Interest

Modifying our car has been hubby's passion. Perhaps I should say beautify because all that's been done only concern the appearance of the car (except for the speakers). He doesn't see the need to enhance its performance (phew!).. at least not now. At present stage, being able to drive 黑仔 is already more than we ask for.

Spot the difference?

See below for answers.

1) 6" sun shade on windscreen. Did it on the first Sunday in August at this shop in Ubi (opp TP station) which also did the car sticker for our Rio. The guy is favoredly called Johnson & well-known for doing Jackie Chan's car in one of the movies years back.

2) "Mugen-inspired" door visors. Purchased online (I think?) & DIYed by hubby.

3) Sports rim & low profile tires, up 1 size. According to hubby, it's for practicality too (more stable when cornering).

4) Covered the chrome strips, front & rear.

Still learning to appreciate hubby's interest. He's noticed I'm more & more receptive as compared to the first few times I came in contact with his ideas (with our Rio) & didn't understand why one must "zeng" his car.

Now I even discuss & comment with him about other cars. He's always been so supportive of my likes, it's just right for me to reciprocate.

Well, next in the list might be changing the head & tail lights to black altezza lights... that's if it's (1) approved & (2) available for our model which so far we can't find any (guess only for sporty cars?).

Car talks

So what happened to our Rio? There isn't any big problem for now. Though the engine is super quiet (so silent that sometimes we thought the engine had stalled), its suspension is bad. Hubby likes to use this description - it's like riding a mountain bike without suspension. Ouch.

There're also some funny noises here & there.... the mechanic had confirmed nothing's wrong during our last servicing but we still felt quite paranoid. Anyway a combination of few reasons that made us decided to let go of our Rio. Mainly the suspension & the resale value.

Here's something interesting. We volunteered to lend the car to June & Kelvin when we went to Melbourne since we wouldn't be using & it'd be more convenient for them to move around during CNY with Rylie. Apparently Kelvin was so impressed with its performance that, during that very week, they went to Hyundai & Kia to shop for an off-peak car. Fyi, he's someone who didn't believe in owning a car & June's been trying hard to convince him for the past 3 years.. he's always preferred the car-sharing system & in fact just renewed his membership about 2 months ago. But a few days after our return, June told us they've booked a Kia Picanto. So our Rio had served a good purpose before it resigned.

It seems a lil ironic that we're giving up the car due to some problems while Kelvin is attracted to it & hence getting one from the same make. But we all agree that it's justifiable to get a Picanto as an OPC. The wear & tear will definitely be slower than ours.

And it's a pure coincidence that Vince & his 2 older siblings are getting new cars around the same time. Constance has changed to a black Merc B-Class exactly 3 weeks ago. Ours later than hers by 1.5 week & June will be getting hers in less than 2 months. Constance, June & I just joked about it... especially for Constance & us as we didn't know each other's changing car.

Btw.. off-topic for a lil while. We're actually quite overwhelmed by how we're being recognised on the road. Singapore isn't big at all.. but the probability of running into the same person for more than once in a while (working or staying near each other not counted) is not high. Yet for us, very often we received calls from friends who happened to spot us on the road. "Why are you at xxx??" was a very common question asked. So much so that once the hp rang (when we on the road) we'd prepare ourselves to be "interrogated". Hmm.. for sure we couldn't do anything bad (not that we would though) nor siam anyone with our Rio, haha.

Airwave

Our new car of 11 days :)














We 1st saw a Toyota Wish in a roadshow. But it's beyond our budget plus we don't need that kind of space, at least not now. We'd a conversation with this salesman, Alvin, & found him sincere & helpful. He's efficient in following up with us & as we got a very good resale price (for our Rio), we decided to go down to their showroom. There, we bumped into Vince's cousin. What a surprise! And apparently the both of them are close colleagues. Ha!

We both like black, white & red cars. Our 1st choice was actually white... would change to crystal lights too, if there are. Should look very nice. But we're told we gotta top up $2k (only for white) as they claimed to be using a very unique Pearly White that costs more. So nope, we dropped white. If we really want it en blanc in the future, we can always go & spray yet pay much lesser. Then red.. we both think this model doesn't look outstanding in red. Thus red is also out.
So, black it shall be... but diligence will much be needed in the upkeep. Actually same for white.

黑仔 should be with us for a long time so we hope it'll be a hardy "boy" ~fingers crossed~

Say bye-bye to our Rio.

our car

Loophole !!

Our less than 2-month old car is hospitalised. We felt terribly angry & unjust!

Hubby has been careful with his driving but apparently not all the drivers are so! Last Wed morning he sent me to my office as usual & was on his way to his. He's somewhere near his office when he stopped at a junction, in the right most lane, waiting to turn right. Then came this idiotic driver with his lorry next to hubby's. As the lane the stupid man was in didn't allow him to turn right, he cut into Vince's lane without checking how near our car was. And before my honey could react, his lorry had already hit our left front!!! What a blind & reckless man!

