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Anoop is boring me to death with his visa story!

by Santosh Bungay Saturday, 28 January 2012 18:59
Geeks and non-geeks, dorks and non-dorks, you must see this video! http://t.co/lNwMeW1g

by Santosh Bungay Saturday, 05 November 2011 10:53
The smell of BBQ is in the air! Yummy! Too bad it wasn't mine :-(

by Santosh Bungay Saturday, 24 September 2011 14:27

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Our (almost) new 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport

Written by Santosh Bungay

Wednesday, 17 December 2008 03:13

Well, we finally bought a new car to replace our written off minivan. It's another minivan and a couple of years older, 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport but it's in better shape than our 2003 Dodge Caravan .

It's almost fully loaded - almost meaning that it doesn't have the driver side automatic sliding door, travel computer, under seat storage, the multi purpose garage door opener and autoshift - damn, eh?

First I'd like to thank Scott and the folks at Concept Kia for all thier help and effort into trying to get an approval for us to buy the $10K (fully loaded) 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee and finally approving us for the $15K (fully loaded) 2006 Kia Sorento. They went out of their way to get the price down on the Sorento to bring the monthly payments to within our budget of $200 (came to $199 something over 6 years). In the end we cancelled the deal of course but I can't say enough about how good they were.

So on Saturday December 13, 2008 we went to purchase the Sorento, got the bill of sale (subject to the requirement of the $5K down which we would receive from the insurance company), went to get the insurance and registration all ready so when the insurance cheque arrived we'd just give the deposit and drive off. We were expecting on getting the insurance cheque this week so the dealership was willing to wait for the down payment.

Mom didn't want us to get the car with a loan and kept saying get some cheap car outright for the $5K. I wasn't up on that because I didn't expect to be able to find one I liked with regard to safety and condition especially considering we drive back and forth to Calgary from Chestermere 2 sometimes 3 (and once in while 4) times a day. I didn't want to have to go and have inspections done etc. On top of which we were in a bit of a rush to get something by yesterday because the insurance company would only pay for the rental until then.

On Sunday Anoop calls up and says he's got a friend who sells cars and that he has a 2001 Dodge Caravan that he's willing to sell for $5K. I wasn't too keen on it because we were already buying the Sorento but was willing to look at it at least.

On Monday I found out that the insurance cheque wouldn't arrive until next week or perhaps 3 weeks from now. The cheque is processed in Ontario and they've had a huge number of new claims come in within the past week. This really sucked because I knew the dealership wouldn't wait that long to close the sale so we'd have to either figure something else out or rent the car ourselves until the cheque comes. So now I was hoping the Caravan was as good as it was supposed to be.

So I left work early, went to check out the Caravan at Motor Sport Auto and was very very impressed. Whoever owned it before took excellent care of it, it was almost in mint condition, couldn't see any damage other than the windshield which was going to be replaced. It was (almost ) fully loaded and a Grand Caravan Sport with only 40K more km than our 2003 Caravan but in better condition mechanically and all around.

I told Mike we're still waiting for the insurance cheque so we don't know when we'll be able to get it but he said we could work something out. But we didn't need to because mom came to the rescue and said she'd loan us the $5K and just pay her back when the insurance cheque comes. What a mom, eh?

I had to tell Scott at Concept Kia we weren't going ahead with the purchase of the Sorento because of the insurance cheque and finding the minivan. They most likely weren't happy considering the amount of time they spent with us but we had to look out for ourselves first. A choice between owning a vehicle outright and having one on a $200/mo. payment over 6 years, I think the choice is clear.

Now we have the (almost) new minivan and I love it So far it's been awesome, no problems and the last time I felt like this about a car was when I had my 1989 MR2 Supercharged (I hated the new body after that). The only thing is that Anoop keeps saying "how's the van?" and "how it was a great deal" and that we "couldn't get it like that anywhere else". Hopefully sooner than later he'll stop - I think deep down inside he's not happy because if he'd known what the van was like he'd have gotten it for himself LOL

Hey Anoop thanks for finding us such a great minivan! Thanks Mom for lending us the money until the insurance cheque comes! Don't worry, I won't go and buy that new computer I've been waiting to get...I promise I'll give it to you when it comes LOL.

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