What is Cheaper than a night out?

Only to find out: Door panels ripped off
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It’s been 2 months since I moved in with Matt and Yestyn and I have been quite simply amazed at the amount of money I have saved on accommodation expenses. Only paying for utilities for the month the first month came to a total of $101 while the second month only came to $91. As oppose to the $363 per month staying with Canada Olympic Park or the $450 per month minimum option if I didn’t stay with Matt and Yestyn. So the extra savings has helped me out in seeing the Country a bit more as I have bought a car with it.

What I bought
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Three weeks ago I bought a car from Chris and Ronnie, it is a 1989 Honda Accord SEI coupe. They bought it in the midst of winter for $200 from one of their Colleagues. It was unregistered and quite simply needed some work on it to get it back on the road to pass inspection. Chris and Ronnie drove the car with expired plates until the end of winter until they got a bit nervous about the consequences of driving an unregistered car without insurance. So they went to get quotes and got the car inspected to see what had to be done to get the vehicle on the road. However the inspection report came back with a big red cross as it needed some major work done on it, like getting the front strut/shock absorber replaced, 3 tires were the same size but one was different and one of them was totally worn out of tread so two tires needed to be replaced. Then there were rear calipers as one of them wasn’t working so that was a bit of a safety issue. This was only the bear minimum that needed to be fixed on the car. So Chris and Ronnie decided to scrap the idea of fixing it so I offered $50 for it off the bat and it was sold. Cheaper than a night out and I even drove it home that night.

A Closer look
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Now upon further inspection of the 18 year old car the next morning, the left door interior panel was ripped off and was found in the boot, the left window on the driver side was hanging down, the passenger side window was fully closed and the electric windows weren’t even working. Also the seats looked like they’ve been chewed on by a grizzly bear. Apart from all this the engine didn’t have problems starting nor was there a great deal of rust on it over the past 18 years of its life.

Even closer look
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So over the following few weeks Yestyn and I went to Pick N Pull(a car wreck yard, where you bring your own tools and rip parts off cars yourself then buy them at a heavily reduced price) and Auto Parts(a car spare parts store) to buy some parts that need replacing on the car and after long invested hours on fixing the car on our days off and late nights after work. Yestyn and I finally got it at the very least ready for an inspection. The once hung down electric windows now go up and down at the push of a button, the leaking struts were replaced, the problematic brake calipers were replaced, the engine oil was changed and even the seats were restored with new seat covers. With another few minor things that the mechanic spotted out and fixed, the car received a pass.

Lets see what we're dealing with
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The car was insured the next day under Yestyn’s name and so after $500 each later the car was on the road. It was a bit over budget on the amount that I wanted to spend but with Yestyn being a DIY mechanic most of his life, he tends to take precaution when working on cars so every bolt, screw, seal and nut was replaced if it looked worn out. But it is definitely a good thing and it even provided me a good learning experience in fixing cars. Yet another skill that will prove helpful for the rest of my life, on the brighter side, I get my freedom back for a couple of months and I’ll even be able to take the beater on road trips, which is much cheaper than renting a car every time.