New Car

Wow, I’m so excited now! I finally got my first car in my life! It’s a 2021 Toyota Corolla LE Upgrade. Though it took some time to process all the paperwork and other things, I finally picked it up today.

So when my girlfriend came to Waterloo in December, we decided to have some lessons for G2 test and then buy a car. After the lock-down order in January, I registered a G2 test on March 22nd and started learning how to drive an automatic car in February. Though I have a Chinese driver lincence, the classes and the tests I took were all about manual transmission. Well, it’s not hard to drive an automatic car if you have the experience. It’s just too long for me to remember how to drive since the last time I drove a car was the summer of 2019. My coach gave me 2 lessons about driving and parking, and 3 pre-test trainings, then I passed the G2 test on Monday. And Mei also passed her G2 test on Thursday!

We started searching for cars from Tuesday. At the beginning, we were looking for some pre-owned cars. Then we found that if we lease a new car, it won’t cost too much more than a pre-owned car. Also we have no experience on buying a car or driving a car, so it’s a little hard for us to choose a good pre-owned car. If you want to buy a good pre-owned car, you need to check the certificate, the history, and maybe the engine of the car, which is too much for us. So we gave up pre-owned cars in just one day and began looking for a new car.

It is quite easy to narrow the list, since we are not rich. We focused on Mazda 3, Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and Nissan Sentra. Nissan Sentra is cheap, but it’s also “fragile” and light, which made us concerned about its safety. Mei likes the appearance of Mazda 3, but it’s too expensive. Civic or Corolla is a tough choice for many people as we saw a lot of posts and video online. Our coach owns an auto repair shop and he told us that Civic has a higher accident rate than Corolla, which helped us to make the final decision. (Actually we prefer Civic’s appearance lol.)

On Friday, we contacted almost 20 dealers from Waterloo to Scarborough, and there were 5-6 dealers replied us. We spent the whole day bargaining with them and picked two dealers: one in Waterloo and one in Markham. We went to the dearler in Waterloo on Saturday and even called the dealer in Markham during the discussion. It was a difficult decision since the dealer in Markham provided one free service and they have the car in stock while we cannot get the free service in Waterloo and they didn’t have the new car here. At that time, we just thought it’s too complicated to go to Markham and we haven’t seen him in person, so we accepted the offer in Waterloo. Well, since the price offered is the same, the difference is not that “significant”. So we paid a deposit on Saturday. We made another appointment to sign the contract on Monday since it was almost their closed time.

Then we really want to complain about the speed and the efficiency. We asked about materials we need to bring before Monday but no reply, and on Monday they told us we need to prepare some documents. Then we went there again on Wednesday and signed the contract. However, they said we can lease for 3 years on Saturday but on Wednesday they said my study permit can only support me for a 2-year lease. After that, we waited for another 6 days and got the information that the car will arrive on Wednesday and the pick-up date will be told soon. The fact is our sales then took a 3-day off and replied our email until this Monday. So we finally got our driver’s licence and our new car in 3 weeks. I would say this experience is very interesting and when we drove the car back home, it’s so exciting!

For the next few months, I have a poster presentation for EURING on June 8th. There is no update about SSC but I found my abstract disappeared today. I’m not sure what’s that mean. And I’ll fly back to China after all the conferences in June. I’m planning to make some videos during the quarantine period (21 days if not changed at that time).

Keep healthy everyone!!!