Our old car died just as we were ready to drive back to Switzerland. It has butterflies because almost every car on the Swiss roads is white, black or grey. I wanted to spot our car early on among all the boring colors.
From 1993 until 2013, I hadn't owned a car. It would have been an expensive annoyance. I saved enough to buy a small flat in the south of France cash.
With such good public transportation, a car is more of a nice to have, but by living where everything is in walking distance and good buses, trams and trains I could get anywhere relatively easily, assuming no strikes.
When Rick and I got together, a car seemed to have advantages so he could explore Europe without waiting for that bus, tram, train.
I was determined NOT to have a car payment.
My best friend had a trusted car dealer who was also her landlord and friend. We went to their car dealership. Five minutes in the show room, I spotted a used green car for 5000 Euros and bought it. Rick was in shock. He is used to studying the different makers, read reports, etc.
The car lasted five years before dying. Granted it lacked power, but it was green and easy to spot. Maintenance was minimum.
We went back to the same dealer. This time it took longer because the car he showed me was grey, but Rick said we could make it stand out. (see photo above). The price was 7500 Euros. Again we paid cash. No way did I want a car payment nor did I want to pay interest charges.
Five years later, it died. Back to the dealer.
Because of the need for a new flat in Switzerland, depending on if we life in the city where we won't need a car or out a bit where we might what we wanted was debatable. There was also the need to be back in Geneva for appointments on Monday. This was Thursday.
Should we rent a car for the 2-3 months we'd be there? Would we only need a car in France and none in Switzerland or maybe even vice versa? We looked at several which we found too expensive.
Then there was one, a Dacia from 2019, that seemed to meet our criteria for 10,000 Euros. To complete the necessary paperwork, we couldn't have the car to leave the next day. However, by running around like mad people we were able to get all the paperwork done by noon on Friday.
Rick had gone back to test drive the car. He liked it. He was happy it had AC. He solved the snow tires, which are required in Switzerland, satisfactorily.
Oh, the car is a beautiful blue.
This is a dueling blog with my husband https://lovinglifeineurope.blogspot.com/2023/01/something-borrowed-something-blue.html
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