05-April-08 Buying a Car

So, on this day, I went thru the process of buying a car. Up to this point, I had been renting a car, which is bloody expensive. In the UK, they also have BMW, VW, Nissan, Honda, Subaru, Toyota, Mercedes, etc. But they also have additional car makes that I'm only partially aware, such as Vauxhall (pronounced vox-hall), Peugeot (french), Opel, Megane, and a whole bit more.

I went to a Vauxhall dealer and then to a Volkswagen dealer. You can buy from independent car lots or from owners, but they don't provide as much guarantees to the vehicle. The salespeople are not as hostile or overpowering as in the US; it's much more on making sure there's a good relationship and you are getting what you want. I ended up getting a VW as I know more about the cars. Whereas in the US, the Jetta is the more popular, the Golf and Polo (both smaller cars) are better for fuel efficiency (I'll explain fuel prices in a future post) and room to drive on the small streets (again, I'll explain that in a later post).

You can choose between manual and automatic, but manual is the preferred. And cars come running on either petrol (unleaded gas) or diesel. I ended up choosing a 5-door (4 doors and a hatchback) automatic petrol-powered 2007 VW Polo.

And in a later post, I'll explain why you don't buy GREEN cars in the UK.