After much discussion we decided to buy a car. We have had our chauffeur now for six weeks, and he has been invaluable. Nevertheless, this arrangement is a bit constrictive. We feel that we lack independence, and want to be able to survive on our own. Some ex-pats here love the idea of being driven around wherever they want, but it is clear that this is more ego related than for the sake of convenience.
We thought about a secondhand car, but strangely, it is not that much more expensive to buy a new car here. The depreciation seems to really hit when selling from second to third owner. We thought about a Suzuki which are popular here, but had a real fall out with a guy in the garage. We were in the final stages of making a purchase, and were sitting at the (actually on the) colour display stand. Some ignorant member of staff basically ordered us to take a seat at a desk some distance away. We explained that we were in the process of buying a car from another salesman and were choosing a colour. He went all fascist on us with "I request you to take a seat here" pointing at the table some way away. OK. we thought. Took a seat there and when our salesman returned, told him we were leaving, after explaining what had happened. I then led him to the man in question and said "Yes. It's him. Because he was so rude to us we are going somewhere else and you are losing the sale". We then walked out.
In the end we went to the Hyundai garage and got a much better car for only a little more money. Here it is.
It's really just for Jen to get to work and back, as I hope to get a motorcycle license by bribing some official soon. Good luck to her driving in the Bangalore nightmare traffic. This will be the one and only time we see this car in this condition!
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