Letters from the Equator

I couldn’t get my car today after all. I wrongly estimated the amount of time it took to find out that I needed my savings bank book in order to make a bank draft, which led to time looking for my bank book, which led to time spent learning that I had lost my bank book.

Conclusion: If you are opening a bank account for yourself, go for the online option.

I’m glad that I still managed to get the bank draft done before 12pm, although I had orignally planned to get the car by 12pm.

Anyway, I postponed it. If I wasn’t so stubborn, I’d be in bed right now, like my wife. Instead, I’m gleaming over my new web space and subjecting myself to some kind of one-post-per-day utopia. I’m expecting it’ll last a week, at the most.

The ride
The car that I am getting is a year 2000 Alfa Romeo 146. It has the lovely 1.6L Twin Spark engine which churns out 120bhp, which is pretty good for a naturally aspirated engine. 2000 was the final year of production for this model, which was replaced by the dang-I-wish-I-had-that 147.

For those of you who don’t know… this marks the end of a phase of my life, and a beginning of another.

Earlier this year, I started spiralling into some kind of mad craving to get a new car. I had tested a good handful of cars, ranging from the exec-smart and wonderfully balanced BMW e36 325i coupe, a 1.6 TSpark 147, a 2.0L 156 Selespeed, a punto HGT (2 in fact), Honda Jazz 1.4 vtec, and the new Suzuki Swift 1.5L.

The fact of the matter was I couldn’t afford a single one of them.

I had to put aside pretty much everything to do with cars, especially since the apartment was going to be ready in a few months’ time. My pastor advised against making the commitment, and that was a sobering effect.

I’m glad to say that I made it this far, having not traded in my Kelisa, which is still a wonderful car. I now do have a somewhat-more-arguable need for a 2nd car, since LL is out and about so often. And the apartment, which is due to be released to us this month, is kind of isolated in some kind of public transportation no-go zone.

The 146 is defintely so much more affordable and practical and more fun to drive and cheaper to maintain than a lot of the cars that I had taken a look at… it’s a beauty in the eyes of the beholder. You can’t tell until you get into the driver’s seat.

Tagged as 146, alfa romeo, cars + Categorized as discoveries/cars