4 years without a car

When I first moved to Brisbane I decided against getting a car, still fresh with living in London thoughts of not needing a mode of transport. I lived in Spring Hill and had public transport, why would I need a car? I managed in London without one for two years... of course, London transport is significantly better than what Translink offers. I did okay living so close to the city and working in the city or city fringe areas, I even walked to and from Milton when I worked down that way - it was great exercise and I didn't have to worry about paying for insurance or registration or the increasing price of fuel.

However, after four years I had decided what I would gain back with a car was time—where it would normally take me 10-15 minutes to get somewhere via car, it would take me at least 40-60 minutes via walking and public transport. And since none of my friends have the ability to appear anywhere on time, it also meant I had a lot of waiting around time for people too rude to show up when arranged.

I'm also someone who likes to go out and explore other suburbs and while I managed some of this via public transport, there was none of the 'jump in the car and go far south, or north or east' as I used to do back in my Perth days.

So I started looking for an affordable secondhand car, but I couldn't find one that was what I wanted or didn't require some work. I wasn't interested in a project. I didn't want to buy a fifteen year old car and spend months getting it up to scratch. I just wanted something I could drive straight away without any fuss. Eventually, it dawned on me I should just buy a new car—I'd never owned a new car and well, why not? I'm earning more money now than I've ever earned in my life, I'm doing a job I like and want to keep going with long term, it's a little inconvenient to park on the street in Spring Hill, but my rent hasn't increased by some miracle in two years and I'm happy to stay here, the boy has extra parking at his place—it all seemed to be working out fine.

So I got my ex-Mazda dealer dad to suss out some deals for me, because of course, I'm a Mazda car person and always will be. They're just a fantastic car (I would go into a rant about why, but that's a whole other entry). He managed to get me a great deal in Mackay—and even with flights up, fuel and driving back I was still better off than buying direct here in Brisbane.

After much running around with the bank (getting contracts signed, finding JPs, transferring monies etc), who said I passed a loan application with flying colours, I secured my new car and made plans to get up to Mackay with the boy to drive the new green machine back home. :)

Twelve hours of driving and it's sitting outside my little art deco unit waiting for my council parking permit so it can stay there every day without fear of a fine. ^_^ So exciting! Back in the wheels again.