last ride with the old dog...

I had planned to rent a car during the journey back to Malaysia but later change my mind. I had decided to take my dad’s car and drive around. But the drive around had later expanded to a few hundred kilometer ride around Malaysia.

The car is a little old and out of shape… 10+ years old Sirion. After all those years of tear and wear, the pick out was a little slow and lots of noise here and there… It would be my last ride with it and I had told my dad to sell it on his next trip back… It was a memory to me, I had my first RM100k after my first year of working… My dad was driving a C20 Vanette then, I wired about RM50k to him and told him to pick the car he like… Well, this was his pick.

My dad had a few cars in his days and most of it was used car except his Daihatsu Charade 993cc. It cost about RM13k. On a trip from Ipoh to KL, my dad overtook a sedan car(can’t remember the model) with my brother and me in it with the speed of 140km/h…a memory I can’t forget… the Charade is one of the great car I thought at that time. Fuel efficient and good pickup. My dad sold it for a same price he bought – the Proton was out then and foreign car prize rocked sky high….my dream car at the time was charade turbo and same like me, Yun’s dream car is OPC(whatever version…). A father choice affect his offspring…

My dad chose the Sirion - a small car suitable for 2, (me and brother was studying abroad then)…. He had driven it for years and satisfied with it. During my Medical officer days with the MOH, I had driven it for a few times from Klang to Tg. Malim and the performance was great minus the compact of coz… I was lucky and managed to drive hundreds of kilometer without a breakdown but I think it would be the last long drive for my dad’s Sirion….

It is a pain changing from rt hand to left hand drive, as I had to adjust myself again with the wiper and signal light control when I sat again on the seat of my Fefe. However I had smooth drive back from TY airport to my house. I thank God for granting me a great car… Smooth drive with all of my family sleeping soundly while I fight the sleeping bug along the way with the help of caffeine….