Five weeks ago today, I bade a fond farewell to my first car, a local Proton Iswara, which I owned for 10 of its 12 years of existence thus far. I had taken leave to collect my new car, a Toyota Vios J 1.5A. The morning was spent cleaning out all the accumulated junk of the last 10 years out of my old car -- there was a LOT. After a quick lunch, I drove up to the dealership. I parked, said a last goodbye to the old gal, and waited to get my new means of conveyance. As I waited, I saw it through the glass walls -- a gleaming white car, fresh from the factory (I had to wait three weeks for them to add all the accessories I wanted). I could scarcely believe I would soon be driving a pretty new car for the first time.
Tweets and Whatsapp messages made their way to close friends and family through the Internets as I waited for the paperwork and formalities to be done. After the salesman gave the 'orientation' spiel and handed over the keys, documents, and a little Toyota umbrella (whoopiee), I was driving my new car home. The throttle took some getting use to and the brakes were super responsive (by my standards at least) but I made it home without incident and spent the next half hour ogling the car, exploring the very cool Bluetooth-enabled GPS/DVD touchscreen system, taking pictures, and removing the plastic covers. It was a little surreal to finally own a new foreign car instead of an old local one.
Over the weeks, I've gotten used to the different handling and response curves though parking was quite a challenge in the beginning. Last weekend, I took the car for its one-month mandatory service at the same showroom I bought it from. The service was excellent and speedy. There was a nice lounge and all for waiting and they even washed the car for free (which it really needed... the curse of having a white car).
It's so cool that I have this car now and I love it to bits. No more violent vibrations when idling in gear with the air-conditioner on. No more strange creaks. No more shuddering at high(ish) speeds. It's nice to be moving forward as the tagline says :)
Also... my new car is so pretty! :):):)
