Little Luke "Skywalker"

Thursday, February 09, 2006

"Major" Decision

It all started when I took J and Little Skywalker to this BBQ Wan Tan Noodle (合记港式烧腊面饭店) for lunch at Jalan Ipoh last Sunday. Since I have switched to a food (named Diet by the author) template, I would recommend everyone to feast at that restaurant and try out their dried sauced mee (干捞面). It's the best I've ever tasted! The restaurant is located at the end of Jalan Ipoh heading towards Jalan Chow Kit. It is next to an Ambank branch.

Back to my story, we were slurping our delicious mee and feeding Little Skywalker his rice (did I mentioned that he prefers rice than porridge nowadays?). Out of the blue, I took noticed the Tan Chong showroom across the busy street. (For those who do not know Tan Chong, they are the main distributor for Nissan cars. FYI, I go there at least twice a year to get my car's road tax and insurance renewal done since I have a friend working there) The topic of our plan to change our car started to dominate our lunch talk. We talked about when to do it, how are we going about to do it, which car to get... etc.

Before we knew it, we were walking across the road and into the Nissan showroom. After 20 minutes of "trying on" some cars in the company of a salesman (who had to come back to work on a CNY Sunday), we decided to visit another showroom instead. This time was a Toyota showroom which is located at Batu Caves area. Feeling unsatisfied after the second stop, we went to a Honda showroom near our house. There goes a whole Sunday afternoon (which could be well spent on DVD, sleeping and resting at home) to visiting car showrooms.

The Nissan salesman called on Monday morning to confirm a test drive that he had promised to arrange the previous day. Having nothing to loose, I went on the test drive session after work. During the test drive, the salesman had informed me about the increase in the price of new cars as well as loan interest rates soon. Although I doubted what he said then, I fully intend to find out the truth from my friends in the automobile and banking industries later.

After the test drive, the salesman brought along his manager (surprisingly a lady) to evaluate the trade-in price of my four years old Proton Wira 1.3 (Manual) "Air-Liur-Back". She offered me a attractive price, which is a few thousands more than what I owe the bank, and a few thousands higher than market price. (FYI, Toyota people called earlier the same day and offered a much lower price)

After she made the offer, she used her super-oily-fluent tongue to sweet talk me into making a prompt decision on the spot. If she had been 10 years younger and sexier, I would have fell into her trap (oops, I mean if I were still single :P). Luckily, I had a bag full of excuses at the bag of my head. By throwing out the golden excuse of "I need to discuss the finance planning with my wife before I decide", I was home free! They promised to call me the next day for an answer as the offer was only valid for two days.

Back at home, J and I were quite tempted to take up that offer. On the other hand, we were not happy and felt like being pushed into making a hasty decision. Consequently, we decided to call up the salesman (the same night) to decline the offer citing "financial difficulties". After that, I called up my friend whose working in the banking industry to verify the claim of rising interest rate. He told me that it is true that the car loan interest rate will be rising very soon and if I wish to get a car, I should do it soon before the price of my car drop as a consequence of that.

The next day, I called up my car dealer friend and told him about the offer I got from Tan Chong. In return, he promised to offer me at least one thousand higher even before he inspects my car. Knowing that, I went ahead to draw out all the facts and figures that would impact our financial plan for the next few years.

After a few hours of "hard work" into some Excel spreadsheets, I finally estimated the price we had to pay for this new car. Surprisingly, it turned out to be OK after all. The 10% down payment will be financed 60% by my old car's settlement and 40% by my brother (a loan which he intended to return long ago but I told him not to yet). The rest of the nine year loan will add another RM440 to our existing monthly expenditure.

Up to this point, J and I have decided (90%) to go ahead in getting our new car (to be announced when it arrives). It has been a tiring few days having to think through this "major" decision, I even had trouble sleeping because of it.

What do you think? Is it worth it?

p/s: We have until this weekend to decide on the purchase as my friend was kind enough to extend the dateline to next Monday.

Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 2/09/2006 09:27:00 AM :: and invited 20 Blah(s):