Towards the end of 2014 Karen came home from work ("local" supermarket 20 minutes up the road) to tell me two of her co-worker friends had just bought new (off the showroom floor) cars. Or their husbands had bought them for their wives 
I got to thinking that maybe I could get Karen a new car when she retired, but then thought "what's the use of that. It'd sit unused in the garage most of the time. She could use it now", so I began to research a brand new car for her.
My first choice was a Hyundai i30, but I just could not make the sums work. Eventually I settled on a Hyundai Accent, it was not easy to arrange but I had it set to pick up on her birthday. A couple of days before that she ended up in hospital with an infection.
Thanks to an inheritance and some hard savings we were able to almost pay off the car in 2 1/2 years. By then we were getting ready to leave Auckland after Karen's transplant. After what we had been through in the previous 6 months, and Karen admiring some of the new small size SUV's running around Auckland, I arranged to update the Accent for (another) new car, this time a Mazda CX-3.
Once more we stretched the finances a bit to get what we wanted. Another 2 1/2 years later it was time to refinance the car to make things a little more affordable. We still intended to trade it in on another new car before it was 5 years old. At the time I was given a market valuation for the refinance that was a bit low compared to Auckland prices but beggars can't be choosers.
About six months ago I began seeing adverts on social media for the new MG SUV's, made in China. The prices were good and so one day I wandered into the local dealership to enquire on the price of one comparable to the Mazda. The price was $6-8,000 below the new Mazda price so I kept it in mind, not intending to do anything until early 2022.
Last month I was on the way to the range. I stopped off at the local gas station to pick up a coffee and while waiting decided to check out the going rate for a 2017 CX-3. What a surprise.
Three were listed on our main auction website. All three were late 2017, the same colour as ours, and with slightly higher mileages. And they were asking between $4,500 and 5,000 more than the retail I had been quoted early 2020. The covid shortages had pushed second hand car prices so much higher.
On Tuesday I dropped Karen off at the hairdressers for a cut and perm. After doing my chores around town I stopped in at the MG dealer. The top option on the ZST model was $6,000 below the new CX-3 price, and they offered me as trade in the same price I had been given as retail 18 months ago (Auckland prices run around $2,000 more than in the provinces, and knowing that dealers put at least $4,000 on top of trade in price this was at the top of what I had been expecting as a trade in).
I picked Karen up and after some hasty explanation we went for a test drive. Some things are much better than the Mazda, some not. All the way Karen was saying "I like it but that's not saying yes".
When we got back to the dealership Karen said nothing beyond that she liked the car. The salesperson asked if Karen wanted to see the colour choices so she said she would. The red, like our Mazda, looked good but it was the blue fo the demo model that caught her eye.
"So, what do you think?" I asked her. "We'll take the blue one" she said.
Fortunately a new shipment of MG's had arrived in the country last week. We will need to wait few days for our chosen model and colour to be delivered, but we will be driving and MG for the next 3-4 years. At least.
I got to thinking that maybe I could get Karen a new car when she retired, but then thought "what's the use of that. It'd sit unused in the garage most of the time. She could use it now", so I began to research a brand new car for her.
My first choice was a Hyundai i30, but I just could not make the sums work. Eventually I settled on a Hyundai Accent, it was not easy to arrange but I had it set to pick up on her birthday. A couple of days before that she ended up in hospital with an infection.
Thanks to an inheritance and some hard savings we were able to almost pay off the car in 2 1/2 years. By then we were getting ready to leave Auckland after Karen's transplant. After what we had been through in the previous 6 months, and Karen admiring some of the new small size SUV's running around Auckland, I arranged to update the Accent for (another) new car, this time a Mazda CX-3.
Once more we stretched the finances a bit to get what we wanted. Another 2 1/2 years later it was time to refinance the car to make things a little more affordable. We still intended to trade it in on another new car before it was 5 years old. At the time I was given a market valuation for the refinance that was a bit low compared to Auckland prices but beggars can't be choosers.
About six months ago I began seeing adverts on social media for the new MG SUV's, made in China. The prices were good and so one day I wandered into the local dealership to enquire on the price of one comparable to the Mazda. The price was $6-8,000 below the new Mazda price so I kept it in mind, not intending to do anything until early 2022.
Last month I was on the way to the range. I stopped off at the local gas station to pick up a coffee and while waiting decided to check out the going rate for a 2017 CX-3. What a surprise.
Three were listed on our main auction website. All three were late 2017, the same colour as ours, and with slightly higher mileages. And they were asking between $4,500 and 5,000 more than the retail I had been quoted early 2020. The covid shortages had pushed second hand car prices so much higher.
On Tuesday I dropped Karen off at the hairdressers for a cut and perm. After doing my chores around town I stopped in at the MG dealer. The top option on the ZST model was $6,000 below the new CX-3 price, and they offered me as trade in the same price I had been given as retail 18 months ago (Auckland prices run around $2,000 more than in the provinces, and knowing that dealers put at least $4,000 on top of trade in price this was at the top of what I had been expecting as a trade in).
I picked Karen up and after some hasty explanation we went for a test drive. Some things are much better than the Mazda, some not. All the way Karen was saying "I like it but that's not saying yes".
When we got back to the dealership Karen said nothing beyond that she liked the car. The salesperson asked if Karen wanted to see the colour choices so she said she would. The red, like our Mazda, looked good but it was the blue fo the demo model that caught her eye.
"So, what do you think?" I asked her. "We'll take the blue one" she said.
Fortunately a new shipment of MG's had arrived in the country last week. We will need to wait few days for our chosen model and colour to be delivered, but we will be driving and MG for the next 3-4 years. At least.
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My brother has a ‘70’s sports MG.
