What matters more “The Mind” or “The Heart”? No one has an answer to this and neither do I. I was so confused for couple of days and then at the end I realized that my mind speaks more loudly then the heart and I heard him. He was quit clear, he said “DO NOT BUY ANY CAR”.
This all started when my room mate (Girish) and me were sitting together with one of my very old and gold friend Singh. Sing just came to visit me for some days. Girish and I went to a trip to The Cape just for 3 days and just the car cost us 350$. Oh dear god, my mind just blew off and I decided to buy a car. A car how much it can cost me may be 3500$ with some investment of 500$ in insurance. I just want it for a year or sometime. I did all my calculation and we logged on to the worlds more active site for used car craigslist.com and hence it all begun.
Deal after deal, call after call, we finalized few to meet. The very 1st one was Hyundai elantra from some dealer in our neighborhood. We three were all energized and just went to his store and here is the car, Hyundai Assent, a car with no power and no fun. I don’t wana buy this one I was sure and we came home. Craigslist again and again, it was a Sat morning. By the noon we came out with one more appointment somewhere in New Brunswick, NJ around an hour distance from my home. Singh drove us to the place and we saw Honda Civic. A beautiful elegant, white car. First Singh took the test drive and asked me to take the drive then. What the hell is this, Civic is supposed to be a good car, this one drives like a scooter. On top of it the guy does not have any title of it, he did not own the car and yet asking for 4500$. All right kido, you not gonna get it from me. While coming back Girish called his friend and he suggested another car that one of his friend is willing to sale. So we drove another 15-20 mins and reached to his place. This one is a nice looking Volkswagen passat, a car with smart interiors and tough engine. A German beauty. When I drove the car, it took my heart away. I was totally in love with the car. So smooth, so fast but as always there has to be something wrong, the car makes a small sound and we don’t have any clue how much it gona cost to us.
Singh drove us back to home and we 3 sat and discussed about the cars and came to no conclusion. Singh searched for few more cars on craigslist. He found a deal of the year, another Hyundai Elantra just in 4500$ and in mint condition. We decided we will go on Sunday evening. We went to his place; this one is handsome blue, drive fine, no sound, no flick and a smart car. Singh and I came back home and the next day in my working day. So we decided Singh will go and have the Mech. Check for the car before we close the deal. I wanted to buy this car. Singh calculated the insurance it is just 480$ per six months. Perfect, we all are happy that we are buying a nice car. Monday noon Singh went to the place and got the Mech. Check of the car and it is costing a good 1500$ for us before we buy the car. Dam it… the cost is not 4500+1500=6000$, no ways I am gonna invest that much. When Singh sent me a SMS that we are not buying the car the first thing I felt was sorry for him. He gave so much time to it and we end up buying nothing. By Monday noon I was feeling sick so I went home by 4PM.
Singh was on a call with a guy for a Nissan Altima when I entered the house. I was so surprised as he is so involved in this just for me. He asked me do you wana see this car. I said but we need to drive around 1 hour again. He said, no problems if you wana buy we will go and get it done. I said ok lets do it this time. We drove for an hour and went to the place. Oh dear god, this is again a nice neat car but makes a little noise. The car owner said, it needs repair. We went to Mech. check and he said it gonna cost some 400$. So total cost will be 6600$. I was ok with the cost, but the car is huge and it will be difficult to drive. I was getting double minded now. Singh said, while driving back to home, “this is your call, this is a nice deal though.” I knew he is right, I believed in him and finally I was convinced with the deal. Next morning as I was not feeling well because of fever and cold so I didn’t go to office and Singh and I decided that we will call this guy with Nissan and finalize the car today. Just couple of minutes before leaving I said, lets check the insurance on the car. It was costing 900$, we were in a shock. We check back the insurance on the Hyundai we saw before which was costing us 490. After we checked again, we missed to check few of the things life, theft protection and collision and so now it is costing 700$ for six months. Oh dear god, help me out; I cannot spend this much on pleasure. Singh said “decide it man, think about it, its not for your requirement, it is for your pleasure.” I gain knew he is right. I was so surprised, all 4 days he was totally involved in this. He was helping me out in buying a car. At the end we decided we not gonna buy a car now.
I felt so bad for Singh, as he gave so much time and energy to this and I was just involved may be a 10% of it. He drove not less then 200 miles for different car deals. My heart was always asking me to take the car, any car and Mind was not allowing me to spend this much of money. We started with 3500$ of investment and by the end it was costing me 10K. Finaly my head said “DO NOT BUY ANY CAR” and my heart said “A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND IN DEED”. Singh proved the statement quit loud. I admier the beauty of friendship more then ever now. God do everthing for some reason and in this story, he made us realize how close we are to each other. Then - How does it matter, we drive an owned car or a rented car then.
