Archive for: vehicle

We have a new car

Firstly, I am sorry I have been keeping secrets from you all. A few weeks ago we decided to purchase a new car to replace our truck. We did lots of research and decided that a Hyundai Santa Fe was the vehicle for us. It has excellent reviews, looks great and is much more fuel efficient than our current vehicle.

We ordered it last week and the process of going to the dealer, test driving and saying yes we will have one was so easy and straight forward we were worried it would all collapse around us, so I decided not to temp fate by mentioning it here. Now we actually have the car (or should I say SUV) I can relax and finally come clean.

I cannot stress how easy everything was to arrange. We thought the process of buying our original Ford Sport Trac was easy as we did that whilst still in the UK – mainly by phone and email, but this was just as easy.

We simply went in said we wanted it, they checked our credit history and said okay, sign here. They did not ask for proof of income, employment etc, Presumably because we were already paying a lease to Ford they took it we were okay for them.

So on Friday morning we took back our Ford, removed the plates, signed a form and then Ford allowed us to use their courtesy car to get a lift to the Hyundai garage up the road. We then signed a couple more forms, looked around the Santa Fe to check everything, attached the plates and off we went.

We had to go to Kingston, so our first rip was a decent drive and it is a very nice vehicle. So far we are very pleased with it. Here are some pics.

And inside

This car should be much cheaper to run as the service intervals are slightly longer 6k as opposed to 5k and the service costs appear lower than Ford. So far the fuel is looking much better and as the fuel tank is smaller the actual cost of filling up will be less – so psychologically better too. We were having to pay over $100 to fill up the truck lately.

On a sad note – not boo hoo sad, but really sad – here are the stats for our old vehicle. Bare in mind we had it almost exactly two years.

We spent 973 hours driving it

We did 64,750 km

We used 8,525 litres of fuel

No I did not keep a record of this – the car did it for us!

Nearly but not quite

We went to see a house the other day which was set on several acres of parkland complete with beautiful lawns, trees and even a pond. We totally fell in love with it, but the house itself was not quite right.

We must have really liked the plot because we kept trying to bring ourselves round to liking the house even more than we really did, but I am sure we would have regretted buying it in a few months. Still, it is the closest we have come to seriously considering buying somewhere else.

The weather here has been brilliant for the last few months. We have had the odd days with rain and a few cloudy days, but on the whole it has been sun and high 20’s temps all the way. Some days it has gone well into the 30’s which for me is far too hot. If you add the humidex onto that some days it has been in the 40’s – my delicate pale skin cannot take it!!

The other day we had to take the truck into Ford as we had a slow puncture. They found the nail but it was not repairable, so we had to have a new tire. When we took it in we were told it would be about half an hour, so we decided to wait. However one hour and forty minuets later it finally was complete. We were also told it would cost around $300 including tax and the service they also did the previous week, but the bill was actually a little over $350. Then to add insult to injury, the woman serving us said “you don’t seem to have caught the sun much” So, now not only had we had to wait forever and pay over the odds, but now I was lily white too….cheek.