Car Blues

My new car arrived on 21st February 2001. It was a long wait, almost 3 months. I finally had to get one because my latest job was situated quite far away from where I was living at the moment and I refused to shift. If I relied on the public transport like I always did, it would take me close to 2 hours to get there.

What model is it? Well, it is a Proton Iswara 1.3, metallic dark grey in colour and the registration number was picked by the salesperson whom I never want to do business with again.

Before it arrived, I was driving Samantha's (my sister) car, a Kenari and it had power steering, quite unlike the Iswara so don't be surprised if you see me wrestling with the steering wheel.

In fact, I had become quite comfortable with the Kenari although I disliked it at first. It looked too much like a box (some say coffin!). My boyfriend, Anderson disliked it at first too until he saw me driving it. He said I looked so cute in it and that the car now looked like a bird. I had to remind him several times that it was my sister's and mine is an Iswara.

The first time I got the car going, I thought there was something wrong: the car was noisy! Well, to me it was. Every time it went over a bump, there would be a squeaking sound. I told every one there was a mouse living in my car.

Before it was a month old, it started giving me headaches as well as heartaches but then it didn't hit me so hard because the car was a utility for me after all, not a luxury item for status purposes (well, I paid almost RM40K for it).

One morning, I got up bright and early to go to work but who should delay me but MAR, my trusty steed. I switched on spray wiper to clear the back windscreen but nothing came out. I pressed it again, twice and this time, water did come out, right onto my right foot from somewhere below the dashboard near the steering wheel. Yikes, it was pouring onto my foot! I had to go get a cloth to mop up the water. The shops were not open at this time and I had to get to work. I decided to go after work. The water leaked out once in a while and it was worse after work especially after being left in the hot sun. The water was almost boiling hot!