Show and tell….

Will we, won’t we? What make? What size? New, old? The decisions have buzzed around my head for a few weeks now. Daily checking on Gumtree and Car Sales sites on the internet. Will we buy privately or through a dealer? Going round car yards. Talking with friends.

I love the searching part of acquiring anything…

After research we had decided it would be either a Hyundai i30, or a Toyota Corolla. So this last weekend, with the help of a son to chauffeur us around in his car, we set out to look seriously at a short list of vehicles we had found on the internet.

Look what we finally found…

A 2007 Toyota Corolla, a one lady owner, low mileage. Perfect. I fell in love with it from the moment I saw it. I had a feeling that THE car would find me and be a suitable replacement for Matilda. Now this one will have to be christened. But I will need to drive it around for a while till it imprints its character on me and a name will suggest itself.

Now I am planning and dreaming of the places to see and the adventures waiting to be experienced. But for now we will be staying home for a few more months. Enjoying the garden and exploring around close to home. At least I will, Jack is flying to Sydney to visit a son for a week and so I will be home alone. Me and the car…

Goodbye car….

Our car drives off to a new owner...

We have sold the car…

It was sad to see it go. John saw our ad in the paper and has bought it for his daughter, who lives in Sydney.

Jack worked out some very interesting figures…

The difference between the price we paid and the price we sold it for was $2,200.

We had the car for 3 years…

Per year it cost     $733.33

Per week it cost    $14.10

Per day it cost       $2.01.

That is a dollar a day each we have paid for the priviledge of owning a car for 3 years…

Of course on top of those figures there is insurance, Rego and maintainance costs.

Rego is necessary to keep the roads, bridges, tunnels etc built and maintained and in good repair.

Insurance we have to have for peace of mind. 

In 3 years we have had no major expense on maintainance, just regular grease and oil. It has been a very reliable little car. Keeping it well-maintained meant we got a good price when we sold it.

So now our camper van is also our  every day vehicle and already I have bonded with it. I went to the farmers market in it this morning. Last week we didn’t get to the market and so I had to buy some veggies from the supermarket. First time for months I have bought supermarket produce. It felt spongy and old and tasteless. It is a joy to be back at the markets, friendly atmosphere, people sauntering around talking to friends and chatting with the stall holders. The musician was playing and singing Christmas Carols. It brought a lump to my throat as I looked around at all the happy faces, what a great country this is….

Car for sale

Toyota Corolla

This is another step in preparing to go.

I very reluctantly have to sell my beautiful little car.It is a 1997  Seca Conquest model, it has only done 85,000kms and the RACQ said the value was approx $6,999, so I will look at offers around that amount. It has been lovingly cared for and it is the one thing I am finding  very hard to part with.

I put an ad in the local paper on the weekend, and only had one phone call, and that person never actually came to view my “baby”…

It is also advertised in the Wednesday car supplement of the paper and is on the internet, so still plenty of time to find a buyer. In the meantime I have a few more days to drive it around. Once sold that will be another tick on the “list”.