My wife has been driving this 2003 Mitsubishi Outlander for the last 8 years. It’s the first automatic car we’ve had and it’s got 110,000 km on the clock. Its super heavy on petrol so we decided it’s time had come.
We decided to get a smaller car and I said “You pick what you want to drive this time”. She said I’ll have a Mitsubishi Lancer (we had one 8 years ago) but she hated the new shape when we went to test drive. OK, said she I like the look of the Mazda 3, but after a test drive she decides they are uncomfortable and not like the up market Mazda’s of old. I’ll have a Toyota Corolla then, but alas she hates the intrusive centre console that takes away the leg room. In desperation I point her to the Subaru Impreza. Yeah OK we’ll get one of those said she. I put $1,000 deposit down and have an unspecified wait before a white one with leather will arrive from Japan.
A couple of weeks later on a wet Saturday morning we are in town for a coffee and a look around the shops, she spots a new Skoda Monte Carlo, just released into Australia and available only as a 5 speed manual. She was like a kid in an ice-cream parlor, must have, must have. OK I go back to the Subaru dealer and the best deal I could negotiate to get out of the contract on the Impreza was they keep my $1,000 and they sell the car to the next on the list. That sounds bad but the contract actually said 15% penalty if I didn’t proceed, 15% was $4,050, they had me by the short and curlys. I had to just suck it up and think “happy wife, happy life”.
Two weeks later she picks the Monte Carlo up.
Now comes the ZINGER. She drives the Monte for 1 week and puts 300 km on the clock and then announces “I’m over that car, sick of changing gears all of the time”. Ho sh*t said I, or something similar.
To cut a very long story short, I deal with the Skoda dealer who has a string of dealerships in a line, Ford, Skoda, Range Rover, Jag, Audi and VW, he’s big time. He said (to his credit) that they can’t get any Monte Carlos for a long time and would like ours back, that is if we buy another car with a big enough margin for him discount the 300 km old Monte Carlo to the next customer. This time WE pick a VW Golf 103 TDI 6 speed auto.
2 ltr diesel, it’s very strong for a motor that size and can circumnavigate the world twice on one tank of fuel.
Keeping my fingers crossed that she keeps liking it because next time I think it’s going to be a divorce.
Edit,
On top of all of that she paid $275 to get black number plates that look a bit like "widget", our system allows 3 letters then 2 numbers followed by another letter so she gets WIJ11T. It's only money.
We decided to get a smaller car and I said “You pick what you want to drive this time”. She said I’ll have a Mitsubishi Lancer (we had one 8 years ago) but she hated the new shape when we went to test drive. OK, said she I like the look of the Mazda 3, but after a test drive she decides they are uncomfortable and not like the up market Mazda’s of old. I’ll have a Toyota Corolla then, but alas she hates the intrusive centre console that takes away the leg room. In desperation I point her to the Subaru Impreza. Yeah OK we’ll get one of those said she. I put $1,000 deposit down and have an unspecified wait before a white one with leather will arrive from Japan.
A couple of weeks later on a wet Saturday morning we are in town for a coffee and a look around the shops, she spots a new Skoda Monte Carlo, just released into Australia and available only as a 5 speed manual. She was like a kid in an ice-cream parlor, must have, must have. OK I go back to the Subaru dealer and the best deal I could negotiate to get out of the contract on the Impreza was they keep my $1,000 and they sell the car to the next on the list. That sounds bad but the contract actually said 15% penalty if I didn’t proceed, 15% was $4,050, they had me by the short and curlys. I had to just suck it up and think “happy wife, happy life”.
Two weeks later she picks the Monte Carlo up.
Now comes the ZINGER. She drives the Monte for 1 week and puts 300 km on the clock and then announces “I’m over that car, sick of changing gears all of the time”. Ho sh*t said I, or something similar.
To cut a very long story short, I deal with the Skoda dealer who has a string of dealerships in a line, Ford, Skoda, Range Rover, Jag, Audi and VW, he’s big time. He said (to his credit) that they can’t get any Monte Carlos for a long time and would like ours back, that is if we buy another car with a big enough margin for him discount the 300 km old Monte Carlo to the next customer. This time WE pick a VW Golf 103 TDI 6 speed auto.
2 ltr diesel, it’s very strong for a motor that size and can circumnavigate the world twice on one tank of fuel.
Keeping my fingers crossed that she keeps liking it because next time I think it’s going to be a divorce.
Edit,
On top of all of that she paid $275 to get black number plates that look a bit like "widget", our system allows 3 letters then 2 numbers followed by another letter so she gets WIJ11T. It's only money.
as you say happy wife happy life. I must admit I like them all but the VW has had great reports this side so lets hope it's a keeper this time
.
