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We Finally Bought a Car! August 2nd, 2003 |
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Well, we finally picked out a car to
buy! We ended up buying a new car as they just are not that much more
expensive than used cars here (A six year old car in Japan is basically
worthless, as you have to pay someone to haul it away!). After much
research and searching we ended up choosing a real cool car from Toyota
which is called
a "Spacio" (not sold outside of Japan). This is a really neat car (most
popular car in Japan now) that seats 7 people while retaining the look
and feel of a small car (good for driving the narrow roads of Japan).
Our new Spacio is loaded with fun bells
and whistles. My favorites are the voice-activated GPS navigation
system and the front and rear cameras. The rear camera is for backing
up while the front cameras are for peeking around blind corners (lots of
those here). The GPS shows a dramatic 3-D cartoon rendering of the city
while driving (see streets, buildings, rivers, signals, etc...)
and built-in GPS mapping of important buildings, temples, stores and
other points of interest throughout Japan. As you drive, a Japanese
animated woman (dressed like a Japanese O.L. (Office Lady)) periodically
walks out onto the screen and bows before offering advise or useful facts, such
as merging lanes ahead and other helpful stuff. The cartoon
rendering of the city is quite realistic and includes nearly every
building and house in the city. Our apartment building
actually shows up on the screen as we drive up to it! Yumiko's parent's
house is even in the computer!
The sales dude just left our apartment
an hour ago and Yumiko and I are real excited about this purchase.
We've been riding our bikes in the rain and heat for almost 3 months now
and we are getting a little worn out and wet. We actually bought
the car from our home. Here in Japan the sales dudes actually pop
by your home (unannounced usually) in order to sweeten the offer.
These guys bend over backwards to make a deal and our spare bedroom is
currently loaded with the many gifts various dealers keep giving us.
Yumiko and I were pretty pleased with the deal we managed to get.
Most impressive was Yumiko's final maneuver to get the guy to knock off
43 yen from the final price (43 yen is approximately 36 cents!).
Believe it or not the guy had to think about it real hard before finally
agreeing. :-) You'll have to ask Yumiko her reasons to ask for the
43 yen discount. I thought that my Japanese was failing me after I
heard her ask for this final discount. I thought, did she just ask
him to reduce the price by 43 yen?? Yup, she did and he accepted
and we thus bought a car. After almost 20 years
association with the Japanese their actions and interactions still
surprise me sometimes. :-)
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