The Bub in the Belly

Anyway, I must share our big news. We bought a new car! I just collected her yesterday. She is just beautiful...


But wait, I have to rewind in order to tell the story properly.

We have been meaning to trade in our two-seater convertible for quite a long time but with car prices going through the roof, we kept putting it off. Lately, we've become more focused and two Sundays ago, we decided to visit some of the car showrooms to see what we could do about it.

We aimed to visit Audi, Mazda and Volkswagen. We were considering buying an SUV and I was thinking of the Audi Q5 but that was letting the heart rule the mind because I knew that there were cheaper and more sensible alternatives. We would be getting some cash from trading in the convertible but it was a long way away from paying for a Q5. That was actually the reason why I asked Richard to stop by the Audi showroom first - so I could cross it off the list.

As things turned out, Audi was having a promotion that weekend - exceptional overtrade on your car if you picked up an A6. So when the sales executive found out that we had an A4, he introduced us to the A6. I had not considered the A6 but when we climbed into the showroom model, we fell in love with it instantly. But the thing that sealed the deal was the exceptional overtrade. And by exceptional, I do mean exceptional. Audi offered to buy the A4 from us for just S$15,000 less than what we paid for her four years and four months ago. It was an incredible offer and, really, a no-brainer. If you need a sales executive at Audi, let me know and I'll put you in touch with ours!

We went over to Mazda and Volkswagen to see what they would give us for our convertible but, as the Audi offer was only valid for that weekend, we decided to do the trade-in for the A4 that day and leave the convertible for another day.

Coincidentally, our A4 had gotten into a scrape on the Friday evening before that weekend. A blue Suzuki Swift coming the wrong way down a one-way street went ski-ing off a corner of our car. It was nothing serious but, at Audi prices, it would still cost quite a lot to repair. At this point, I have to mention that there was barely any turbulence inside the A4 when it happened and I wasn't even sure that the two cars had made contact - the A4 is a really strong car!

Anyway, Audi was willing to buy our A4 without us having to repair it! So that was also a factor that helped make our decision really easy. I guess I have to thank the driver of the Suzuki Swift. The scrape turned out to be a real blessing in disguise. I've seen her car parked at the same location, repaired and shiny again, but she never contacted me after the incident, despite me sending her some messages.

The grand finale? We bought the A6 on Sunday and, on Monday evening, the Singapore government announced severe restrictions on motor vehicle loans, which would be effective for all private vehicles bought on or after the next day. Audi revised their prices up slightly for their new cars. Used car prices came down.

So we were incredibly lucky with the A4/A6.

The restrictions are apparently temporary but, even if they apply to our next purchase, it is unlikely that we will be adversely affected because, with the A6 in our stable now, we need only to pick up a small (and cheap) car in exchange for the convertible.

The only possible blemish on this episode was that we didn't retain the A4 registration number. We wanted to start on a clean slate but it would have been nice to have kept the number because the three letters on the A4 registration are Ryan's initials (a coincidence). Having said that, we're happy with the new number and we can find a way to make it up to Ryan in the future!

I collected the car yesterday and when Ryan got into the car for the first time, he said very carefully, "I think there's something wrong." Hahaha! Yup! It's not an A4!

Anyway, we are going to spend the weekend driving up and down the expressway - honk if you think you see us!