Car please come quick!

As soon as I got my driving license I decided to shop for a car. Initially I was planning to get a new Honda Accord or something similar that costs around the AED100-110k range (~RM90-100K). Then I learnt of the thriving 2nd hand market here, and that I could buy from the showrooms, and they do all the testing, servicing and even put in warranties for a minimum of 1 year. So I went to check out a few second hand dealers and suddenly owning a luxury car seemed pretty do-able! So, I placed a deposit yesterday for a BMW 320i, 2008 model, 20,000K, 3 year full service warranty that covers everything except tyres plus a couple of very cool options, for a nice sum of AED100k. That's RM90k. Unbelievable..I figured this is likely to be the only time that I would ever drive a BMW as it's so cheap, so heck :) I'm hoping to get it latest by early next week!

It's interesting going around these 2nd hand car dealers, most are not interested in even talking to me, unless it's a proper showroom with english speaking sales people. I test drove a Lexus from a 2nd hand shop, the guy sent his assistant who couldn't speak English to get in the car with me. When I came back with the car, boss wasn't even around to talk to me, I was asked to wait for 5 mins till he comes back from prayers. 15mins later, still no boss so I left.

My colleagues are buying direct from owners and they have even funnier incidences. Yesterday, he went to check out a car, and asked to take it for a drive. Owner says no, because he took 1/2 hour to get his car parked 100m from his house and if he removed the car, there is no way he could ever find parking. So he asked my colleague to come back over the weekend! Then today, my colleague calls another guy, and the guy told my colleague that he asked too many questions and he can only test drive the car if he's really going to buy! He has also been trying to get some Audi dealers to let him test drive a couple of the 2nd hand units they have but it's 5 days later and they still haven't brought in the cars! It's quite funny but really infuriating as well. I'm so glad I'm sorted with the car, while I probably paid 10-15k more because I went to a showroom but being able to just breeze through the process really is worth something..