Time to move away from public transport and I can hardly wait. Olof and I are reconciled to the fact that we are, quite frankly, car people.
While it is fun and amusing to take buses, trains and even ferries everywhere, and rather efficient most of the time, we are all tired of waiting at bus stops.
Initially we thought we would wait until we moved into our new house to buy a car, since there really is no great need yet, but after what seems like hours spent waiting for buses and trains, we decided the time is now! So we have been tackling the car market.
This has not been as easy as we thought it would.
Olof is no stranger to buying used cars, even buying used cars in Europe. I would almost call it a hobby of his, not the buying per se, but the perusing of what is available. Perhaps even the fantasizing about what to buy could be called a hobby?
Actually the car buying process began while we were still in Davis. Olof spent numerous hours checking out all the German made cars and researching which would be most fun to drive on the autobahn (BMW hands down) vs. which would be the most cost effective (NOT BMW, sorry Olof).
So we thought we were fairly prepared to buy something once we decided the time was right. We settled on getting a VW Passat, not too old, not too new, and looked at all the dealers within 20-50 kilometers radius. There seemed to be a lot to choose from in our price range, pretty easy so far, all thanks to the internet (i.e., my lifeline).
First step, we sent out email inquiries to a few interesting prospects. While in the states this would result in a flood of responses, here we heard nothing back. Ok, so perhaps it was the English that stopped people.
Next we decided to go in person to a dealer whose website showed having several Passats to choose from. If anyone has ever been to a car dealer, used or new, in the States, you know how popular you can feel. Two or three sales guys come rushing at you as soon as you show any interest. Test drive, no problem. Ask questions, no problem. Chit chat, wheel and deal, and you are out the door with a car. So far we have not managed to meet any salespeople at all.
When we got to the dealership, last Saturday, the one guy who was there seemed very uninterested in showing us anything. He told us the salesman was on vacation and may or may not be back the following week. He certainly was not over eager to sell us anything.
After that Olof tackled the market over the phone, calling dealers all around Bonn and beyond. Many of the cars shown on the internet were apparently not actually at the dealership, but "in transport". This did not sound promising.
Because of his persistence, Olof did actually get to test drive a car last week. It seemed great, but we still felt it would be better to at least compare it with one other car live and in person. We ended up having a comical weekend searching out two other vehicles in outer-lying areas of Bonn, with absolutely no results. Though we did make a great trip out of it all, which ended up with a beautiful boat trip on the Rhein from the quaint town of Linz, back to Bonn.
To wrap up this rather mundane blog post, we have decided to go with the one car we have actually physically gotten to sit in, with the confidence that we have done the best we could. As I say more often than not these days, it is all part of the adventure kids…
Since our weekend was much more fun than just searching for a car, the pictures at the top of the page are from our visit to Linz and the tantalizing treats that we indulged in. Note the grim faces on the kids - they were demonstrating how criminals were measured against the wall in medieval times (not convinced by us that the measuring posts were to mark the river levels).
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