Merepek

“So, you are buying a second-hand car. And it’s coming cheap. You had better beware. It could be a kereta potong”….this follows the headlines “Cut and Cheat” in the Sunday Star today.

Wah…like this also got ar? I can just imagine myself unwittingly buying one of these ‘cut and weld’ cars and driving around and one fine day while driving over one too many potholes, I’d suddenly feel ‘drafty’ and then realized that the back portion of the car has broken off. Bad joke! Could be worse, huh?

So far, I have had 3 pre-loved cars, 2 sourced out from the classifieds in the local newspapers and one from a friend. Had been lucky thus far….no ‘cut-and-weld’ machines and certainly not ‘black-marked’ too. My first car was 14-year old jalopy pre-loved by, if I remember right, 5 different owners. I bought it direct from the last owner who put up a ‘For Sale’ ad in the local daily. This young Malay gentleman became a good friend after that.

The second car, I bought from a friend whom I know to be someone who loves his cars dearly and care for them well. And yes, I got a good and reliable set of wheels which served me faithfully for 2 years before I sold it and got another pre-loved car.

This third car, I sourced from the local dailies too, and before I signed the papers and paid the money, I ran a check at the Traffic Police Headquarters. Thank God, I took the trouble. The car had accumulated a total of RM4300 worth of unpaid summonses for various offences, from illegal parking to speeding. I made a quick phone call to the young car owner to tell him to settle everything, if not, it will be ‘No Deal’. He settled and cleared everything the following day.

I have been lucky with my purchases but this could not be said of my friend LP. She not be knowing much lar (not that I know any better), got her dear husband to look for a second-hand car for her. And hubby found a very good deal….nice 2.0L car, a model that LP actually wanted very much, very well-maintained and cheap too. Okie, deal closed and LP got her dream car. A couple of months later and one fine day while LP was driving to town, she somehow sensed that another car was tailing her. From the rear-view mirror, all she could make out was 2 men in dark glasses behind the wheels of a car with tinted glass. She continued driving round and round and decided to drive into the open-air carpark at the market. Not seeing the car from her rear-view mirror anymore, she shrugged off any uncomfortable thoughts. After a good 15 minutes or so, she got back onto the road to continue her journey to her hair salon in town. She must have driven for another 10 minutes or so when from God knows where, that familiar looking car re-appeared and was coming up very fast behind her and before she could do anything, the driver of that car sort of ‘forced’ LP to drive onto the grass verge and stopped there. Two young men came up to her and knocked on her window. LP now pale and shaking, wound the window a bit and heard one of the men yelling at her, **&^%$#@, you bitch..#@@&&*%....you hooker....^%$#@...You stay away from Aileen’s husband..**&&%$ This is just a warning......You hear that??...STAY AWAY FROM ALEX!!...@&%#@**...."

And just as quickly, the 2 men walked back to their car and sped off, leaving LP cold and sweating on her seat. She can’t remember how long she sat stiff in the car before gaining her composure and drove home. She later discovered that the previous owner of the car was someone’s mistress and the unhappy wife must have sent the two menacing fellas to do the job. It was a case of mistaken identity. The 2 fellas must have been told to look out for a woman driving that car with that particular number plate. So takuttttt.....LP managed to sell off the car after 2 months.

We just have to be extra vigilant when buying pre-loved vehicles. Make sure that it is not a ‘kereta potong’ and pray too, that it does not come from dubious backgrounds.