“4 wheels and an engine please” (Buying a car in the holy land)

It has never occured to me to buy a new car.  Being the daughter of a mechanic, second hand cars were the only option ever on the cards.  In our family, the rule was a new car had to be at least half as old as you.  So naturally as a new olah, where we are trying to make savings, we didn’t even consider buying new.

So off we trot into the world of second hand cars.  Trust me, if this is a minefield in England, it’s 10x worse here. We are basically the foreigners just off the boat.  I mean, what are the chances of somebody not taking advantage of us???? We might as well walk around with a sign on our heads saying “PLEASE SELL US A LEMON”.  Anyhow, Husband went along to the dealers and was quoted a price, not so far below the price of a new car, for a car with 80,000km on the clock.  Makes no sense.  As new olim, we have been kindly given some money towards the purchase of a car, plus a discount on the tax which only applies to new cars, it actually makes more sense to buy new.

So for the first time in my life, I will be the proud (co-) owner of a shiny new sky blue Mazda 3.  Not that it will remain shiny for long.  The dust in this country causes most cars to look like desert jeeps after about 5 minutes.  It seems Israelis would prefer to spend their weekends at the beach rather than polishing their cars (I actually sympathise with this mentality – who wants to work all week with nothing but polishing your car to look forward to??) so seeing anything that gleams is a rare sight.  It seems Mazdas are the affordable and popular choice in this country, and the easiest to maintain.  Owning a BMW (even an old one) is a huge status symbol and they are almost impossible to source (much to Husbands disappointment), you see very few “novelty” or sports cars, and the reams of Mercedes once ubiquitous in this country seem to have all but disappeared.  Round here its Mazdas, Hyundais, a few Kias, some american cars and a sprinkling of VW’s.

We spent some time in the showroom  as like everything else here it seems the process of purchasing a car here is very different, as is buying insurance and all the rest of it… plus Jojo wanted to check out all the available models.  Funnily enough, Husband was concerned that Jojo would be bored – what a hilarious notion! Never seen him so happy.  After all he is a small boy in a room full of shiny new cars…  “Car! Car! Car!”  At one point I actually told the salesman they should open a all boys gan (nursery), they would make a fortune and they wouldn’t have to do anything.  Jojo was rather keen on the sports model as you can see (see picture on the left).

…but we explained that if we purchased that one we would have to leave him at home whenever we went anywhere.  Anyway, he insisted on checking our chosen car over thoroughly…. as you can see….

Now all that remains is for husband to pass his test.  Although we can drive for several years here on an international licence, to buy a car you need to pass a test here.  We have heard horror stories from many olim about this delightful process, so watch this space.