My new wheels.

The reason for my trip to Pretoria last week was to collect my new wheels. This car previously belonged to a diplomat who's tour of duty had come to an end and he had to sell the car. Millage on the odometer was 167,000 km, (about 70,000 miles +-), and it is "only" 16 years old, my old car is 30 years old and has 365,000 km only clock. I paid the princely sum of R26,000,(about $3000, US). One other plus is that it has a new engine, what happened to the old motor I don't know. 

The car has power steering, ABS braking system, 1800cc four cylinder, fuel injection engine, four speed automatic transmission (with two settings, normal and sport), air con, electric windows, electrically operated side mirrors, and central locking with immobiliser.  It has a radio/CD system with a removable control panel, (which I have removed and put away), I like things quiet when I drive.

On my trip down from Pretoria the measured fuel consumption was 7.1 litres per 100km, or 14km per liter, (at an average speed of 120km per hour) what that works out to in miles per gallon I don't know, (almost 4 liters to a gallon). I estimated that one could go almost 800km on a tank of fuel. 

My sister in law, Estelle spotted this car with a for sale sign in the window, while visiting friends, my brother in law Wim, had a look at it, took it for a test drive and said it was a good buy, and "voila" I have a new car.

Click to enlarge photos.

Click to enlarge.

Left hand side view.

Bruno has just finished blessing all four wheels with his "holy" water. The car has four brand new tyres on which is another blessing.

Left front view, new number plates, NE23479, the licence disk is in the left hand bottom corner of the windscreen. Here in KZN we use a numbering system that identifies your town, thus NE = Natal, Estcourt. Other province have a complicated computer generated letters and numbers that ends in the initial of the province.

Interior view. I doubt if children or pets were ever transported in this car as the upholstery and interior are spotless and in perfect condition, with the exception of the  drivers seat that has a slight tear on the outer edge of the backrest, thus the seat cover that I put on. The back seats look as if no one has ever sat on them. Except for a few minor nicks and scratches, the paint work, - which is silver with a touch of gold in it - looks almost as good as when it came out of the factory.
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