First car

I have achieved a life goal: getting a car.

I got one for three reasons despite living downtown. The first is that for the last six months I have spent over 3 hours a day bussing to work. The commute by car meanwhile is 25 minutes each way. I want that time back. Second, I wanted to learn to drive standard for my worldwide travels and especially my move to New Zealand. Third, I wanted to go camping a bunch this summer and that’s just easier with my own vehicle.

The car I got was a 2014 Ford Fiesta with a bunch of nice extras like fog lights and turn lights on the mirrors. It had 70,000 km on it and I paid $5,000. It was a very generous price by the seller, and I appreciate them for it.

This is my first car, and though I took a few lessons, I had never driven manual before. In a trial by fire, a few hours after I got it I drove it, my bestie, and her two sibs to the Gatineau Park. I stalled it four times that day.

I didn’t have license plates. I thought it would be more difficult to get through the bureaucracy of getting my first car, but it took three minutes at Service Ontario. The safety was done, I had proof of insurance, and the used vehicle package was filled out.

I can now tick another box on my 2019 goals list.