BUYING A NEW CAR BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR...

 Poor Sarah has had all sorts of car dramas this year.  Colin wrote her car off back in August when someone decided to stop in the middle of the road just over the crest of a hill trying to turn into a property when he was taking the kids to school in the rain.  It was never going to end well...

Whilst it was sad to see Dad's car finally go, there were some doubt as to whether it would last the distance until she could replace it once she finished Uni and started working...

We went through the motions back then of finding her another little car and ended up purchasing a lovely little Mazda 2 which was in really good nick and had low kilometres.  We actually got it for a really good price and she was very very happy with her new little car...

A month later, which coming home from the Gym, someone clipped the back of her car at the traffic lights and gave it a couple of good dings in the back end...

They had all sorts of drama getting the information from the culprit so that they could put it through their insurance.  Sarah went and got quotes and both were over $2000. 

Meanwhile roll on another two months and it is time to send her little car in to be repaired.  She was given a hire car for the week whilst it was supposedly getting repaired only to find out after about three days of having the hire car that they were going to write her new little car off as well...

According to the Insurance assessor, the bill to fix it was going to be $5000.  We are not sure how that is possible given the previous quotes from Panel Shops that she had take it too, but to say she was gutted was an understatement...

Even worse was the fact that there was no way she could replace what she had with the payout they had given her....  It all seems so unfair as they would not let her buy the car back and have it fixed either...

So we had to start looking all over again...  Not the best time of year either to go searching for a new car...

Whilst we were staying with our good friends Ian and Kathy, Sarah came across a little Kia Rio for sale out their way so sent us off to check it out and do the deal if we thought it would be a good car for her...

 

Steve was pretty happy with it as it was in really good condition and had only done a little over 100,000kms which was pretty good for a car that was 10 years old. 

He was able to negotiate a price and we were able to come and collect it the following day...

In some ways this was slightly better that her little Mazda 2, mainly in that it was a newer car with less kilometres and it had blue tooth so she was able to hook her phone and music into the car system..

The owner had also put in so upgrades so the stereo system was a lot better and it had low profile tyres and mags so looked quite sporty.

We picked it up and following day and bought it home and parked it in her garage...

Her new little car...

She loves her little car.  They got home Saturday and have been zipping around in it.  We have already had a few phone calls letting Steve know that he did a good job it getting it for her and that she absolutely loves it....

Hears praying that she has not more car issues and definitely no more accidents or other people running into her.  Not that she was the driver either times....  It has been such an expensive exercise, as she has had to pay a full year's insurance now twice within the space of a couple of months.  That is a cost that is not covered by insurance when someone else runs into you.