Joy Dutta’s blog

Last few weeks went awfully fast. In preparation of Priti’s first visit to the states, I determined to get my car license well ahead of time.

Incredibly enough, just 4 hours of driving lessons by a DMV certified instructor prepared me so well for the road test I passed in first chance. It was my first car rental as well, and my Indian license helped me out there.

I still did not plan to buy a car anytime soon, and was counting on rentals for occasional needs.

This saturday I wanted to just casually check out dealer certified cars. Target Stevens creek honda and toyota dealers. Nothing within my initial budget of $5k. A few civics, accords, and corollas, but nothing special. A 2003 Camry 2.4L with 68k miles for $14k was good but expensive and also with a soft brake. Then suddenly we found this 2001 Camry LE V6 looking clean and scratchless. First thing I checked was the brake. Crisp and responsive. Niloy did a test drive and was all praise about it. He was pretty much excited to be driving a V6 3.0L 194HP coming from his 1.8L 4-cyl VW. Power-everything like a great modern car and with premium sound system, this was difficult deal to go by. Bargained the $11.3k price tag down to $10.2k. And still could not believe I shopped a car just like shirt or a pair of shoes. Went window-shopping, liked it, bought it. Wow.

My friends all agreed this was a good deal. I am happy right now knowing I can pick a friend up from airport or give someone a ride if need be. Driving is quite fun when hauling friends like I did to dine out with my apartment mates. But not as much fun when driving alone.

I can almost hear my bike weeping but it will still be my primary vehicle.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 19th, 2006 at 3:44 am and is filed under personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.