Bumped

Earlier this week, our new MPV got hit on the blind side. There was no injury, although Anita was a passenger at the time. The van man moving slowly along a narrow road when a lorry reversed into the left side.

It left us with a big dent and a gash. Police report was done and the van was now in the body shop for the next week. It looked like we had to borrow Anita's parent's car for the boy's school ferry. Sigh ....

Hello MPV

We received the delivery of the new Starex earlier this month, and since then Anita had been doing plenty of her own driving with it. In fact, she even drove all the way to Port Dickson last weekend!

It was an 11-seater "people carrier" with a diesel engine, spacious and hopefully also a fuel saver. And it was huge and took a bit of manoeuvring to get around tight spots and parking. I was also worry about blind spots during driving, but so far it had been handling very well. Much more nimble than the size suggested.

It did not have all the trimmings of the old Estima. The boot were manually controlled, and the power doors had to be installed as an extra. The alarm system was also pretty basic but it had the standard audio unit and a couple of screens, GPS - which was actually a Papa-Go unit - and nice seats. No sunroof though, something that I missed!

It had to be done however after counting the amount of money I had been spending on the old Estima doing repairs. The Estima was bought with limited warranty and it was not a brand new unit - one could not get one in Malaysia due to the good Government policy of protecting the local car manufacturers! So, even though it felt like a bit of a down grade, I was pretty happy with it! The main thing was the children and Anita loved it.

Good Bye MPV

Our Estima had been a loyal servant for the last 5 years. Unfortunately in the last year, it had been causing plenty of issues, and I had spent a lot of money fixing it. After much deliberation, we decided to let it go.

It was quite a spur of the moment thing, after Anita got fed up during one of the breakdowns. She went around looking for good offers and found that Hyundai offered the Starex as brand new units and it came with very good warranty package. Her mind was set ....

Season of Repairs

Not only that it was tax month, we were hit by series of needed repair as well. First of all, on return from dinner last night, our driver couldn't get the MPV to start. That happened the day before I went to Kota Kinabalu as well, and we got a local garage to have a look at it. Just a couple of weeks prior, we had some major repair done on the gearbox for the car which cost us a bomb.

So, back to the garage for the MPV. Hopefully the mechanic was responsible enough to see if what he had done before caused the current issue.

The next was a leak at the dry kitchen at the apartment. That would need a major job since the leak involved one of the kitchen cabinet islands. We had insurance for that, but hopefully the coverage would be enough to cover the work.

It hadn't been a good month this May, and it was only 10 days old! Hopefully my luck would turn ....

Lumut Trip Cancelled

Nope! It wasn't my fault. I did not plan it. The MPV was in the garage for the weekend for some major work. Cost us a bomb and we were glad to get the van back on Monday in time for the planned trip to Lumut on Tuesday. I would be left behind since I would be on call a couple of days this week. So, everything was fine at the beginning of the day, apart from Anita suffering from a slight sniffles. Even the boys went to bed early in order to get an early start for the drive.

At around noon, as I was finishing my morning clinic and waiting for admission at the Doctor's Lounge before lunch, I got a call from Anita. An hour out, and Tanjung Malim,smoke started coming from the engine and the temperature gauge went up. The stopped the car at a lay by and called in the mechanics and tow. But they would only be able to tow to the nearest highway exit. We would have to pay extra to get the van back to KL and the tow truck was too small to fit everyone in. Plus, there were no taxis at the lay by.

I got one of my colleagues to cover - thanks Nor Liza - and drove from Subang to Tanjung Malim and drove everybody back to KL. Our driver decided to drive the van slowly back to KL, and he everybody, including the van made it back to Gombak in one piece.

The van went straight back to the garage, and guess what? Everything checked out fine! Strange. The van did not give any problem on the drive back to KL not when the mechanic stressed the engine later.

Sadly, the trip was already cancelled, and I was on call, so the boys had to spend the time in KL. Not sure what the plan was for today. My mother-in-law might take a drive down to the apartment in Port Dickson instead. Anita was not feeling too excited to go as she was still carrying a cold. Idlan especially was disappointed. Had to make plans for tonight I think …..