A snowflake in Beit shemesh

My not overly large husband standing directly in front of the door of our new car.

We have named is snowflake as it is tiny, white, and unique because the "Z" fell off the back of the "GETZ" so it is the only "GET" people really appreciate getting.  Also, telling someone to go "b'getz" just sounds cute.  It really does have trunk space too!

the used car dealers desk.  A Tehillim and 2 tzedakah boxes!

And the rest of his office.  Note the top left shelves of sefarim.

A Snowflake in Beit Shemesh

(Note: Blogger has been down, so this did not go up on Thursday)

From time to time over the last couple of years we have considered buying a car. Most Olim consider buying a car towards the end of their 3rd year, before their rights expire. We had been working with a razor thin budget. We kept getting told that if only we doubled our budget we could get a decent car.

With everything we have dealt with in the passed year, some family members decided to help remove the financial obstacles that were hampering our car search. So this time we were fully committed to the search with quadruple the budget. Again we ran into the response if only we could kick in another 60% we could get a decent car.

This time we had some other things going in our favour. Driving is really impractical for my commute to work. The way our street is designed, it would take longer if we decided to drive some places then to walk. No matter how much we rely on the car, we think it is safe to say it will be a low milage car.

The week started optimistically, as we thought we had found a really great deal on a yellow 2004 Getz. It was sold before we had an opportunity to look at it. Over the course of the week, we ran head first into the frustration, that buying a car in Israel can be.

- A mechanic who we have relied on during previous searches, didn't seem too interested.

- One agent would only look for the best value on one particular make and model of our choice. For 200 NIS he could help us decide what particular car that should be. While we were looking for this century, he was thinking a little older. Plus he never returned phone calls.

- The company that found the first Getz had seemed promising. Then we found out that any car that was not on their lot would require a 500 NIS deposit just for the opportunity to see it.

Out of frustration, I opened up Shemeshphone and called the local dealers. The first one offered 'Haimeshe' service but didn't speak English. Then things started to fall into place.

The place I called was a local dealer in the industrial part of town. I told him what we were looking for. He suggested that we could use financing to and get a slightly more expensive car with more bang for the buck. I gave him our floor price and waited to see what he could do with it first. He said he would contact his Jerusalem lot to see what they had. He would call me back in the afternoon.

He did exactly what he promised. He found 5 cars and only one was slightly above the budget I gave him. He would get a driver to bring one of the cars to Beit Shemesh for us to take a look free of charge. He said he would call us when it arrived and he did.

The car was in excellent condition. A few scratches (this is Israel) and the 'z' had fallen off. We took it for a test drive including going up "the hill". It performed very nicely. There is ample room for what we need.

In the end we bought a 2006 White Getz GLF. Milage is a little high, which will balance out with our low mileage driving. It has a 1.4L engine which solves some of the fuel efficiency concerns. We got it for 8,300 NIS below list price. The engine and transmission are under warranty for 6 months. On Wednesday their mechanic will come in and perform any required maintenance that is coming up. The tires are brand new. Pick up will be on Sunday, once I am able to take care of the insurance.

Tonight the Rabbi made sure to point out which bracha to say when we pick up the car. We think we got a great deal with excellent customer service, while staying local. I don't think things could have gone any smoother.

Too many yellow flags

We decided to pass on the car we were looking at. Just too much about it felt wrong even though everything looked right.

Back to square one.

Old is old

Looked at a car tonight. It is older than some of my piano students.

+ not much trouble with rust in this country
+ not likely to be stolen
+ decent sized trunk
+ in our budget
+ has passed emissions testing for the year
+ huge trunk. will hold hockey equipment

- odometers go up that high?
- need to go into Jerusalem to see the actual one we are looking at and not a "similar one on the lot"
- guarantee? What's that?
- not sure why it is going as cheaply as it is considering other similar ones with much higher mileage are more
- smallish back seat- okay with one extra person or a couple of kids in a carpool. Two adults plus Channah would be very snuggly

A car :) (temporarily)

Thanks to friends who got a new old car we are able to use their old old car for a few weeks until they sell it. This is a perfect time of year for this and will make the summer much more enjoyable. We are just starting to look into buying our own really old car- but as we are not desperate we can wait until we find the perfect deal on a little old POS.

Sunday August 17th The Kia Scam

5 years ago the lease on our Toyota Tercel was coming due. With Boo on the way it was no longer big enough to suit our needs. We considered upgrading to the Corolla but we could not afford the minimal features we were looking for. We decided to go with a 2003 Kia Spectra instead. DW found a great deal that was significantly less than we found at other dealerships. The only sticky part was they required a $500 deposit refundable if we failed the credit check. That is where the trouble began.

They screwed up our application and put down the co-signor on the car as a co-owner. They also wanted a $1500 security deposit (equivalent to almost 6 months of payments). They told us that since the credit was approved we would lose the deposit. When we threatened to bring a lawyer they explained that they are sued regularily and they always win. The co-signor backed out of the deal. Eventually DW was made the co-signor and we paid the deposit.

A few weeks later when I called the dealership all of the staff we had dealt with were not working there. When my cadilidic converter blew out the first time at 5000km and a number of issues, I complained to the head office. They told me to take the complaints back to the dealership which had gone out of business.

The lease is now up on my car. My parents took care of returning the car to Kia. First they tried to sell the car to my parents. Then they told them that since they we were not buying another car they would charge $2500 for excessive wear and tear. If they were willing to buy something else from them they would wave the entire amount. My parents were disgusted that they were going to tack on charges as punishment for not remaining customers. They even called in the assesor to try to resolve the situation. In the end Kia will not be returning our security deposit. My parents refused to give them anymore money. As we have left the country they will probably not go through the effort of recovering the extra money.

A company with such lousy customer service they should be suffering the same decline in sales as the big 3.