We bought a car yesterday: a 2008 Chevy Uplander, in white, of course. I say "of course" because probably 90% of cars in Doha are white. Most of the rest are silver or off-white, with a few colored cars thrown into the mix.
We actually were looking at a 2005 Dodge Durango when I called a Sri Lankan friend who used to be a professional car inspector to ask if he thought it was a good deal. He advised us that it wasn't and offered to find us a car instead. Apparently, that's what he does for a job now: he's a freelance car matchmaker. Within three hours of my call, he had the car at our house for a test drive. For an extremely reasonable fee, plus the cost of an inspection, he took care of every aspect of the buying process, even to the point of driving me to a far-away branch of my bank because the ones nearby were closed when I needed to withdraw the cash to buy the car (by the way, I've never held that much cash in hand before, yet it was only 10% more than the ATM withdrawal limit at most ATMs here). So thanks a ton, Naveen! It feels good to have a vehicle of our own again.
Driving isn't as bad as I expected now that I've had some time on the roads. I've even started learning some of the back ways to avoid the huge lines of traffic that inevitably form on the main arteries in and out of town. Of course, having an accurate GPS helps a ton (thanks, Google Maps!).
We actually were looking at a 2005 Dodge Durango when I called a Sri Lankan friend who used to be a professional car inspector to ask if he thought it was a good deal. He advised us that it wasn't and offered to find us a car instead. Apparently, that's what he does for a job now: he's a freelance car matchmaker. Within three hours of my call, he had the car at our house for a test drive. For an extremely reasonable fee, plus the cost of an inspection, he took care of every aspect of the buying process, even to the point of driving me to a far-away branch of my bank because the ones nearby were closed when I needed to withdraw the cash to buy the car (by the way, I've never held that much cash in hand before, yet it was only 10% more than the ATM withdrawal limit at most ATMs here). So thanks a ton, Naveen! It feels good to have a vehicle of our own again.
Driving isn't as bad as I expected now that I've had some time on the roads. I've even started learning some of the back ways to avoid the huge lines of traffic that inevitably form on the main arteries in and out of town. Of course, having an accurate GPS helps a ton (thanks, Google Maps!).
1 comment:
I don't think I've ever seen that kind of car before - it's like a cross between a mini van and an suv. Glad to hear you've got you own wheels!
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