39. Cars in my life

On arrival, Christine bought a 6 year old Toyota Sprinter for 13K from Capital Car Court on Hall Street. It had only 38K on the clock and was in very good condition. She has no intention to upgrade just now as I can no longer afford to buy any more new cars for her! So far, I myself have driven nine second hand cars and not even one new car. She had two second hand cars and three new ones, which was quite a fair deal. I do not think that she can complain very much! Besides, it is her turn now to buy cars as I am now unemployed and can no longer afford to buy any more new cars for her or the children. I do not see her buying me a new car any time soon.

Christine wanted a new car again. This was her third new car. Using Shell senior staff car loan at 4% interest, I bought her a Proton Iswara 1.5 litre automatic saloon for 40K. She was half expecting me to keep the Toyota for myself; but no thanks, I had enough of hand me downs during my life! The 5 year old Toyota GL was sold for 12K to a car yard. I bought an Isuzu Trooper, 4x4 and used that to tow my dinghies for many years. I sold the Subaru for 5K when I left Miri. Even after the make-over, the jeep fetched only 14K; but I had good service from it for 10 years.

Toyota Cerres In the year 2000 we needed a car for touring the South Island. Christine bought a car for Pearl and Eugene to share in Christchurch. They shared the Toyota Ceres when they were attending Canterbury U and used it mainly for going around to do their projects during their final year. We used it for touring the South Island when we were there for Pearl’s convocation in 2000. Eugene was unable to join us. He needed to work for his course requirement practical experience.

Kevin was driving a 1994 Toyota LE which mum bought for him at the Ellerslie car fair for 6.8K. He was using that for going to work in Auckland. Just buying cars alone is quite an expense for the Chin family in New Zealand! Total cost for 6 used cars was 54K, excluding running costs and maintenance. Generally, a car selling for less than 3K is not really worth buying here because the repair and maintenance costs are much higher than in Malaysia.

We bought a Toyota Cerres for touring the South Island After Pearl's convocation at the end of 1999. After that it was left in Christchurch for Pearl and Eugene to share at Uni. When Pearl finished her studies, Eugene inherited the Cerres in Christchurch. He used that for going to work. He also has an old Toyota Trueno AE86 which he stripped down and rebuilt with a roll cage inside.

When Steven and Serena returned from the states in September 2004 they came to stay with us until they sorted out their priorities. They were driving a rented car and wished to buy a cheap second hand car for temporary use. I took them to Turner’s auction to get a feel of the market trend for second hand cars in NZ. After seeing a nice car sold for $1750, they gave up the idea of bidding for the 1.5L Honda Civic at a reserved price of $5000. They have test driven the car earlier in the day and initially wanted to bid a maximum of $6,300 for it. The Civic was not from a car yard which has folded. It was imported by Turner’s directly from Japan just for this auction! It has never been registered in NZ.