Farewell my Lovely

SDT 298 E you will be missed and not forgotten

Today, 4th September, I sold my car off and got a newer car to replace it. My Harrier is already 7 years and 2 months old and I decided it was time to upgrade to a newer car. Not wanting to spend too much on cars as they are depreciating items, I did my sums and spent about a week checking newspapers and also websites. I chanced upon what appeared to be a reasonable deal in one of the websites for Singapore resale cars called sgcartmart.com on a Saturday and indicated my interest. The owner had put up the ad just 2 days before and we made contact to meet the following day,Sunday. The appointed time was in the morning and I was just browsing. As luck would have it, it was raining cats and dogs and I postponed the viewing to the Sunday evening and everything just 'clicked in place'. The new car was in excellent condition and the owner had only driven 22,000 km which was very little for 2 years of ownership. He admitted that this was his second car (his first is a BMW 3 series) and used this only for his commute to the office in Shenton Way.

He was very sincere in his dealings with me and showed me every single service he put in for the car, even where every small scratch made (at the back where he used to put his golf bags). I was taken by his car's excellent condition and although it was the first car I viewed, I wanted it as I was very comfortable with the Harrier having been driving mine (SDT 298E) for over 4 and a 1/2 years without incident and only 1 major servicing in June to replace the fan belt and spark plugs.

After some negotiation, we settled on the price and it was then up to me to settle the sale of my car and the subsequent transfer. I went back to my old car dealer who sold me the Harrier and the General Manager, a Mr. Kenneth Tan, handled the deal himself. Doing due diligence, getting my income statements, loan application, settlement of outstanding loan with my bank (Maybank thank you) as well as making me a decent offer for my car was all part and parcel of his commissions.

In the end it all boiled down to numbers, so in essence, I will be paying no cash upfront, and stretching my loan to 8 years, will be paying 10% lesser than what I am paying now for my SDT 298 E. So the kicker is that I will need to pay for another 8 years for a newer car. That means I will be 54 when I finish paying for it UNLESS I sell it away before then.

However given the major depreciation absorbed by the first owner (almost S$ 30,000), it worked out than this new car will depreciate only S$ 8,500 per year for the next 7 and 1/2 years as I would stand to get about S$ 20,000 in scrap value then.
So in essence, it is depreciating very little per year and I can get a decent price when I decide to sell it, say less than the 8
years left on the COE paper.


Toyota Harrier converted to Lexus RX 300

My Harrier is one car which is big on space and although not that fuel economical, it is powerful (2.4L enginer V6) and could transport my elder Boy Noel and his friends to school (as a car pool) without any problems. It is a workhorse and required very little servicing. It has a very spacious boot area for storing of bulky items and best of all, it is not too long in length whereby it can fit into my car porch area without any major problems. I recall sending it for service once every 4 months and nothing major as far as repairs or parts failure were required. Kudos to the Toyota Marque !

I am a Harrier fan and that is why I got a newer car as proof of my enjoyment in driving it. The car which I call my Lovely, will be remebered with fondness.