Finally...............................

Have any of you lots ever play a game called “Waiting”? Yeah. That’s right. Waiting game. It’s damn bloody exciting, and yet sometimes it’ll make one pisses off. That is exactly what I was ‘playing’ for the past month.

Some of you might be curious on what kinda stuff am I ‘waiting’ for? Well, to be honest.. I’ve placed an order for a brand new vehicle, to replace my existing, yet reliable vehicle. So here goes the story.

It’s been almost 9 years since I got my current ride. It’s a 1.5L ride, which brings me travelled through the whole peninsular that I’m residing in. But, please also bare one thing in mind that it was a used car, which the previous owner ditched it ‘cos she was getting herself a higher-end vehicle. Coincidently, she sold it to my old man’s boss, who happened to be a used-car dealer. So much so for coincident, my old man was thinking that it was about time we should get our very own, very first vehicle, since I’m going to work on a daily basis & it’s gonna be on odd hours. After the whole process, we finally got ourself a used-car from that lady, who happened to be a tuition teacher. She only travels to and from her tuition centre which is about 15 minutes drive from her resident. Hence, the usage, the mileage was rather low taken into consideration that the car was already 7 years when I bought it. Yeah. 7 YEARS OLD USED CAR. But I gotta tell you lots that even though it’s 7 years old, but the condition of the vehicle both internally & externally are still in top notch.

Few years down the road, things started to came off. Could be the case of the vehicle getting aged. Problems start to occur on bi-monthly basis. This thing spoilt, gotta fix it, that stuff is no longer workable, gotta change it, and the lists go on & on.

So happen early last month, as I was having a decency to flip through the local newspaper [yeah, I don’t read newspaper. There’s a thing call INTERNET.] Apparently our local car manufacturer has come out with a promotion whereby all local-assembled vehicles that aged at least 10 years old, will have the benefits of trading it in, and get a rebates of five thousand. Under one condition, the 10-year-old-vehicle must still be functional, and you must purchase another local-assembled-vehicle from them.

How cool is that? I can get rid of my 16 years old vehicle, which is still fully functional, and get a rebate worth 5 thousand, and I can get a new car outta it at a cheaper than market price! This is like hitting 3 birds with only stone! Without further a due, I showed it to both my old folks, let ‘em consider it, and have their own little meeting before any final decision being made. It didn’t take them too long to think, as they were pressuring me to either get a new property, or to get a new vehicle. It’s either one. I’ve been thinking about the property ‘proposal’ from them but it’s just that everytime I thought about it, the one pain-in-ass-million-dollar-question is always the fucking location! The FUCKING LOCATION! My old folks like the current location a lot. All their friends, their relatives are used to this location after living in here for almost 20 years now. [Hmm, come to think of it, it’ll be exactly 20 years on this coming June. Yeap. 20 odd years!]

Rite. My little ‘proposal’ to change the 16-year-old vehicle got approval from both of ‘em within the next day. Therefore, I started running around looking for someone who are in this car dealing-wheeling industry to get the best deal outta it. And so, my beloved insurance agent recommended me his friend who is in this field, a part-timer it seems. ‘cos later I found out that this guy actually sings at the night at some open-air restaurant. Well, one would do lotsa things in life to make their life much more easier in the near, or far future. And his girl friend happened to act in one of the local tele soap drama. Yeah. You heard me right. Tele soap drama. A tele-celebrity. Not those big timers, but she’s good enough to have few minutes screen time here and there though. Yeap, she’s quite photogenic herself. Ok now. Onwards to the whole process of my car trading-in.

Early of last month, I drove my car to the dealer’s office, so that they can send the car for inspection, to certify that my car is stil fully functional. Once reached the office around 1pm, they said I gotta leave my car there for at least one day. I gave them a firm NO! ‘cos I gotta work on that nite. I told them this:

“I don’t give a damn what y’all gonna do with my car, just make sure that I get back this car by end of the day ‘cos I gotta work to nite!”

