..can be as tough as getting a daughter married off (in Indian context). Well, I dont have a daughter yet.. but you get the drift.
Thanks to my (in)famously contagion-inducing laziness, my much postponed car search finally began last week (sidenote: it took an economic recession to get my butt moving and replace my student car that I bought back in Austin). I am not much of a car enthusiast..as long as I have a vehicle that moves decently without PMS-ing a lot, I am ok. I would rather be happy with my own horsepower in the gym than let my car's HP control my emotions. On a totally random sidenote, my this attitude towards car is quite similar to that towards life in general.. I am quite ambitious and passionate about certain things.. but I generally look for 3 symptoms to confirm whether all's NOT well with my life. Eating, sleeping, and restrooming. If either of these is not too smoooth [literally or figuratively ;)], I know something is wrong with my life (although the reverse is not necessarily true). Ditto for my car.
Anyways, back to the point. Despite my immensely unenthusiastic attitude towards cars, I started looking for BMWs just to 'indulge' a bit. But soon after, I received multiple negative reviews about its high maintenance cost and such. They literally made me do such a thorough U-turn that I made a quantum jump from researching BMWs to Honda Civics :-) Lack of passion towards cars can make you a complete pendulum. Never before in the history of car-dom would someone have made such a drastic demotion in his criteria overnight. But now there is another problem, - buying a new car from a dealer requires a great deal of skill. You literally have to be a sabji-mandi (vegetable market) type of negotiator to get a deal that you want. Being an engineer, sabji-mandi is outside my area of expertise. But I did try. Quite brutally. So much so that the salesman gaped at me - as if I was trying to steal the car from the showroom. It almost worked. Almost, because the deal didnt go through.
Now, after not a happy hunting for the Hondas, I am back to re-researching BMWs, thanks to a rigorous pro-BMW "lobby"ing by one section of my friends. "You live once", they say. Right, I live once.. that doesn't necessarily mean I should be homeless. So yeah, never before in the history of car-dom would someone have oscillated sine-wavingly in a matter of 2 weeks. I guess deep inside life's about optimizing. A process similar to what most Indian middle class families have to go through to marry their daughters off. Finding a "good guy", from a "good family", with "good durability" (not sure why most of my analogs are related to girls.. let's just say I love womankind!)
For now, I am fine with my student car. It eats, sleeps, and restrooms smoothly :)
Thanks to my (in)famously contagion-inducing laziness, my much postponed car search finally began last week (sidenote: it took an economic recession to get my butt moving and replace my student car that I bought back in Austin). I am not much of a car enthusiast..as long as I have a vehicle that moves decently without PMS-ing a lot, I am ok. I would rather be happy with my own horsepower in the gym than let my car's HP control my emotions. On a totally random sidenote, my this attitude towards car is quite similar to that towards life in general.. I am quite ambitious and passionate about certain things.. but I generally look for 3 symptoms to confirm whether all's NOT well with my life. Eating, sleeping, and restrooming. If either of these is not too smoooth [literally or figuratively ;)], I know something is wrong with my life (although the reverse is not necessarily true). Ditto for my car.
Anyways, back to the point. Despite my immensely unenthusiastic attitude towards cars, I started looking for BMWs just to 'indulge' a bit. But soon after, I received multiple negative reviews about its high maintenance cost and such. They literally made me do such a thorough U-turn that I made a quantum jump from researching BMWs to Honda Civics :-) Lack of passion towards cars can make you a complete pendulum. Never before in the history of car-dom would someone have made such a drastic demotion in his criteria overnight. But now there is another problem, - buying a new car from a dealer requires a great deal of skill. You literally have to be a sabji-mandi (vegetable market) type of negotiator to get a deal that you want. Being an engineer, sabji-mandi is outside my area of expertise. But I did try. Quite brutally. So much so that the salesman gaped at me - as if I was trying to steal the car from the showroom. It almost worked. Almost, because the deal didnt go through.
Now, after not a happy hunting for the Hondas, I am back to re-researching BMWs, thanks to a rigorous pro-BMW "lobby"ing by one section of my friends. "You live once", they say. Right, I live once.. that doesn't necessarily mean I should be homeless. So yeah, never before in the history of car-dom would someone have oscillated sine-wavingly in a matter of 2 weeks. I guess deep inside life's about optimizing. A process similar to what most Indian middle class families have to go through to marry their daughters off. Finding a "good guy", from a "good family", with "good durability" (not sure why most of my analogs are related to girls.. let's just say I love womankind!)
For now, I am fine with my student car. It eats, sleeps, and restrooms smoothly :)
5 comments:
"Never before in the history of car-dom would someone have made such a drastic demotion in his criteria overnight."
Actually, you'll find it interesting to know that a lot of people forgo 3-series Beemers for loaded Accords or Priuses (Prii?). Seriously! In the US car market, Accords are considered the affordable yuppie car.
Personally, I wouldn't buy a new car (esp a premium one) because it will depreciate 30-40% in the first 2-3 years. I would much rather get a certified used one with a warranty for about 60% of the cost. And watch out for German makes - post 2000, reliability has really taken a big dip. I'd check out an Infiniti G20, Lexus SC or even a Nissan 350 with a warranty for same babe factor.
haha I love the way u wrote this post! FABULOUS :) In typical Jitterbug fashion!
**as long as I have a vehicle that moves decently without PMS-ing a lot
LOL so that means u wont be able to 'stay' married for too long!
BMWs r hot...a guy in a black BMW is to die for! trust me ;-)
So what make is ur 'student' car? LOL!
I bought my first ever car (brandnew) 5yrs ago from a Syd dealer...I got a pretty good deal and NO I didnt hv to bragain alot...I think my smile did the trick ;-)
Keshi.
ITG: you sound like a pro :) I recall you have an expertise in automobile.. i might go for the accord in the end after running around for a bit.
kesariya: my student car is toyota..it runs great and has 84k miles on it..but of late it has started PMSing.. so i might as well change it :)
my car is also a Toyota...they r economical cars. So hold on to it :)
Keshi.
According to a report from Wall Street Journal (front page), it's equally difficult to marry a son in India these days, especially if the son is residing in the US :-) so marrying a son, daughter or buying a car by you are three difficult things....
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