One day while arriving at my in laws' house, we saw a Honda CRV parked outside the house. I was very surprised to find out that my in laws bought a Japanese car,as the whole family was a die-hard fans of French cars.
It never occurred to me that this day could come. A Japanese car in the family? That's certainly a revolution. When I bought my car, I wanted a Japanese car with an automatic transmission. And I got a French car with stick. I have always loved Japanese car, because I had a very good experience with my Honda Civic, the first car I ever bought, when I was living in the USA. It seems that automatic cars are more popular in Malaysia and in USA these days, but not in France. Here are the responses from different people concerning automatic car:
A friend from USA : You meant you are still driving a stick? Oh my God!
A friend from France: Why would you want to drive an automatic car, they are for handicap people!
So when I got my French manual car, emotionally I was not happy. But on the practical side, I know my family was right, it would have lower maintenance cost plus a better resale value, compared to an imported auto car. Today, I'm totally comfortable to drive with my car, on the other hand I have lost my skill of driving in Malaysia. Well, that would be another story.
Back to the story. Why the sudden change in my in laws family? They told me that they had no choice. They needed a powerful car as when they go on vacation, this car has to tow along their camping car. And the French manufacturers do not produce these cars anymore. They had visited several car distributors, and this was the only one that has a manual transmission. Well, it will be another revolution if one day they decide to change to auto transmission!
Hubby and I had a very weird feeling while riding the car. We thought we were in Malaysia! Especially hubby, as he remembered he was driving one the earlier years he visited Malaysia, he found it weird that he was not the one driving as he was sitting on the right front seat, the driver seat in Malaysia.