Which Ride ??

Work tonight. Almost done.

I had a fun weekend. On Saturday night, I went to a friend's house and we had a little gathering where much meat was burnt and eaten and much alcohol was consumed. We had House of Peers scotch we got from this liquor joint at 2 & half mile here. Yes, glorious cheapish liquor.

I also bought a CD last week. Artist "Funeral for A Friend" album title "Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation". It's emopunk. But unlike other emopunk merchants, this guys play with a refreshing complexity, with their clever hooks, guitar riffs & harmonies and tempo changes. And the fabulous use of twin pedals/twin bass drums !! All in the same song. It's great. Check this band out.

I'm thinking very deeply this week about something. I've decided it is time to blow 10 grand of my money on a major investment. A car.

But which one ? I have a criteria. It has to be cheap. It must be easy to maintain/mod. It must tolerate rough handling. Of course it must look good. After much arguing, finger pointing and raised voices amongst my well meaning friends, it is now between the 1.0 Perodua Kelisa GX (Manual) & the new edition Proton Saga 1.3 Aeroback.

I still can't decide. The Kelisa is a peppy and youthful car, plenty of excess power and suitable for driving around in heavy traffic and tight spaces. Plus being a teeny weeny car, it's easy to park. And it handles well too. The Proton is more buff, more sedan size. A bit less power relative to its size. Also the extra bits n pieces are quite nice. Larger muffler tip, alloy wheels, tuned & improved suspension, skirts and body styling. I quite like the nice rumble this car produces when running. Big potential, lots of room for modifications and customization.

I can't pick between the two. Both cars are sub-40,000 RM so I can afford either one. I can't really buy anything else either because of the cost or other issues. The Hyundai Altos is a bit too underpowered (and not very pretty). And there's the spares/maintenance cost issue. I can't buy a Kenari, because my brother just got one two weeks ago. What are we going to do with two of them ? Proton Wira ? Too expensive. Proton Gen2 ? A little too small in the back for its cost (60,000K). Very suspicious looking and the rule of thumb for Proton cars is "Never Buy the First Model". Better to wait for the improved second editions, where all the nasty bugs and quality issues have been fixed. And I can't wait.

I so wish I could get my Dream Car(TM), the Nissan Skyline R36. Now that would rock and instantly make me look 87.6% better and taller !! But at 300+ K, I'll never be able afford it anytime soon without resorting to some kind of illegal side-income. Sigh....

I'm going to check out both cars on Thursday when I'm not working. I hope I can decide by then. If everything goes to plan, I should be stuck in a traffic jam in my own car at the end of the month !! Yippppeeee !!!!