We spent several days looking at a number of new and used vehicles.The antepenultimate (my new word) test drive was a slightly used VW Tiguan which we liked lots. The penultimate was an older Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was SO bad that we immediately went back and put down a deposit on the Tiguan.
THEN, just for fun (that's what they all say) we decided to go over to the VW dealership with new cars. There we drove a fully loaded floor model of a 2010 Tiguan - panoramic sun-roof, leather seats, seat heaters, integrated GPS. It turned out that a whole shipment was on a boat and would arrive in Doha in early January. We could have our choice of colors and upholstery and, if we didn't go for the fully loaded version, it would almost be the same price as the used one once we factored in a special subsidy provided by the Qatar Foundation. Couple that with the very low price of cars here (probably mostly because there's no sales tax) and this will probably be the only time in our lives we will ever be able to afford a new car of this extraordinary quality. One of the deal-making elements was that extra year of warranty. The 2009 used model, of course, was already more than a year into its warranty. Plus, it had various minor blemishes! In a flurry, we ran back to the used car dealership, got our deposit back and brought it to the new car dealership.
The result of our decision is a gorgeous blue Tiguan we've named Tigger.
We've been having such a lousy time, that at least this is one bright spot. Erik commented that it is the first time he has ever seen me truly smile about something here.
Now for the specs...
- 2.0 liters, 200 hp, 4 cylinders
- 4MOTION four-wheel drive
- 17-inch alloy wheels
- 2.5 ton towing capacity
- 18-degree angle off road
- 470 to 1510 liters of loading volume
- Biscay Blue Pearl Effect
- Blue/black interior
- Lots of cup-holders
- Touch-screen stereo with parking sensor diagram and 6 CD changer
Look at that clean engine...
And we're off!
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