Hearing this, a process that takes at least ONE DAY, they managed to settle it within few hours. I got a call from the agent that I can collect my car around 7pm. See?! Why do they wanna drag it till tomorrow when they can, and able to do it within hours? Lemme tell you why: It’s about the mo-nay! That’s why. Yeap. It is a corrupted field. There’s nothing can be done unless you pay those bastards extras if you want it to be done ASAP.

So, after I sent the car for inspection to be carried out. I gotta wait for 2 weeks, which is a standardized time frame for such cases for the report of the inspection to be issued out to the agent. After that only I will be able to proceed with the car plate number and all those shit. But at the meanwhile, the agent didn’t waste anymore time. He requested me to submit all necessary documents so that he can send it up for loan application while waiting for the 2 weeks duration to pass by. Talk about efficiency eh?? And so I duly submit it, the very Monday after that. I can stil remember that the time I submitted those documents were somewhere around lunch time. When I got back to my home sweet home, I got a call from one of the local financial institution confirming on those documents’ details and all the normal procedures. Woah! This is speedy! And so everything went smooth as silk, you think? Nah, more to come. Read on.

2 weeks have passed. My agent told me that it’s about time we pay a visit to the local authorities if we wanna get myself my desired car plate number. There has been a change in local regulation on this one. The owner of the car must be present upon the payment of the car plate number purchasing. This is an effort to curb down any corruption that occurs in that area.

To be frank with y’all. The process of getting your desired plate number is goddamn easy. Just go there, sit down. Take a pen/pencil, write down 5-10 numbers that you would like to put it on your car, and wait for your turn to proceed to the counter. Then, the officer at the counter will circle whichever numbers that are still available, and also strike off any numbers that are not available. From there on, everything will be easy as peanuts. Pick your favourite number from the edited list, pay up. And off you go. With this simple process, it’ll save you at least 200 big bucks! And furthermore, you get to choose your desired number on the spot. Why not eh?

Rite. After I obtained the plate number purchase receipt from the officer in charge, I submitted it to my agent so that he can proceed with the car registration and after that, I can get my new car already. And the very next day, the deposit for the car purchase was issued to them in an effort to speed up the process even further.

Now this is where the pain comes in.

All the above process was done within 3 weeks’ time. My agent informed me that everything is ok. It’s the registration & the inspection report from the local authorities that is lacking, which is outta my hand. So, what more can I do but wait?

A week passes by. No news.

Another week has gone. I felt that something is wrong already. The agent said it shouldn’t take more than 2 more weeks for all those stuff to be finalized and getting my car ready for pick up. It’s the fourth freaking week already. Therefore, I called him up to enquire on the updates on it. apparently, they’re still waiting for the service voucher worth one thousand which I’m entitled to before registration. Strange. According to the advertisement, the service voucher will not have any effect at all when it comes to car registration. The vouchers will be issued separately by the car dealers themselves to the customers. But why is he telling me such? But heck, I’m an outsider. Without asking much, I waited. Another week has gone. It’s the 5th week.

Finally, I got a call from my agent couple of days back that I can collect my car already. Fine. But it has to be after 4pm. I told him that I couldn’t make it due to the fact that I will be working till late nite. Therefore I asked him if I can pick up the car today, Saturday. But it’s gonna be a public holiday today. After pausing few seconds, he said ok.

And the whole thing is solved. But one thing I learnt from this is that: it’s all about the mo-nay! If you want to collect your vehicle ASAP, you might wanna pay more to those mo-nay sucking local authorities so that they can release your vehicle faster, process your registration faster and everything can be done/finalize the soonest.

Phew! Here I am, enjoying my new ride. The process of waiting is painful, but like what one of my mates told me:” good things will come to those who have patience.” Well. She got a point. At least I saved few more bucks in return for my patience rather than paying those bastards more mo-nay for getting my new ride faster.

Anyone who wanna ride on my new ride? Buzz me in here. [LMAO]