I've never cared about cars. They were purely functional for me. I enjoy a nice care, but I was never the kind of person that dreamed of owning a specific type or a new car. It wasn't worth the investment to me because I didn't know enough about anything, let alone maintaining a car. I figured my father and brothers cared enough about cars for me.
Since moving to Turkey I've learned some. I used to think all the small cars here were pathetic -which is another embarrassing revelation into my prejudices and subconscious that actually did seem to care. Then again, I never saw a car in America that had trouble going up a hill.
We currently own a 2013 SEAT Leon with 1.6 engine and turbo something. My father's motorcycle has more horsepower, way more, than our car. The reason I know these things because taxes on a car's price are big at purchase, and then paid yearly as well - and this tax correlates with the size of the engine
Tolga talks about cars a lot. This is how he processes our next big purchase. He used to make me panic, thinking he was already wanting a new car because he would say sentences like: this is the car for us. And my mind would immediately panic about the cost and loans and crashing a new car that costs he equivalent of an apartment. But then I realized that while he says "this is the car for us" its more like a test drive of words. And over the last couple of years, he's gone for a bigger version of our car. Even before I was pregnant with Tuana - we were already talking about which cars could fit three car seats across the back:
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| SEAT Leon station wagon |
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| SEAT Altea XL |
When I mentioned these cars were not cool at all - he started looking at these:
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| Freelander 2 |
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| Fiat Freemont |
I didn't even know what an MPV was (multi-person vehicle - but I'm not sure where the phrase came from or why certain cars are assigned this title - I just agree with the one critical review common: no one aspires for an MPV) But, we soon started looking at seven-seaters (because I finally interjected - what do we need a big car for if it simply carries the exact same amount of people?)
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| SEAT Alhambra |
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| Nissan X trail |
Tolga started taking me to car dealerships right after Tuana was born. I went along to support his excitement, never thinking we'd actually buy one. It's been hard for me to focus on, or even think about cars other than I'm pretty sure my cramming the three kids in the back right now is counteracting the built in safety measures of cars and car seats. I never wanted to be a van mom - but I suddenly find my almost-40-year-old self and my definitely-40-year-old back loving these bigger and higher vehicles. I just couldn't justify commuting to work in one of these monsters - because that is what they feel like here - so out of place in tight parking lots and two-lane roads changed to five lanes by Turkish drivers. It seemed the smaller car type was for us, for now. The Toyota has a five year warranty and high resale value.
This morning - Tolga bought the Toyota. Functional, small but lots of seats, boring - but fits our needs. We will be selling our car for almost the same amount that we bought (the one win for the Turkish Lire's deflation) and taking out a loan. Lending practices in Turkey are considered predatory in America - but the loan isn't as much as the other fancier cars, and we own't need to start paying until 6 months later (which I realize is common practice in America but rarely found here).
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| Toyota Verso - the winner |
So our cars been ordered. It will be made and delivered with 0 km on it. As we say in Turkish: Hayırlı olsun - may it have a good outcome.
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