May 10, 07: Loan approved... Now what?

May 10, 2007.

Yamunah was efficient. She called me in the morning to inform me that the loan was approved.

Called Brandon and he immediately went to look for Mr. Yap. I dont know what he did, but Mr. Yap found him a car. It was suppose to be a happy ending but,.... yes, there's always a "but"....

There were some conditions.

1) He only had a 2005 car.
2) It's Silver in colour.
3) He can only reduce RM1,500 for it, although the car promised is different by 1 whole year.
4) He will trade in my car for RM6,000 only.

I have no choice, or do I?

Brandon checked the car for engine, tires, batteries and interior. He noticed the exterior is a bit different from the normal Chevy you see on the road. Especially the front grill. Mr Yap says it's the 2006 model but launched in 2005, so the AP is 2005.



Note: The old model's grill looks like this.


What do you think?

Will see it tomorrow if everything goes well....

May 9, 2007: The Bank Call

May 9, 2007.

The conjunctivitis and severe throat infection has taken my mind off the car for a couple of days.

Got back to work and the Public bank officer, Yamuna, finally called me regarding my loan. She gave me pretty bad rates. 2.65% for a tenure of 5 years. My friend's relative got 2.57% for 5 years too. Anyway, I tried to request for a lower rate, i.e. 2.5% but they insisted I took a higher loan instead. I agreed with that term since the interest is low. I remember my MBA finance lecturer told me that it's the perfect time to in debt now since loan interest is low. Yamuna told me that she will need HQ's approval before she can confirm on the 2.5% rate.

Have to wait another day.....

May 3: No Sign of the car yet

May 3, 2007

Yes .... I am still waiting for the 1.8 Chevy Optra Sedan after the 2 day holidays, Labour day and Wesak Day.

But not sure if can get the car even though they are very very promising… I just heard from a lot of ppl (including Forums) that USF-Hicom has taken all the cars so that they can sell at higher price. I ordered mine from DRB-HICOM… so they say they are sure to have cars from Yap Brothers.. (who the hell is Yap brothers, anyway?)… but they are submitting my loan now. They say we can get the car within 3 days after my loan is approved, but I am sceptical about that.

Car is RM66K for 2006 car. Engine from Holden. GM bought over Daewoo and Holden and putting the Holden engines for Chevy for the Thailand batch. Yes, the car is CBU from Thailand.

There’re lots of 1.6 left, but the 1.8 is scarce, because it's only a few thousand difference.

I didn’t take the aveo nor the 1.6 model as they dont meet my basic requirements of 2 airbags and ABS.

So I have to take the 1.8 which has higher Fuel Consumption, at 22 sens per km and higher roadtax (3 times more expesive RM274 compared to RM90).

Brandon likes higher cc cars anyway. Guys ego qua…

Anyway, it’s the only car which we can both agree on together… so I really hope we can get this car.

April 31: The quest ends and the wait begins

April 31, 2007.

Monday. Told my colleagues that I put downpayment for the lemon. Their response were quite positive. 2 relatives of one of my colleague have just got the 1.6 Optra Sedan already and have no complains about it. They bought it mostly because of the attractive discount. Another colleague's brother in law also put downpayment for a 1.8 Optra Sedan 2 weeks ago and is awaiting the car. He also mentioned that his high school teacher relative was enticed by the discount and bought the Chevy over Waja. Hmmm, cant be too bad if so many people want it.

Brandon's friend is also looking for the Chevy. He wants the Chevy 1.8 Hatchback. Same specs with the Sedan except for the leather seats. Only RM61K compared to RM66K my 2006 1.8 Optra Sedan.

Heard that all the 1.8 cars are sold out. Called the agent, Hudson, and his dealer, Mr Yap and they confirm that there's a car for me, not to worry. I was given a choice of colour so I chose Royal Gray. Dark cars are nice and classy, but not sure if it will go down well with the older folks, i.e. my mother may have some "Pantang Larangan".

April 30, 2007: Another Sunday, The quest goes on...

April 30, 2007.

This week we strated by trying to cover the rest of the cars which we haven't covered.

The circled the whole of USJ, and found that we have visited all the showrooms already. The mitsubishi showroom has closed, so we decided to to go PJ to visit the showrooms there. On the way, we stop by Top Mark to check out the second hand Toyota cars, but Brandon finds them not really worth buying as there werent much choices.

We passed by USF-Hicom. They are selling Chevrelot cars. Heard from a friend they are having a massive discount for 2005/2006 cars. Since we haven't covered this car, we decided to give it a try.

Hmmm, ends up, we spent the whole Sunday test driving this car, accessing the specs, haggling for the price, calling friends to check if it's worth buying... and in the end, we put downpayment of RM500 for this car. The RM30,000 discount was really too good to miss.

Yes, I am buying the lemon.

Lemon? Since 2000, I have 2 person who have stayed in the US making this remark. Don't buy a Chevy, people in the U.S. calls it a lemon. It's beautiful on the outside, but when you bite into it, it's SOUR....

Hmmm....Already put RM500, not sure if I want to take my deposit back.

Summary of shortlisted cars - based on my criterias - Below 100K

This list is the "Below RM100,000 Budget" list.

Summary of shortlisted cars - based on my criterias - Above 100K

Here's a summary of all the cars which I have shortlisted based on my criterias, i.e. Price, Safety Features and Fuel Consumption.

This list is the "Above RM100,000 Budget" list.