Our poor car's left eye dropped out, with some other injuries.... that driver admitted it's his fault & suggested to bring our car to his brother's garage & he'd pay for the damages. Initially we're not comfortable with this arrangement as it's a brand new car so we preferred to have it repaired by C&C. But when hubby brought the car to C&C to assess, our jaws nearly dropped upon hearing the total estimated costs 44 $4k+!! And the bad news was the guy who assessed our car said from the damages it could not be determined the fault entirely lied with that idiot. So if we were to claim insurance, we might not be able to get full compensation if the culprit denied being at fault. It could be 50-50 or 40-60 or even 30-70. It's definitely not good for us as the newly insured. And we'd been advised by our agent that if the other party's insurance was from a particular insurer (which I'm not going to say here), it's worse as they'd fight till the end to avoid compensation. Furthermore when that idiot knew we intended to bring it back to C&C, he said his lorry belonged to his company who had already told them to bear all accident compensation. Then he told us he'd no $$ to pay for $4k+ & said we would most probably not be able to get the claim. Whereas at his brother's, he would bear all repair costs. So he's indirectly threatening us that he'd not admit it's his fault if we bring it to our insurer!? But what can we do???

Many passed different comments - like taking photos (well... we may, touch wood!, do that next time round but how effective is the evidence?) / should go ahead & claim his insurance (but we don't dare to take the risk!) / bring to our own trustable garage (he already said he'd NO MONEY to pay other than his bro's as he could pay by instalments). We asked around & every1 said there's no way to guarantee that we'll win the case unless damages are obvious, like hitting the rear or perhaps somewhere near the rear, then chances would be high.

We're in such a fix.... wanted our car to be properly repaired but were also considering the consequences if we go ahead with the insurance claim.

Finally after much discussions in less than half an hour, we decided to endure the immense anger & brought our car to his brother's garage. It's not wise to fight with him at this point of time. What if he decides to shake off the responsibility? The following day when we admitted our car, the brother said that younger bro of his had no $$ so no choice he'd have to help him. So I told him since he'd no money, he would better drive carefully! Really irresponsible!

It's just so unfair!! Many around us shared their experiences... some being victims like us, some were the culprits. Apparently we're not the only 1 which made us feel a lil better.

So we've to tell ourselves to look on the bright side : (1)The biggest consolation is my hubby's safety. He's not hurt at all & I really thank God for that. (2)It's better than a hit-&-run case. (3)At least he provides us a car for the time being, though it's a 10 y.o+ Corolla.

Guess it's part & parcel of driving.... But as long as my honey's safe & sound.

In our car

Our Rio

Ta-da....! This is our looong-awaited new car! Yeah!

Our 1.4 sporty Rio. It's not an expensive car, in fact it's 1 of the lowest range but we're contented & very thankful. For the moment, we just need a vehicle to move around & this is already more than what we initially hoped for. Moreover it doesn't look cheap at all.

The color. Is it grey? Is it blue? Answer is - Olive Grey. Sounds interesting huh? It sure looks interesting too as it's supposed to be grey with a tint of golden shimmer, so (just like the sales staff, Mich, told us when we're choosing the colour) under the sun, we'll see our car in grey with a bit of gold especially the top, but other times it looks blue... & sometimes more grey. Almost every1 who'd seen our car was confused yet impressed by its chameleon-like look.

The story behind. Yes we've waited a good 3 months+. When we 1st placed order, we chose an auto, red 1. But we couldn't even smell that it's coming after cny...
Actually during the wait, we're harboring a lil doubts on whether we'd made a wrong decision in getting an auto car at this point of time. Sure it's more relaxed & convenient to drive an auto car but fuel consumption will be higher too. And around the same time, thank God we just happened to call 1 of the showrooms & got to know there's a shipment arriving in about 2 days' time but contained only manual cars. We quickly contacted Mich to see whether we could change to a manual 1 instead. Within the day, Mich came back saying they did have a few units on hand but no red car. As the remaining limited units were going very fast too, we quickly booked a white. Good thing the following day's a Sat, so we went down to settle all the documentation matters. But after looking at the white 1, I didn't like it & we wanted to take the black instead. However by then the black was taken too. Wow, going very fast indeed. So we're left with olive-grey & orange. Orange?? eh... NO for me & hubby. Problem was no viewing of olive-grey car in the showroom & only Rio has that color, no other models. After much hesitation & consideration, we finally made a daring move & chose our Olive-Grey without ever seeing 1 before.

So forget about RED, perhaps save it for our next car? Or till then depending on the evolution of our preference? For now, we've fallen in love with our O-G at 1st sight. Hmmm...