Bought car

The next morning Edgar, who sold me the car, brought the car to my place and we headed to the bank first. I borrowed some money from the guys I'm staying with as I didn't want to transfer so much from NZ Visa. Next, we went to the DMV to sign the papers for the car including registration and number plates (we were driving without number plates this whole time and I didn't even notice!). The last thing was to go to the dealer and input the code for the stereo because it's antitheft --- once the power is out for more than five minutes, it needs a special code to work. Edgar promised me that the dealer does this for free. When we got there they demanded $110, $100 to take out the stereo and get the serial number and $10 to look up the code. Edgar was very practical and onto it, "they charge that much because they think people don't know how to take the stereo out themselves". Parked inside the dealership, in the space of two minutes he took the panel off and the two screws that were holding the stereo. Five minutes later we were driving to where Edgar wanted to be dropped off, listening to the stereo (CD/radio with front and rear speakers, factory installed and producing not a bad sound --- not as good as I had in NZ in the Toyota, but probably close to the sound in my parents' car). From there I drove to work, on the way I discovered that after around 65-70 mi/hr it starts to vibrate very very slightly. This means that the wheel alignment is not 100%, but I don't think it's a problem. If I find a cheap mechanic I might get the alignment done later. Also, when I drove later at night I noticed that the front lights are completely misaligned --- the left one hardly shines on the road and when I'm driving I can see the light reaching four or five meters high when I'm ten meters away from that object! I definitely need to do something about the lights as I can't see very well at night. When I test drove it I thought it was weird --- why can't I see the road very well, and I know the lights are functioning, I've checked them all before I got in! I asked Edgar and he said he could see the light... I'll do something about it soon --- wouldn't want to drive out of town with a problem with illumination.

In terms of mechanics and prices it is, I guess, like everywhere else (I've been told so far) --- most expensive are the dealership mechanics, then there are chain mechanic shops, and then come the unofficial amateur mechanics that work from home garage and are only known by word of mouth. I'll see if I can track down one of these guys and probably should get a quote in a couple of chain shops on wheel and front light beam alignment.

Other than that the car drives fine. I drove around with Brendan (one of the two other new interns that came with me) and his fiance Christina and there seems to be reasonably enough space in the back seat. I like the car. It is smaller than what I had in NZ, but still a manual. It's maneuverable easy to drive and park. It's also not conspicuous so less likely to attract car thieves and police, while still looking respectable.

So, I got the car, but it's not insured and driving without insurance is one risky and two illegal in U.S. So the same day I asked around and looked at several options for insurance. In the end, a company called Mercury Insurance, was the best one --- recommended by many interns and generally IBMers. Part of it is because Mercury recognises prior driving experience in another country and it also gives discount to engineers, so all IBMers get discount. Also I think it's just generally very cheap. In the end it was $180 for six months, for liability (same as NZ third party) only of course --- which is the minimum legal requirement. This might seem high, but to give you an idea, I'll give you a couple of other quotes. AAA told me I needed to pay $760/6 months and another "cheap" company said $420/6 months. So I feel pretty good about it.

To get insured I had to come into their office. I decided to do it first thing, 9.00 am the very next day. The lady I spoke to on the phone on the previous day was alone in the office (I had to wait for her outside to arrive though). Everything went very well in a nice relaxed atmosphere.

To get to the insurance office I decided to take lightrail. One track each way this rail system is always outside, never underground. It often goes in the middle of the highway and goes through the downtown (centre) of San Jose. The carriages look like trams, so really this is tramway. To pay you have to buy tickets at the automatic box, which I think excepts notes, but definitely coins. According to the locals they don't usually check the passes at all, except weekends. However, this is irrelevant for me because IBM gives every employee a special sticker on their ID card that lets us take buses and light rail in San Jose area (but not San Francisco or any other, nor trains that go to San Francisco). I thought that was pretty good of IBM. But now that I have the car I don't think I'll use my pass all that much... Maybe to go to San Jose downtown once in a while, but to work I'll definitely drive, even though I "could" get there for free via a bus and then IBM shuttle. Car is just so much faster and more convenient. Also traffic here doesn't seem to be a problem. There are many big highways, well planned out --- apparently the city is relatively new so the road capacity is enough. You can get anywhere in San Jose within the space of less than 20 minutes because of this comprehensive highway system --- on a highway you can go much faster because of higher speed and no lights. Highways also seem to be usually four to five lanes wide with the outermost one or two lanes being the exit lanes. If you look on Google Maps at San Jose you can see just how comprehensive the freeways are.