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Words of Wisdom

In life, we have to choose between the jeans and the cookie jar. Liz Hurley chose the jeans and I chose the cookie jar

~ Nigella Lawson....(on women's body image and her own voluptuous body)

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

How tiny I am in the hands of the powers-that-be..... :-(

scrapped car

Malaysian Government want us to do this to our beloved old cars!

Photo from Winchester City Council Operation Scrap It

Something happened today that woke me up to the reality of living and how powerless I am.

I got a reminder from the bank to renew my car insurance in March. The deadline is 19 June. So, today I went to the bank as I had always done before to get it renewed.

I was shocked when I was turned down. The reason being my car was too old. To add insult to injury, a FAT lady standing next to me laughed at me like I was some kind of a villager from a remote jungle who had no idea of the world and how it worked. I felt like yelling to her face, "Oy, nobody asked for your opinion, you fat b****h!"

It struck me in the head how naive I am about the grip that the powers-that-be actually have on little people like me.

Last year, when the economy started to go downward, the car sellers started to complain to the government about not making sales and lobbied to have the cruel system of forcing any car older than 15 years to be scrapped. Meaning all car owners in Malaysia would need to replace their car every 15 years regardless how good you take car of the car or how much you love it.

I know there are many people who see cars as 'things'. I'm one of those who don't. I see the car I drive as a reflection of my life and personality. My car is everything that represents me. So what if it's already 17 years old? It's of a much higher quality than many of the newer cars nowadays.

Even at 17 years of age, the body is sturdier than most of the local cars. The dashboard doesn't vibrate 'violently' on rough tracks. It's fuel efficient, smooth and even with its quite expensive spare parts, they last long.

I never thought that the 15-yr car ruling would affect me. They said it's optional. So I guess people like me and lovers of classic cars would be able to continue with our passion. Man, I was so wrong!

If no banks would renew insurance for cars older than 15 years, the owners wouldn't be able to renew the road tax either. Meaning their cars couldn't be legally driven on our roads. So, that's what they meant with 'optional'. You can opt to keep your car but that's all there is to it. You keep the car. Nobody said anything about you being allowed to drive it!

Shocking? Yes. At the moment, I'm very very angry.

How easy for the powers-that-be to sideline me. This is also unfair for lovers of classic cars. Now I know why my father has been keeping his 1978 Mercedez under the roof depreciating and collecting dust. He can't renew the insurance. So, that's why he was so gung-ho about getting another car a couple of years ago.

I am outraged! How unfair this is. Btw, my other dream car is actually the classic Volkswagen Beetle. Great engineering. Super cool design. A head turner anytime. However, if the banks continue to behave this way, believe me they will, then I will never be able to drive one in our country :-(

Finally, the worst nightmare. I might be forced to give up my car T_T

How could they do this to me? That car means the world to me. It holds so many memories. I can't afford to get a new car without letting go of the old one. This is just CRUEL! CRUEL! CRUEL!

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your car insurance renewal. Everytime I see a Beetle I punch my partner beside me stating the colour of the Punch Buggy No Punch Backs" So, if I ever come your way and if I see a Beetle, I might want to check out who's the driver first :P

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  2. Thank u. I was losing hope to get it renewed. Oh, yeah. Love the Beetle :-)

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