A Tribute to My Kancil

My first car, my kancil : I bought her 9 years ago with the little money had just to show my dad I could make my own decision and get what I want.

All these years we (my hubby and I) always wanted to trade it in for new car but by destiny it never happened. I took that for granted and thought that by fate my kancil is stuck with me for life and was proud of it.

Just recently, my hubby decided to trade in my kancil for a viva. My kancil is still in good condition, despite no air-con and dead radio yet I never had any engine trouble. She protected me from bad days and was there on good days. My best friend, my kancil.

Unfortunately, it was time to let her go cause the loan was approved and they were taking in the kancil for RM7k. With the little days left with my kancil only then I realized I wasn't ready to give her away. It brought back lotsa memories.

Flashback

Told my dad I want to get a car since he doesn't allow me to drive his and neither does he enjoy doing the chauffer job. As usual, he never approves. Back then I was working in Intel and I had some shares of Intel which I can opt to sell whenever the price is right. I managed to sell it and got my colleague/best friend to take me to the nearest Perodua dealer to make my booking.

Prior to that he has already inquired all the details for me, my friend. So, all I needed to do was to take my payslips and bank statement and book the car. Even after booking the car I was contemplating if I should get a car. I was supposed to wait 3 months for the car but it was already moving to it's fourth month. I called up the salesman and I said "I'm cancelling the car and I want my money back" He was paranoid coz I do this almost every month, he said "No miss you can't cancel the car it's already coming soon" I was mad, "That's what you've been telling me but I never see my car at all. According to akta beli kereta it says here that if I don't get my car as promised I am entitled to get my money back" He was begging, "Please la miss, please listen to me don't cancel the car. Your car is already here you can collect it tomorrow if you have time"

Wow, all of a sudden the car is ready and I can even collect it tomorrow. I managed to take leave few days later and went to JPJ with him. I can say that this salesman is an asshole. He refused to allow me to pick my own number, I had to fight with him in JPJ to do so. All he did was lecture and lecture and I had to shut him up. What an ass.

It was time to drive the car out, after getting my driving license in 1997 I never had a chance to drive a manual car, let alone drive any car properly. I've been practising in my head on changing gears coz I bought a manual not only that it's cheaper but the pick up and fuel consumption is so much better than an automatic.

Holding the steering wheel I told myself this is my very own car and I can drive her anywhere I want without asking my dad's permission. With quarter petrol I had in the tank I bravely drove my kancil to the nearest Shell station and vowed to myself that I will only pump shell and I did until my husband started driving it.

Anyways, that kancil took me places lotsa a places.

I drove around Penang, I was even a tour guide for my colleagues from India. She has seen all the parts of Penang and I thank her for helping me achieve that. Because of her I took music classes, I get to come home for lunch on Fridays since we had 2 hours lunch and I can park her anywhere.

Oh by the way, I only told my dad I'm getting the car one day before...hehehhe...

I made sure she gets her regular maintenance, she was well taken care of. Regular washing, vacumming, she always smells good.

My kancil was my first car and I never knew anything about running-in. I thought for a new car you have to get it trained to your driving style and so that it'll get seasoned. I drove it fast and vigorously and made sure she was very well trained and seasoned. hhehehe...thank god my ignorance never caused any problems to her.

My first dent wasn't noticeable, that time the parking space in Intel PG9 wasn't tarred yet. That area was filled with lotsa rocks, big ones. I super heroicly accelerated too much and bumped into one of the large rocks which caused a dent near the wheel arch. You can't see it that easily unless you look at it closely.

I saw that her side skirting peeled off, I took her to the service centre and told them to do something to the side skirting, after thorough checking the mechanic realized that it is actually a dent that made the side skirting peel off. They don't cover that in the service centre, instead he recommended somewhere else. I never repaired that dent cause it isn't visible. I put up a drama at the service centre actually. I said, "Perodua jual saya kereta accident ka? Saya that langgar apa-apa pun. Saya mau kereta baru" with a chuckle he said "Sorry miss, you kena check masa ambil kereta, sekarang tak boleh buat apa-apa la" Oh well I did try.

The first scratch on the car was done by someone out of jealousy. Cause, we had three cars my dad's, mine and my sister's. We park all three cars in a row and scratch was in a row on all three cars. I cried everytime I saw the scratch until I got over it of cause.

She even went through cockroach infestation, one night my sister and I was on the way home from our music class and suddenly we heard something being squashed and foul smell came through the air cond vent. Then we realized a cockroach was killed in it's attempt to escape the deadly fans.

My hubby's first trip to Penang, I was there to pick him up in my kancil. We went to lotsa places, it was so much of fun. Then it was time for me to move to KL. The luxuries my kancil had slowly vanished.

Having to live in a rented place gave us little money to take care of my car. She never had her maintenance as regularly as she should. I never had time to wash her regularly, she was always dirty but I managed to keep her smell good.

Her first visible dent occured when the tong sampah man used the bonet as a leverage to carry something heavy. That cause a visible dent, I cried discreetly for days. I didn't have enough money to even repair that. By now she had more scratches and dents that wasn't even caused by me.

The beauty of my car slowly vanished when my husband met into an accident, all the junk from his car, believe me they were all junk, it was transferred into my car and was left there for months and months turned into years. Even after he got it cleaned, she never remained clean.

We sparkle and she left her pee stains on that car back seat and vomit stains on the front passenger seat.

