Two Car Family

A little while ago I took Fenry in for some minor repairs and asked them to have a look at the brakes while they were at it. Turned out that new drums, shoes, cylinders, pyramids and tetrahedra were needed for both the rear wheels, which was going to cost $380. Given that I paid $400 for the car, I had to think this over a little... Knowing that rego time was coming up soon was an added incentive to make the decision quickly.

Today Cindy and I went and bought a new car, a '98 Hyundai Sonata GLS. It's an automatic so she'll be happier about driving it more often and we'll both be less worried about it breaking down. The 3L V6 means that we'll be able to get to Indianapolis quicker but it might also be more expensive to run. Luckily insurance is not much more.

The guy selling it had posted two ads, the second explained that he'd already dropped the asking price from $1700 to $1400 and insisted on "no low-ballers". So I wasn't sure whether I should haggle but when I offered him $1300 to take it then and there he jumped at it. (Maybe I should have started lower.)

Now I'm just trying to sell off Fenry to re-coup some money. I've put up a few ads on online classifieds and have already had a bit of interest so I'm confident that it won't take too long to sell. Actually, I've learnt a bit about Craig's List* in the process. I had heard that it was full of weirdos so I wasn't too surprised when the Nigerian scammer asked me to send him my details so he could pay me in advance. One told me that my car was underpriced because he wanted me to use a certain trade-in site; another told me that he'd previously bought a newer mint-condition Civic for less than I was asking and offered me about half the asking price, if he can get cars that cheap, good luck to him. The strangest was one who told me that he had $500 cash and could come around if I'd accept that much; it sounded like something a dealer would say, to put the pressure on but he also told a story about it being for his son. But there's been a couple of more normal sounding inquiries so I'm confident.


* Most Americans pronounce the name Craig as "creg" but not all do. I haven't yet worked out which ones.