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My Corolla 2000 - is it time to say bye bye?

本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛It is my first and only car. My wife drives an European car - according to her, hers is way better than mine - but I still feel much more comfortable driving my old car. It's like an old friend.

I bought it the first day I arrived in Toronto late April in 2000 and have been driving it ever since.

That ws a sunny afternoon. My wife and I were walking towards the Holiday Inn located at Woodbine/Steeles to check-in. And we walked past a big Toyota dealership. There were so many shiny new cars in the parking lot. My wife was expecting at the time - we needed a car no matter what even though I could take TTC to work.

I did not have many friends to ask around for better car opinions. All my friends were University graduate students. Most of them, if they were lucky, were driving a $2000-4000 cars. It was not like today - students have more $$$ than immigrants. In those old days, students were poor. So, the best advice I got from them were:

1) You gotta buy a Japanese car - never ever buy American cars. And they gave me so many sad stories about their previous Ford or GM which died on the winter road
2) You should buy a 2nd hand Corolla - maybe a Corolla 1992 or 1993. It was really good.

Well, based on that, we went directly into the dealership with our hopes high. We could not afford a used car. We only had $4000 left in our banking account. And we needed that money to find an apartment close to a hospital to live. But ironically, we could afford a new car. I had a job offer, I could pay monthly.

So, I found a Taiwanese sales and sat down with him. Within 20 minutes, a deal was made. He said: "You will start working in a week? Wow. You look so young, like high school student. And this was really your first day in Toronto? wow! You made a really good deal today. I would never sell at this price of $19K. You should buy ECP and rust protection, each for $1000 bucks, which is really worth it considering if you will sell the car for a Camry in 4 years".

Well, that was pretty much it. Without knowing anything about cars,I bought my Corolla 2000. Later I found out I may not need those extra protection. But I did not care. The car was lovely, and new. It WAS MY CAR - the best car among my students friends.

Till today, I have no intention to sell it. I have no luxary desire for cars. I see car the same way as I see Food Basics shopping cart - as long as it has wheeles and can run. This Corolla was a perfect match for me - very low maintenance, low profile, slow, easy going. I can park it anywhere without worrying. I never had an accident. Now the left turn signal light has some problem. I am wondering if this is a sign I should change a car? Or should I just get it fixed and keep it running for another 10 years?更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
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  • 枫下家园 / 我爱我车 / My Corolla 2000 - is it time to say bye bye?
    • 猫哥啊,人到中年了。。。有点出息好不好?
      • 呵呵,这个车如老婆 - 还是旧的好。
        • 那为啥男人升官发财了,都爱娶小老婆?连红孩子里面的八路都跟地主小老婆睡觉?连科学家杨振宁都不找个老太太?
          • 兄弟,要专一。
    • 换啥?我的车比你的老多了.每天,在公司,都是众目光关注的.太难看了.
      哎.
      • 兄弟啊,车如衣服,有条件的话也别太给我们国人丢脸了,好不好?
        • I will feel ashamed if I don't have good manner, not if I don't have a good car.
    • 我的也是2000 corolla, 你的车跑了多少公里了?
      • 160,000+ KM
        • 俺2000 CIVIC,跑了24万+了。
          • 与工资成正比 :)
        • 我的只跑了7万
    • 不怕磕,不怕撞,不怕别人眼红,保险还低,接着(上班)开。
    • 老猫啊,GM总裁刚刚看过,真是不是一般的失望啊!。CWA CEO也看了,已决定不再和CRYSLER再去争什么了。
      I bought my first car in 1996 when we both in a university in the US, Ford Taurus 1989. Original owner was an old, nice local lady, the 1st owner of the car, and her son was a mechanic.

      The big, gray American car was like a close buddy of us, we drove it to New York, the first long trip ever in the US, picked up our first baby from hospital, .....never had any problem. I remember the biggest payment for it was $400 something for replacing brakes, a routine maintenance.

      In the end, there was a little hole at the driver side door, and graduation was close, I at first negotiated with a dealer to a better deal to buy a new car, he asked for $200 to trade in, but I strongly believed it should be worth much more(!), so I refused the deal, give it free to a good friend who was still studying in the school.

      So my suggestion: If you really like you current car, and at the same time, a new car is needed, send it as a gift to whoever needs a car as a start badly, but the pocket is still not that deep.
      • 兄弟在美国的时候~~怎么听起来这么熟
      • 呵呵,有道理
    • Wat? You driver corolla? You disappointed me again......
      • mid-aged chinese man drive a corolla, shamed. don't make this kind of mistake again.
      • If someone judges me by the car I have, by the house I live, by the work I do, by all those externalized material appearance one can easily posesse or dispose of, hehe...I am cool.
        • 这个世界很多事是为别人做的,不是吗?衣服,房子,你做的任何事有一半是给别人看的。老兄,以你的智慧,有些东西就不要太固执了,能做到的事何必让人瞧不起呢?开烤肉怎么可能COOL呢?
          • Oeky mikesmith I am still your fans even you drive a 烤肉, but I agree with 烤饭 to drive a 烤肉 is not cool.
            • hehe... some time back, our Cisco SE took me out for a lunch. She was driving a 2008 Accord and said she regretted buying that car - a Lexus would be more appropriate.
              I told her - it depends. On the sales side, many of of the cisco reps drive lexuary sporty cars or convertibles. Our ex- cisco acct manager drove a porsche . She could still feel bad driving a Lexus. There is just no end to go after that. By the time we came back to my company parking lot - I showed her a red Caravan and a 20-year old MB. One car is a 2nd line manager's, the other is the ex- director's car in my group. So, never mind.. It could be a culture thing. Someone, especially in sales or consulting needs luxary car for the business requirement. For me, there is just no need.
    • 2000烤肉,不至于吧。我2000年买的1997烤肉(和你类似,当时移民1年,儿子6个月,搬进耗厮,考过G2, need a car no matter what,认识的人人建议2手铐肉是神选)上个星期路上冒烟了,休息半小时冷却,开到车铺,换个radiator,美好如初。。。接着买菜