After getting married, buying a house, and having a baby, the next thing we decided we needed was a car. From the time we agreed to get the house, actually, it was clear that we would need a car because the house is located a little back from a highway, and though there are many good stores along the highway, everything is stretched over a few kilometres instead of packed around a central location.
We talked about getting a car over the summer but it wasn’t until three weeks ago, once I started my morning classes at a kindergarten after summer break, that the hunt became serious. That’s because as I walk back to work from the kindergarten I cross a highway where there are several dealerships within 15 minutes walking distance from each other. Particularly one used car dealer has a good selection with some that are in our price range. So, I began looking and asking questions.
The first week I checked out the place with good selection and I found a ten-year old Subaru Pleo with 4WD that was only 190,000 yen (say just under $2000). I went into the lot office to inquire about the car. I had already spent about 15 minutes examining cars in the lot and even had taken photos of some to show my wife and the whole time no one had come out to speak to me. At home in Canada the first moment I stopped to look at a car would have attracted a salesman. But even in the office there was no one to serve me. I called out a greeting but no one replied. A phone rang and somewhere someone answered. So I took a business card from a desk and went outside and called the number on my cell. Someone answered and I asked if anyone was there who could answer a question I had because I was in the lot now and couldn’t find anyone in the office to assist me. A guy immediately appeared from the garage.
Well, I knew nothing about Subaru and nothing about buying cars. I only ever owned a car once in my life and my father went with me to buy that when I was 19. So I asked a lot of questions to car dealers, the managers of my school, and adult students and I talked things over with my wife who then talked to her family about it. After visiting eight dealerships and talking to over a dozen people, I found I was looking for the following:
A K car, of which there are just so many in Japan.
A box type car like Daihatsu Move, Honda Life, Nissan Otti, or Suzuki WagonR.
A car that was about 3 to 5 years old. Too new would be too expensive; too old would mean less of a life left on the car and repairs and replacement parts would be needed soon.
A car with somewhere around 35,000 km on the odometer. Less would mean a more expensive car. I was first told a car with 100,000 km would be ripe for replacement parts but later I heard that for K cars the number was 70,000 km. There were plenty of cheap cars with 65,000 km on them. I was wary of those.
A car that didn’t have any history of accidents and repairs. One manager cautioned me about buying cars that had been in accidents and had then undergone repairs.
A car with a CD/MD player, drink holders and a comfortable interior.
A car with a higher roof than the average K car and one where the back seats could be folded down flat. Since I sometimes do exhibitions at café galleries I need a car where I can stuff in all my boxes of framed photographs.
A car than is not too low to the ground because I sometimes drive on unpaved roads with potholes and I would want to be scraping up the bottom.
A car that was preferably not white. Blue, green, red or wine red were good colours. The car had to look good in the driveway against my house.
Finding exactly a car that meets all the criteria has been challenging. There have been many great cars that were: too expensive for me; too old; too low; driven too much; equipped inadequately for my needs; and so on. In addition, in Japan you have to have a car inspection done every two years in order to have it insured. Without that inspection you can’t legally drive. Many dealerships sell their cars with two years inspection already done. That reflects in the price of the car. A car with only a few months left is cheaper because the dealer has not paid for the update of the inspection.
My biggest concern was that we should get a car that could serve us for the next few years or until the loan was paid off. Buying a cheaper car would mean being able to pay off the loan sooner, but it would also mean buying an older car with more mileage and thus repairs and replacement parts becoming necessary sooner. I didn’t want to be paying off the loan and paying for repairs. A newer car would be more expensive but would mean repairs were farther off in the future. One car I looked at was perfect in all aspects except that it was only a year old and cost over 800,000 yen. We’d have no choice but to get a five-year loan and pay 16,000 a month. It was borderline safe I thought but my wife cautioned that we still weren’t paying for everything out of my earnings only yet. Her mom was still buying diapers and feeding my wife too when she stayed at her family home. She said we shouldn’t get another loan until we were sure we could manage it. After three weeks I was starting to feel like just making a decision soon. Either we just get a cheap old car and drive it for two or three years or we get a newer more expensive on that we can keep for the next 8 to 10 years.
Then Friday night the brother-in-law of one of my managers showed up at the school (actually we teach out of the manager’s sister’s house on Fridays) and said he brought a car I might want to look at. He is a new car salesman for Toyota but sometimes they get cars traded in from their customers. It was from him I had originally heard that a ten-year old K car was nearing the end if its useful life and they usually didn’t think to sell such old cars. But the car he had brought was a nine-year old silver Daihatsu Move. The price was cheap, especially since he had discounted the price to employee pricing. The car seemed in good shape and the seats folded down nice and flat. It had never been in an accident and had been well taken care of because it was used as a courtesy car by a repair shop. It had only a cassette player but a CD player could be installed for an additional charge. The only two strikes against it were that it was so old and that it had 70,000 km on it. I mentioned my concerns about that but he said it should be good for another 30,000 km. Also his mechanics would make sure it was in top order and the car would have two years inspection on it. I checked the tires and they felt pretty good still. He said the car should run two or three years without needing anything but inspection in two years. I know used car salesmen are known for being shady but would he lie or try to sell a lemon in front of his sister-in-law? My manager said she felt it was a good deal all things considered.
I can’t say I was totally wowed but I began to think again about what was the best thing: getting this good deal on an old car or paying more than twice as much to get a newer car. Maybe getting the old car was not a bad idea as it was a very reasonable price for what it was. He said I could drive the car home (over an hour’s drive away) and return it the following Friday. I said I would have to talk about it with my wife and there was no guarantee she would want us to buy it. He said that didn’t matter. I could still borrow it. If we didn’t want it he could sell it soon to someone else. He would give me the car for a week to decide.
As I drove home I passed a few used car dealerships and I thought it would be a sneaky but practical thing to use this car to drive around and check out other deals at other places. The car seemed fine enough but was definitely an old car. It just felt that way. Still it looks good except for one detail.
It’s a Hello Kitty car.
There are Hello Kitty decals on the outside and there is Hello Kitty seat upholstery. Hello Kitty appears by the temperature gauge, by the odometer and by the RPM needle (she’s sleeping at 0 and sweating at the maximum end of the scale). I can’t say I am thrilled at the prospect of getting a Hello Kitty mobile. Since I have a son I think Pokemon or Ultra Man would be better. But by the time he’s old enough to care we’ll be buying another car anyway. I’ll think it over and discuss it with the wife. I just think that buying a car should solve our car-less problem for longer than three years. Also, I don’t want the car breaking down because of age when my wife is driving around with MiniHot. It would be hard for her to ring for help and look after the baby, especially at night or in foul weather.
