reliable transport indeed.

Well, back when I worked at Primasia, the boss gave me a car to drive, which was very good indeed. Actually the money for the car was taken out of the bonus budget for the research department. People were somewhat unhappy about that - however the car was really nice. Ford Escape 4WD, great ride, roomy and comfy, however very expensive in petrol. It left me with a taste for smooth rides, even though it was not assembled very well by Ford Taiwan. Too bad I could not keep it when I left the old sweatshop.

Ok leaving me with an acute need for transport forced me to look around in a hurry - I checked out 7 Nissan Cefiros (Called Maxima in the rest of the world), and 2 Honda Accords - I ended up going with a white nissan in fairly good nick. Not too expensive. It's a V6 engine, which won a few awards for design back when it was designed. It glides smoothly ahead, not a sound not a rattle comfortable indeed.

There are a few cheap and dodgy Nissans around, Taiwanese second hand car salesmen are a very shady bunch. The lies you get told... amazing. I saw engines ticking and pinking like no tomorow - when remarking on it, they would tell me that it was normal, and a sign of a car in good shape. Also, it's fairly common to adjust the odometer here - say from 260,000km to 60,000 KM. Always look at the gear selector. If it's worn smooth and the car is said to have only 70k km on the clock, walk out. Bait and switch, IE promising a nice car and then show you a heavily beautified lemon was too damn common. I only saw 2 cars I liked, and I bought the second one, after the mechanic had it up on his lift and took it for a spin.

Engine compartment looks OK, the engine is from Japan, the rest of the car is made in Taiwan. It will need a complete change of all fluids, the choker will have to be cleaned, the brake rotors will need to be machined, and all rubber hoses in the engine will have to be replaced - then it should be good for another 50,000km if I am lucky.

Drivers seat is very comfortable and well laid out. The climate control is a work of art. The CD player needs to have its light diodes changed - that should be cheap according to the mechanic.

Lots of luggage space - and all that for a mere 90,000NT.

I hope it lasts longer than the Toyota.