Shopping for a Car!

March 8, 2009 - This was the day that Patrick scheduled our car shopping trip :) Mind you, we're not going to dealers but to personal car owners who were selling their cars. In short, we're in the market for a 2nd hand car. We already did our research over the net. I think we even went overboard and had our short list in an excel file hahahaha but that's just the researcher in me LOL

Our personal favorite was the Subaru Legacy, between 1996-1999. 2nd choice would be a Big Body Toyota Corolla. Third choice would be a Honda Accord. All these cars have big cargo spaces and leg room in common hahaha and seatbelts in the back seat built-in LOL At first, I really didn't consider the green colored cars because I hate green! but then I figured if it's a Subaru and the engine is in good condition then the color would be secondary, especially if it's within our budget LOL

So, on that Saturday, Patrick had asked his friend Phil to drive us around and to help us look over the cars. Phil has an intimate knowledge of cars and we trust his choices :) Patrick was the one who handpicked and mapped out our destinations so the kids and I were just there for the trip hahaha It was just a little letdown that Phil's car was in the shop and he had to drive his older car which was in danger of overheating if the aircon was put on high. In the end, we just had to forego the aircon because the breeze outside was way cooler than inside :) We just bought plenty of water to hydrate us LOL

Okay so first stop, we saw a Mitsubishi Lancer. This was more for Patrick's satisfaction than mine and it was a relief to me that the car didn't pan out LOL 2nd choice was way in the boondocks and it was a Honda Accord. At first, it looked okay but upon much careful scrutiny, you'll see the flaws in the vehicle. The sound system was great though :)

We had to take a break for lunch and we ate at McDonald's in Ever Gotesco Commonwealth because that's where our next stop was. This time, it looked like we had a good one because we were in a good executive village where the cars are practically pristine quality so we were thinking that the car that was being sold was most likely to be in good condition as well. When we rang the bell, we were all surprised because the guy who came to the door was Michael Flores from TGIS (a teeny-bopper show on GMA-7 before). Talk about starstruck! LOL What's more, it turned out that Michael was a schoolmate to both Patrick and Phil in JASMS! Coincidence?!

We looked over the 1996 Subaru Legacy that he was selling and to me I was already sold on it. LOL The engine sounded good, the doors were aligned, the aircon was cool, there was only 90K kilometers on it, roughly (55K miles). It had an owner's and repair manual. The best part was he was giving it to us for P180K, with a great discount LOL exactly our budget LOL It even had comprehensive insurance which was a great plus and it was already registered for 2009. All we had to do was just ride in it :) Of course, even though we wanted to buy it already, we said that we still had one more Subaru to look into, which we did. But we told him, we'd get back to him as soon as possible too hahahha

So onto the last car of the day, a 1996 blue Subaru that was selling for P185K. It wasn't in very good condition compared to Michael's. There were a lot of cosmetic damages that would really take a lot of money to repair so it wasn't a good buy. At that point, we knew which car was THE car! It was so exciting! hahaha