The Trade -In

                                                             Freely you have received, freely give

By Ong Hwee Keng

So now, when my car was seven years old, I told myself that in life one must learn from one’s mistakes. My second reason for getting a new car was the appearance of this new mini-MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) that could legally seat seven adults, although it had a small 1.3-litre fuel-injection engine. Thus, in terms of fuel efficiency per passenger per kilometre, it would be much more superior to my present car.

When I tried to trade in my previous car to buy a new one, the value was almost a write-off.

“What to do, you made the mistake of keeping your car for 14 years. Next time, trade in your car when it is below 10 years old; make it nine years or less. In fact, if I were you, I would trade it in when it is eight years or less.” I still remembered what the car dealer said to me.

So now, when my car was seven years old, I told myself that in life one must learn from one’s mistakes. My second reason for getting a new car was the appearance of this new mini-MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) that could legally seat seven adults, although it had a small 1.3-litre fuel-injection engine. Thus, in terms of fuel efficiency per passenger per kilometre, it would be much more superior to my present car.

I soon found myself talking with a car salesman, who brought in a used-car dealer to appraise my car. After a thorough inspection, followed by a check on the chassis and engine numbers, he said, “I’m giving you my best price: RM12,500.”

“Why so low? It is only seven years old! You know it is very well-maintained.”

“What to do, you made the mistake of buying such an unpopular brand. Who has heard of Daihatsu Ascent? It would be different if it was a Toyota.”

“I just checked the ads in the Malay Mail. They are selling a similar one for 16K.”

“Then, why don’t you try and sell it yourself? But I tell you, it’s now a buyer’s market.”

“I will do just that,” I replied, feeling very sore that I seemed to be a loser when it came to cars.

I remembered paying about 60K for the Daihatsu, but I decided to check my records to find out exactly how much I would have lost if I sold it now. I prided myself on keeping good records. Once, I gave a colleague a lift to attend a workshop. On the way, I stopped by a petrol kiosk to fill up my car. After that, I retrieved a booklet kept in the ashtray compartment and recorded, as was my normal practice, the date, the mileage and the amount of petrol I bought.

“I thought this is your private car,” he said.

“It is,” I replied. “It’s my habit to record everything about the car in this book.”

“What for?”

“So that I can know my car’s history,” I said. “I can also have data like monthly petrol consumption, consumption per kilometre, spare-part life spans, service frequency and so on.”

“You are either very calculative or bloody stingy! Must be the type that thinks a hundred times before buying anything.”

“Hey, I can be generous at times. I will buy you lunch if they don’t give us any! This is just a habit of mine,” I countered.

Back home, I started to look for my file containing the Daihatsu records. While doing so, something caught my eye. It was a “555” booklet in which I recorded my “free lunch”. Memories started to flash across my mind. When I first started working, free lunches were problematic. Firstly, people told me there is no such thing as a free lunch. There must be a catch somewhere. Secondly, I was worried that getting free lunches could be construed as receiving bribes. Once, I had a joint project with another civil servant in a different agency. The work required us to visit livestock farms and, more often than not, the farm owner would insist on giving us lunch. My first response was always to decline, suspecting all kinds of motives. It was that colleague who said, “We can’t live like this lah. Lunch is okay. Everybody knows we are clean. Besides, it is during lunch that farmers are relaxed enough to tell us what we really need to know.”

After that, I decided that receiving unsolicited lunches was all right. Over time, I realised that there were indeed lunches that came my way absolutely free. For example, in my job, I attended numerous conferences that came with lunches paid for from the registration fees, which were in turn sponsored by my department. Then, there were times when colleagues gave lunches to celebrate their promotions. There were even times when I was invited to eat at a restaurant table, simply because the salesman who was giving a “free” lunch to others wanted to fill up the seats for one table. I was at the right place at the right time! Then, there was this friend who just hated to eat alone. Whenever he was around my workplace, he would bring me out for lunch just to have company and, invariably, I would lose to him in our fight to pay.

It was difficult to remember my reason for starting this silly “free lunch” record. I could recall that there were several times in my life when I complained to God for letting me lose money. Perhaps I had repented and wanted to prove that I also “gained” from doing nothing. Maybe I was indeed the calculative type. On the other hand, I could be just obsessed about keeping records. Anyway, here was the 555 soft-cover booklet. There was a record for RM60 in Hotel Hilton, RM10 for yong tow foo, RM6 for Jamuan Hari Raya and so on. I must have estimated the price of each free meal. The records included not just lunches but dinners as well. Looking at the dates, I noted that I had kept this record for three years. It ended abruptly and I couldn’t explain why I gave up.

Just then, I became curious and started to add up the numbers with a calculator. The total was RM1,250. I couldn’t vouch that I had recorded every free meal I got. Surely I would have forgotten to record some. But the record indicated that in three years, I received at least RM1,250 worth of free meals. It occurred to me that I had completed 30 years of civil service. Thus, in the span of my career, I would have received at least RM12,500 worth of free meals, discounting inflation! I was stupefied. The amount was exactly the same as the trade-in price for my car! It could be more if I had continued to record my free meals. Similarly, if I were to sell the car directly to a buyer, the price could be more.

Suddenly, a thought came to my mind: “Freely you have received, freely give.” It was then that I remembered Pastor Ian and his wife Kelly. Both of them graduated from Malaysia Bible Seminary several years ago. They served in Johor for a few years and now they felt called to plant a new church in Seri Kembangan. Surely the young couple would need a means of transport. I called them to offer them the Daihatsu. They wisely asked for a day to pray about it. The next day, they gratefully accepted my offer and I called Ronnie, my insurance agent, to do the transfer of names for the car.

In the end, my intended trade-in for a car became a trade-off for my free meals. But I was satisfied that my silly record of yesteryears helped to fulfil the need of a young pastor. 

 

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