What do I do With My Car?

My wheels, with the bike inside and the dent in the door from the Uber driver.

 Some interesting signs on the highways.

What the hell does that mean?

Mundy and Graham.

Tuesday January 3^rd

I have been avoiding, worrying and wondering what I was going to do with my Honda CRV. Maybe the easiest thing would have been to sell it in Melbourne and rent a vehicle to drive to Brisbane. Maybe that would have been cost effective, but the fact is I love this car and wanted to drive it. Plus, it had the space in it to carry my boxed bicycle and my luggage. So that is what I did. However, upon arriving in Queensland and talking to Valerie, Phil, Hossam and Trisha, I discovered selling it here would be potentially problematic. Apparently, selling it here in Queensland with Victoria plates would require a change of registration and a certificate of road worthiness. I know the car would need some repairs to pass that and that would require a mechanic, expense and time. Selling the car privately with the existing plates (that are still good for six months) would also be a potential problem, as if that person didn't report themselves as the new owners they could amass tickets and offences that would go against me. I told Hossam and Trisha that maybe I should just take the plates off it and abandon it at the airport when I dropped off my bike. Trish talked to her dad and he told her to tell me not to do that as I would be fined and future admission into Australia would be a problem. He offered to help me out and pick it up from the airport and take the car to a wrecker.

Considering all of this, I decided to call a Honda dealership near the airport in Brisbane and talked to someone there. I told them my situation and the fact that there is still lots of life left in the car and that someone could make use of it. They told me they don't usually take cars of that age or with that much mileage but they do have a used car division and they might be prepared to give me something for it, and they would take care of all the license plate and ownership issues. So, I drove the hour to Brisbane to talk to them and let them see the vehicle. The salesman, Liam, offered me $750 for it. Considering all of my options, I could live with this, especially because he said I could keep the car the next four days and drop it off on Saturday after I took my stuff to the airport.

I'm not unhappy with the price either, as I only paid $5000 dollars for it. There is no other way I could have had a vehicle for less money. I put 40000 kilometres on it and over the year only had to replace the tires, the rear brakes, a radiator and the battery. It never broke down on me, other than when that one tire fell apart on my drive from Tasmania to Adelaide. I loved that vehicle and it owed me nothing. I hoped that someone else (hopefully some backpackers) could get some pleasure out of it too. So, I signed the vehicle over to them and drove back to the Sunshine Coast.

I spent the rest of the day exploring the town of Coloundra before spending the evening talking to Val and Phil and Phil's brother Graham and his wife Mundy, who were on their way home to Cairns after visiting family for Christmas in Sydney.