Car Shopping

Ted’s been hard at work trying to find us a used car.  He’s been researching cars online, which is harder than it sounds because the web sites are in Japanese.  It’s a very good thing that he has so many people willing to help him. 

Last week one of his Aikido friends went with him to the local Subaru dealership to look a Forrester. In the plus column it had very low mileage, there were no dents or dings, and a roof rack could be added.  In the minus column, it was previously owned by a smoker and it didn’t come with snow tires.

Today, he was looking online with the help of one of his students and found a Subaru Legacy Wagon at a dealership in another town.  Someone from the dealership drove it to Ted to test drive! The car was clean and had low mileage, plus it has a sun roof, snow tires, and remote start. I looked at it and sat in the passenger seat in the parking lot. I’m only going to be riding in it, so that’s all I need to do.

The owner of the Indian restaurant and Ted’s coworker are also helping with advice on what and where and how much. We're not in a big hurry and besides that Ted is waiting for the snow to melt so he can practice driving. Ted was surprised to find out that once you decide on a car, it takes two weeks to get all the paperwork done to actually buy the car. I don’t know what that is all about.

This is the last vehicle Ted owned in the US, a Nissen truck.  It was made by a Japanese company, bought by an American who sold it to a Japanese guy in the US, who sold it to Ted, his American friend.