Finally - a car!

After a month living in DC and a month of renters, we finally bought a car on Sunday. Delay was related to need to have a local licence to get insurance and you can't drive a car off the lot without insurance.

It is an one owner white 2000 Subaru Outback with 54000 miles on the clock. Looked at newer ones but this one was best buy and had lowest mileage. Has ABS, airbags, air con, winter pack (heated seats, heated external mirrors and heated wipers) etc. Only thing that shows its age is the radio cassette. Did look at a 2002 Limited with 71000 miles, which I liked, for not much more but was going to take a couple of weeks and a lot of running around to transfer rego from Virginia to Maryland - worth a lot to have the dealer do that for us, esp when we don't understand the system here.

Arranged insurance yesterday (can't drive it off the lot without insurance!!) Only 6 month contracts here and quotes from $450 to $1400. Many companies are not prepared to cover us while Donna doesn't have a US licence, while others won't provide cover until we both have 3 years of US driving experience. The cheap one we signed up for gives us 30 days for Donna to get a local licence and we'll probably do that on Friday.

Picked it up at lunchtime yesterday. They detailed it and resprayed the rear bumper which had the odd mark from 7 years of parking and putting things in and out of the back

Then went to talk to some guys about a towbar (I mean a 'hitch receiver'!) to fit the bike rack. Can only get 1 1/4" hitches for Subarus while my bike rack needs a 2" hitch. Still thinking about whether to just install the towbar and buy an adaptor or buy some racks to carry the bikes on the roof. Both aren't ideal options.

Best Buy have a free same day install on CD players as long as spend $99 this week so went up to update the radio cassette. Bought a new deck but installation guy was so rude I took it back. Now thinking we might just buy a $20 cassette adaptor for my iPod to get us through the longer trips this year.

Suspect will be up for a new battery soon (it is 4 years old) but that's all that I can see wrong with it. Hopefully it won't break down and prove me wrong! Only has a 30 day 1000 mile warranty from dealer. Many seem to be fitted with new brake rotors around 70000 miles so hoping this one lasts out our ownership. Has had new pads fitted all round.

Didn't get a mechanical check as that is pretty well already covered in the Maryland rego transfer process which is basically a multipoint checklist that the car has to pass. Also has to pass an annual emission test which it did in May which again shows the engine should be pretty well ok.

Photos are here.


Malcolm [who is hoping he doesn't come to regret those positive words about the car ;-)]