My Car: No Regrets

In February of this year, I bought my first car. I bought a brand new Holden Barina sedan for $15 990. I had been planning to save for around six months before buying a car but soon became desperate and found a great deal. I’ll back up just a little.

Around mid-way through last year, my older brother was deployed to the Gulf with the Navy. It was a seven month deployment and, instead of leaving his car in a parking garage for that long, he gave it to me, with the understanding that I would keep it safe and running. I was eternally grateful! I had been managing without a car for two years and it was really beginning to get to me. I would often volunteer to be designated driver, simply so I could borrow someone’s car to do errands the next day. The city I live in is very small and only has a bus service- which is eternally unreliable.

Once I had my brother’s car, I was free! I couldn’t believe I had ever lived without one. I really enjoyed having it and it made life a lot easier. He returned home in January and thus, needed his car back. I spent two weeks back at uni and almost died without a car! I couldn’t stand it! Fortunately, I then went home for two weeks for the remainder of my Christmas break.

Whilst there, I went car shopping with my little sister. Not for me but for her. She was undecided as to what she wanted to buy so we went and looked at a number of different makes and models. She finally decided on a car, a Mazda 3, and left with my parents to purchase it. I stayed home with my younger brother, surfing my favourite PF blogs and watching a movie with him.

A few hours later, my sister and parents returned. My sister had in fact purchased a new car but it wasn’t the one she had set out to buy. Instead, she had bought a Holden Barina sedan. Basically, Holden were having a sale where you could buy the sedan for the same price as the hatch back. Both my sister and I disliked hatch backs but were appalled with how much extra it was to buy a sedan.

She was absolutely gushing as she showed me the brochure and talked about the car. I really liked the look of it, the features of it and the price. I seriously considered buying one. I thought it over for a couple of days and then, on the day I was flying out, I went down to the dealership with my mum and sister and test drove the car. And yes, I fell in love with it.

I filled out all the paperwork and bought it that day. I had quotes from both my bank and credit union for a loan but, as it turned out, the dealership dealt with a bank that had a much lower interest rate. It was one of Australia’s top five banks so I was comfortable financing my car through them. I know it seems like I rushed into this and it’s true, I did, but I definitely haven’t regretted it, not even for a second!

I read everywhere that you should never take a loan for a car and you should never buy a brand new car. However, this was my first ever car and to be frank, I didn’t have the cash. I plan to drive this car until it falls apart and I will buy my next used vehicle with cash. But for now, I refuse to regret my purchase, I absolutely love it!