Kiki

im probably one of those crazy people who name their stuff/belongings just because. from our house (unayuki), to our cars (there was golpi - for golpi sarado, stuwart - for stupid wart, chloe - clio, ice - police, baxi - vauxhall, tere - the race).

i wanted to use "kiki" as a petname for our supposedly daughter (bec we're naming her kirsten). but since im pregnant with another boy and this is probably it, i decided to just use the name for my new car.

what... new car?! well, it's not actually brand new. it's second hand (we've never bought a brand new one bec we just think it's a rip off with the very expensive price tags when you can buy used at a more reasonable price - and they still look/work just as fine).

i have baxi, a 3d hatchback. she's been with me for 2.5 years, never had major problems whatsoever. but i have to let go of her bec my family is expanding and 3-door isnt really ideal if you have kids. if i didnt get pregnant, i wouldnt need to change cars since i managed with cayden. but with 2 kids, it's definitely a stretch. we have tere (a 7seater), which is supposedly tantan's car (but he's now cycling to work so we might consider selling her in the future) but it has manual transmission and i can only drive automatics.

Baxi

Tere

anyways, we're in no hurry to replace baxi. but just the same, tantan was on the lookout for possible replacements (ebay, autotrader). when i saw the features of the renault scenic, i told tantan, i dont want any other car but this - without even looking at how much the road tax and insurance cost are. come to think of it, my first car was a renault (clio) and it drove wonderfully until it had to be written off bec a stupid old man bumped me from behind. and then tere is also renault - so fingers crossed, kiki wont give us any major headaches.

this is the crazy bit. they say never ever buy a car you havent test-driven beforehand. kiki was being auctioned off on ebay. it was to end on a sunday (last sunday actually). the car is in surrey, about an hour from us. we wanted to see it on the saturday, but the seller was not available. the description was pretty ok (hpi clear, drives well, well maintained, etc). but of course, you couldnt be sure unless you see it for yourself. anyways, long story short, we decided to bid without even viewing it, but set a limit so that if there's any work needed to be done we'll still have extra money for the repairs. this car doesnt come with any warranty, at all! so we got lucky and won the auction! tantan said the poorest version of this car is still selling at around 800 more than what we bought it for. so not bad.

tantan collected the car earlier. based on the previous mot's, no major repairs were done. the engine sounds/drives good/well (based from our limited knowledge), the body is still in mint condition apart from some scratches on the bumper, it has all the space we need plus the features i wanted it for in the first place. it's a bit wider and a lot longer than my hatchback but i need not worry bec it has parking sensors! and tantan likes her bec it also has cruise control! it's quite loaded with features, it's driving me mad =D

Kiki

huge sunroof!

yup, that's the key!

you need to press the start/stop to turn on/off the ignition

i drove her when we went grocery shopping. im still a bit nervous driving her, im sure it will take some time to get used to. we're still keeping our fingers crossed that no major problem will come up anytime soon!

im going to miss baxi! but it's time to let her go.. selling her off in a week and im feeling really sad. hope we find her a good new owner!