IRAQ: That new-car feel
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By Saif Rasheed in Baghdad
If anyone had told me a year ago that we’d be buying a new car, I would have said they were crazy. To do so would have been inviting the attention of car thieves and kidnappers.
But after four years of nursing along our 1995 Kia Credos, the family became exhausted by all the trips to the mechanics. So, with safety improving in Baghdad, we took the bold decision to buy a new car.
Our first stop was my neighbor, Mazin, who is a used-car dealer. He brought us a 1991 BMW and a 1998 Nissan Sentra to look at. But I kept finding faults in the cars.
Finally, he had enough and snapped, ‘Why don’t you go buy a brand new car from Hyundai!’
He was mocking me. But I thought about it and realized that all kinds of new cars have appeared on the roads again, including the latest Toyota Land Cruisers and BMWs. I consulted my 60-year-old mother, who uses the car the most, and she said, ‘Let’s go to the Hyundai showroom in Arasat and see.’
The next day, we set off in our old family car. It was boiling hot, and of course our air conditioner needed fixing. The glass-fronted showroom was bright and spacious, with rows of shiny new cars displayed. The dealers were nice and welcoming and very professional. It brought back pleasant memories for my mother of life in Baghdad in the 1960s, when her father used to go to the Ford showroom every year to pick up the latest model.
The dealer showed us the new Hyundai Accent 2008. My mom slid into the driver’s seat to see what it felt like.
‘Very nice,’ she smiled.
To our surprise, the price was only $12,000, including registration, customs and everything.
My mother asked the dealer, ‘Do you have a white one?’
‘Yes, madam,’ he replied. That decided it.
‘OK,’ my mother said. ‘Prepare it. We’ll come back tomorrow to pick it up.’
We sold our old car for $5,000 and will never have to worry about fixing it again. My mother drives her new car proudly all over Baghdad, picking up supplies for her pharmacy from different warehouses. And she doesn’t worry that it will be stolen, because there are much fancier cars on the road to tempt the gangsters and militiamen.
Our neighbors couldn’t believe it when we brought the new car home. Everyone crowded round, asking for the specifications and what we had paid for it. Now, lots of people we know have put their cars up for sale and paid a visit to the Hyundai showroom.
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