16 September, 2000



We went and looked at a car today. It was an Audi GT Coupe, (just like in the picture above, but white).

A week ago, we went to a locksmith's to get duplicate keys made for the apartment. While I was waiting for the keys, I picked up a paper ("zhoornal") to glance at it. It was called "Le 06" (luh zaro seece), and contained classified ads for lots of stuff. There was an ad for a 1985 Audi GT Coupe. It looked perfect, and the price was only 11,000 francs ($1527). If the car was any good at all, it would easily sell for $3000 in the states, so I was excited.

I called the number in the ad, just to ask where they were located. I was going to call Gabrielle, our landlord, and ask if she'd inquire about the car, but I didn't want to waste her time if it was too far to go look at. I said "Allo! (hello) Bon Soir (good evening) Ou vous habitez? (where do you live)?" The reply was a town quite near by, plus a lot of incomprehensible French. I just said "Au revoir" and hung up.

I called Gabrielle and asked her to call. She called me back a few minutes later and said "It's best just to forget about it. The owner is a gypsy, and the car probably is stolen. You must buy a car from a dealer." Only, in not quite such good English. I was quite disappointed.

Then, I met Fred (see last update) who said that one should always buy a car privately. He called, and said that the car seemed legitimate. So today we went to look at it. It's a great car, perfect for us. It's super easy to drive, in gorgeous condition, and quite powerful. The driver has put new tires and wheels, a new suspension, repainted it white (was metallic maroon). All in all, more than I could have hoped for.

In talking to Fred about it, he said that the owner, who spoke no English, said that we were the only people to call in a long time. Apparently no one is interested in such an old car. Indeed, one sees very few cars more than about 8 years old on the streets. Also, it is quite a powerful car, and thus has much higher registration and insurance rates.

The way that it works is: when you sell a car, you are supposed to get inspected. This is called the "C.T." or "Control Technic". It is a basic check of the functioning of the car, to ensure that it is in good condition. It is not a complete, in-depth checkover. Thus, when you see cars for sale, they will often say "C.T. OK" meaning that it has passed the inspection. This car has not been inspected. The owner will take it on Monday or Tuesday to have it inspected. If it passes, which it should, we will buy it that evening.

Once you buy a car, you have 15 days to re-register it. The registration is 300FF multiplied by the number of horsepower. There is an official number of horsepower, only loosely related to what the actual horsepower of the engine is. A small commuter car might be rated at "4 horsepower". A medium, family type car might be rated at 7 or 8. This car is rated 11. In addition to the registration costing double the normal, the insurance will also be much higher. However, there is a (we hear) 50% discount available for people with clean driving records, which both of us have.

So anyway, we're excited about getting a good deal on a really great car.

An aside: on the way back from looking at the car, we stopped at a McDonald's clone called Hamburger Restaurant (creative name!). It was fascinating in two respects. First of all, the woman who served us had a tag on her shirt that said "Ass Man" (with no punctuation). The part saying "ager" was covered up. I pointed this out to Fred (who thought it was hilarious), and he asked the woman what an Ass Manager was. She was not amused. Fred is about 42, has two delightful kids and a delightful Japanese wife named Atsumi.

The second interesting thing was that they have a climbing wall for kids, about 4 feet wide and 7 feet high. It is basically a vertical conveyor belt with holds screwed into it. It has an infrared sensor at the bottom, and as long as nothing is blocking the light sensor, the belt keeps moving slowly down. Thus, kids can climb on it, and as long as they keep climbing, the belt keeps recycling. If they get behind, they trip the IR sensor and the belt stops until they get up above it again. It was really cool, and popular with the kids.

That's all for today...