Slowly, her door knobs started detoriating, one by one starting breaking and I can only open the door from inside and not outside. It was so embarrassing when all four doors could not be opened from outside. The only way in was from the boot and thank god it's considered to be the fifth door. Imagine if it was an ordinary boot.

I went for interviews in that car in that condition. Since the doors can be opened from inside, I tied a string to the handle of the back door from inside and made sure he string is long enough from the boot. I had to open the boot, pull the string which opens the back door, closing the boot, open the back door and from there open the driver side door, close the back door and get in the front to drive the car. Imagine if it was an emergency and I'm being chased by people just to rob me. I run to my car in faith that I can drive off but instead of jumping through the front door. I had to do what I do to get in the front door. Even if I were to jump in from the boot, I may have to ask the help from the those chasing me to close the boot for me. They'd probably feel sorry for me and leave me alone. hehehe.

I have used my kancil as a lorry before transporting furniture and luggages when were moving house. She was also my trusty transporter when we bought things from Ikea. She has been through a lot and we did it together.

I finally repaired all the four doors and just to change the handles it cost me RM50 each and it wasn't even the same colour of my car, coz if it's the same colour it would have cost much more. I had to change it to black colour handles. Since it was all four doors it wasn't that bad.

Whenever I had money I tried to take her for her regular maintenance, got her washed and cleaned. I was in the tyre shop changing tyres for her and the mechanic checked her aircond and told me that if I don't change the gas, my compressor will start failing. I called and told my hubby about it and he said RM50 to change the gas is too expensive. I told him to find somewhere cheaper before it's too late.

As usual, he sat on it and my compressor failed. We tried repairing it twice but to no avail. It was running on hot air and it's frustrating whenever it rains, the windows fog up.

The first official accident happened in Jalan Tun Razak on the way to work. Involving a bike and a car. Surprisingly, there wasn't even a dent on the car but I was told it was my fault somehow. Not knowing what to do I accepted the blame and made a police report at the wrong police station. Few weeks later I received a letter saying that I had to go to police station to report myself or I'll be taken to court. I got that settled with my hubby's help...hehehe...

The first time we tried to trade her in was when my hubby decided to buy the new city when it was first launched for the first time. The salesman told us that the kancil isn't gonna go that much coz it was bearing penang plate.

The second time was when my hubby wanted to get a pick up truck, this salesman was willing to take the kancil for RM15k that was in the year 2005. That didn't happen either coz we weren't such a good pay master for the other personal loan we had and so the loan wasn't approved. He had another car of his own but since his mom bought that for him, he was told to never sell it and so he only had chance to sell mine though deep in my heart I never wanted to let go of her coz I told myself I wouldn't sell her.

The 3rd time was when he wanted to get the Mitsubishi Lancer and again due to the Penang plate they weren't giving it a good price.

She survived 3 times of trade in and I took that for granted. The fourth time, it was time the to let go. One reason, it's best to let go before the price starts to depriciate even further and second before the engine starts failing. Good points but I wasn't ready though I told him I was thinking selling the car too. It was sad for me coz she was the first car I bought with my own hard earned cash going against my father and I had to let her go.

I felt sorry for him for not having his own car bearing his name as the car owner. The iswara that he owned he had to return it his mother. I don't understand the concept of gift and then take it back by saying it's my car my money, how sick.

I decided to sacrifice my kancil for him so that he is proud to have a car with his name as the owner. Too bad when we bought the Lancer we wanted to transfer the NCB and mine was 55% that's why the Lancer turned out to be mine. Otherwise, it'll be his car, no doubt whenever people ask I tell them the Lancer's my husband's car. I never say it's mine only when he decides to modify it that I remind him it's mine, coz it was the reasoning he gave me to buy such an expensive car.

The viva was ready for collection on the 25th of February, I wanted the viva to at least have my kancil's number but since he is buying it under his name and the kancil was under mine we couldn't transfer the plate number. Then the salesman said that the running number now in JPJ is starting at 1000 and with high hopes I figured we would get the same number at least. But he couldn't. All this is making me cry coz until today I'm still not over the fact that I have given away my kancil for the love I have for my husband.

What's even worst is that I don't even have a proper closure, I don't even have any photos of my car, my kancil. I wanted him to let go of the car on 27th not only that it's a good day but also I have more time with the car but he couldn't care less and decided to take the car on the 25th.

Everything happened so fast, I told him to take a photo of the car once we reach the dealers place but with his excitement of getting his new car he forgot. I was too emotional to even remember. There she went driven by someone else away from me.

I never got to say good bye to her, neither do I have any memories of her. It is so sad. I'm crying now while writing this blog. Everytime I sit in the viva I think of my kancil, it is too much for me to bare. I know people will be thinking it's just a car but it wasn't just a car for me, she was my best friend, I shared all my secrets with her and yes I do talk to her whenever I drive.

I was hoping we could at least take a photo of her just for my closure and got my hubby to find her. He later found out that she was taken to Taiping on the very night we gave her away. Knowing that made me cry over and over coz I will never get to see her again.

If any of you happened to be in Taiping and saw a Gold Kancil with Black Door Handles bearing number plate PEN 1809 please help me take a photo of it. I need it rather badly, coz I can't stop crying. I just wish nobody buys her until I have enough money to purchase her back.

I made my hubby happy but I had to get separated from something that I dearly love.

I love you small little kancil that I never managed to name you at all. Wherever you are I'm always thinking of you. You are always in my mind and in my memory.