R loves R2

Last post before I conk. Just because I feel like it. I don't know why.

(I have been on a posting spree lately, haven't I? That's what happens when you have five rainy days off! All you want to do is stay at home. And sleep, sloth and, well, spree. Which will end tomorrow when I sign in for my Christchurch flight!)

I must must must say...I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Subaru R2!

Okay...honestly? I loved the R1 first.

Saw a few R1s on the road a while back. Never saw it before (I dont' think it can exist in Dubai!) but when I sighted my first one, I was thisclose to taking it home and hugging it to sleep! It's like the cutest thing on four wheels ever! And it comes with a standard pink interior! Love at first ride can?! And it's not sick-pink too...it's a nice shade of pink...like dusty pink. But it just won't fly with TheLaki and when he tried to sit inside the R1 (a pink one!) at the Subaru showroom recently, an image of Hulk Hogan in a pink tutu came into my mind. Enough said.

But then we moved a little bit to the right and found the R2. No pink interior but lots more space than the R1. The cuteness is still retained and yet, it still looks like a car you can't mess with. And TheLaki didn't look so weird inside it, which is very important!

I sat inside it and didn't want to come out. Heh. It's no Murano and it's definately light years away from our old Range Rover but heck, we'd have to be rolling in dough to be able to afford anything along those lines here in Singapore. In Dubai, we got the Range Rover at around SG$90K. No need to pay for road tax. No such thing as the COE. We get the car, pay for insurance and khalas. Here in Singapore? The car alone is around $250K-$350K. Then there's the road tax which amounts to nearly $5K a year. And there's the COE. And there's also that little thing called maintenance which was around $1500 in Dubai so I'd imagine it to cost around $2K here in Singapore. Or more. We didn't want to find out.

And so there I was in the R2, all comfy and delighted and thinking of ways to convince TheLaki that this is IT, this is our Singapore car.....then David sauntered over to us with his silly grin (which my sister sungguh suka!) and said oh-so-casually,

"Cute ah?! It's only $45 000!"

$45 000 for that little matchbox on wheels? I can get a Peugeot 206cc in Dubai for that kinda money! You gotta be kidding me! $45 000! Just because it's a Subaru?! Just because it came from the mothership of the WRX, the Impreza, the Legacy and the Forester?

And I found out later, yes..it's $45 000 just because it's a Subaru. So mahal. So madness. So heart pain. If you ask me what's the one thing I miss about Dubai, I will tell you that this is it:-

The cheap cheap COE-less, road tax-less cars, regardless of whether it's a Subaru or a Saab. But here we are, in Singapore now. So it's Singapore prices we have to pay. For whatever Singapore car we want to drive. On Singapore roads. Bah!

But my dear dear R2, I still love love love you!