A pleasant morning call ... ..

This morning I woke up to a phone call on my handset from the car salesman who informed me that my loan had been approved. He requested that the cheque that I gave him be banked in - to which I assented. I am now making arrangement for the downpayment. By next week, I hope everything goes well and that the salesman services the car, checks and remedies any shortcomings as he has promised before handing the car over to me.

At about 10.30 pm, I had a rude shock when a friend of mine said that that a full C of A would be on sometime on the 16th Sep 2009. It brought me down to earth. The bearded guy who was supposed to see things through without a hitch was apparently outmanouvered by his adversary.

Update 17/08/2009: My friend called me at 4.00 pm to give the good news that settlement was approved at 28 million. I will then be able to re-finance the car that I am buying. Great !!

Update 22/08/2009: As I write this, it's 04.25 am on Saturday. I have just taken pre-fasting supper with the family on the first day of Ramadhan.

Update 25/08/2009: I just checked today that the price of a Bridgestone Potenza RE050 245/35 19" tyre was RM 1,300 for front and for 275/35 19" rear the price was RM 1,600. For a set of four, it would set me back RM 5,900. Worse, a set of 19" Rays rims cost RM 13,800. The Bridgestone tyreman claimed that for the Fairlady, it's better to use tyres of different widths for front and rear. Luckily for me, the car was already fitted with Brembo brakes or else it would set me back another RM 20,000 to get the Brembos fitted.

Update 28/08/2009: The car has gone through the Puspakom inspection and is now in a workshop for minor touch-ups and polishing. As soon as it gets back to the dealer, I have to conduct another test drive through the highway for a better appraisal of its drivability.

Update 01/09/2009: While not about the Fairlady, this afternoon I changed the rear tyres of my Mercedez Benz. One of the replaced tyres - the rear left - has worn past its indicator strip while there is a bit of rubber still left on the other tyre. Nevertheless, I changed both to Goodyear NCT 205/65/R15 tyres - the same as the originals. It set me back RM 520/= for the two. As now I intend to pay more attention to tyres especially the sporty tyres on the Fairlady, I bought a digital tyre gauge for RM 80/= from Michelin to make sure that, in future, all my tyres are properly inflated. The gauge measures pressures in Bar, Kpa, and Psi.

While waiting for my tyres to be changed, I checked at a nearby accessory shop on how much would it cost to convert to Brembo brake system. The store clerk, who was more interested in playing with his handphone than paying attention to my questions, disinterestedly mentioned that for a set of Brembos the price was RM 19,500. I forgot how much the cost was for a set 4 ceramic brake pads.

Update 02/09/2009: I went for a proper test drive on the E5 Expressway to find out that the Nissan Fairlady 350Z that I will be taking possession tomorrow performed smoothly when accelerating, cruising, decelerating and braking. I told the salesman my only fear was not realising that I would exceed the speed limits when driving on the highway. Much to my delight, I discovered that the car had both front left and right cameras when I thought it had only a reverse camera. Much to my disappointment, it had only Brembo calipers but not Brembo rotors (Brembo rotors have either drill holes or slots to dissipate heat). It was thus not fitted with a full Brembo brake system. On feeling the edges of the rotors (which I think were the original Nissan parts), there were signs of wear which were not really that much to warrant replacement. The odometer read 16,442 km when I parked the car. As for the brake pads, I will have to inspect them in a workshop with facilities for undercarriage inspection. On starting the car, I was glad that the engine and the car did not shudder but there was a thunk noise when I started moving it for the first time. There was no noise after that.

The car's front tyre specification was Bridgestone Potenza 245/35 /R19 RE050A 93Y while its rear tyre spec was 275/35/R19 RE050A 93Y. It looks I have to keep spares of the 2 sets of tyres.