Perry's Blog

Our trusty Festiva was nearing another registration and the clutch was getting pretty desperate and so we asked ourselves the question: "Would it be better to get the clutch done and keep the Festiva another year (and get the house paid off); or would it be better to borrow from the mortgage and get another car now (and have the house paid off later)?"

We did our sums and it was a little cheaper to keep the Festiva, but it did carry the risk that if it didn't last the full 12 months without spending extra money that it would have been cheaper to buy another car now.

We decided that unless the perfect car came along, we wouldn't worry and we'd take the risk and therefore get the house paid off first. Personally I was much happier with getting rid of the mortgage sooner; somehow Sandi interpreted it to mean that she was to go out shopping in search of the perfect car, which of course is what happens when you start to look

So I came home one night to a very excited Sandi saying that she had not found just one perfect car, but she'd found three... and a couple of others that'd be OK

Sandi had definitely found a good car: just 12 months old and only 9,000 km on the odometer and it was a Hyundai company car, so all the services were done; in fact it still had four years of its factory warranty to go! And Sinclair Hyundai were going to give us a trade in on our basically worthless Festiva to bring the total price under $14K and pay the registration transfer fee too.

So, before my eyes and without wanting it to happen, the Festy quickly morphed into our new Getz: