Car Shopping

Hong Kong, as anyone who has ever set foot off the boat knows, is a giant shopping mall. There are performing arts here and a museum there, but pound for pound, this city has more shopping malls than any place I have ever been. I can walk ten minutes from my apartment and be at a famous night market, a famous street market, a famous produce market, a 1 million square foot shopping mall with over 100 shops, a 15 story mall, a mall with 450 shops and at least 70 restaurants and/or food stalls, and a dozen smaller shopping centers.

In addition to clothes, shoes, electronics, jewelry, toys and umbrellas, people in Hong Kong can buy cars. Why anyone needs a car in Hong Kong is beyond me. The MTR is efficient, reliable and goes everywhere, buses go wherever the MTR does not, and failing everything else, taxis are abundant and dirt cheap. But I have borrowed cars from time to time, so I suppose knowing people who have them is not such a bad thing.

Cars made in China are not generally considered the best in the world. That might be why most of the dealerships sell imports. Most of the cars I see driving around are Japanese – Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, or German – Audi, BMW, Volkswagen. The British cars tend to be on the more expensive side – Jaguar, Land Rover, Bentley. Luxury cars in general are popular here. I have seen more than a few Italian and French sports cars. Why, I will never know. I understand wanting to go fast, but none of the other cars in Hong Kong will ever allow you to speed from one red light to the next. Imagine how frustrating it would be to drive a Maserati in bumper to bumper traffic. Oddly enough, outside of Ford, I never see any American cars.

One of my friends with a car wanted to buy a new one. The previous one is over ten years old. It still runs perfectly well. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. In Chinese culture, if you drive an older car, you must be poor. The last thing Chinese people want is for anyone to think they are poor, even if they are. Especially if they are. Keeping up appearances is very important around here. Maybe that is why Mercedes is the second most popular car. You might have to make payments for the next twenty years, but at least complete strangers will think you have money.

The most popular car, according to sales figures, is Toyota. That has less to do with appearance and more with the fact that Toyota makes reliable and affordable cars that will last long after everyone pretends it is time for a new one. My friend likes Toyota, and could never afford a Porsche, so we made an appointment.

I don't know if you have to make an appointment to buy a new car in Hong Kong or if you can simply walk in, but you definitely need an appointment to test drive something. Space is limited and the dealers we went to had enough space for a few cars in the showroom. The cars you actually test drive are parked somewhere away from the dealership. In Hong Kong, Toyota sells at least a dozen different passenger cars, while the showroom only had the top five. Had we gone without an appointment, not only would we not have been able to test drive a Corolla, we would not have even seen one.

Amy wanted a Corolla because it was HK$100,000 cheaper than a Camry. The 20-year-old salesman we dealt with wanted to push the Camry. Amy was adamant about the Corolla. She saw almost no difference between the two cars, other than the price and a few bells and whistles. The salesman really wanted her to buy a Camry. We could understand that. The Camry had a higher price tag, so the salesman would get a higher commission. But we made an appointment to drive a Corolla, so he could not say there was nothing available on the lot. He did talk about the Camry the entire time we looked at the Corolla, though.

I got a weasel vibe from this guy right away. This was a name dealership with nothing but new cars, yet he acted like a used car salesman. It probably did not help that we are both women. This may be 2019, but there are still entirely too many men who think women are decorative. If you are a woman on Earth, you get used to men talking down to you. It gets worse when those men are younger. The salesman was probably more than 20 years old, but he was too young to be selling something as expensive as a car. A major red flag was when he did not want us to look at the engine. Neither of us are auto mechanics. I wanted to take a look anyway. What I don't know about car engines could fill a stadium, but I can tell the difference between an Alfa Romeo and a Yugo.

The biggest road block, other than the salesman's terrible customer service, was that he arranged for the only Corolla on the lot to have a manual transmission. He assured us that all the Camrys were automatic. We knew what he was up to right away. Especially since 90% of new passenger cars sold in Hong Kong are automatics. He rightly assumed that Amy would not be able to drive the stick shift. Why he thought she would just buy a different car because she could not test drive the one she wanted is anyone's guess. Cars are not socks. You don't just get whatever is available if they don't have what you want. The salesman was shocked and dismayed when I said that not only could I drive the car, but I am licensed to do so.

I told Amy everything she wanted to know while I drove the Corolla. The salesman tried to interrupt me at least once every half second, but I never let him. In Chinese culture, a Chinese woman is always supposed to listen to a Chinese man over another woman. But Amy was born after 1800 and we were definitely on the same side.

Traditionally, you sit down with the salesman after a test drive and talk turkey. Even if you don't want to buy the car, it is considered polite to listen to the sales pitch and go through the motions. The salesman tries to talk you into buying a car today and you say you will think about it; both parties knowing that it will never happen. This particular salesman annoyed both of us enough that we did not bother. As soon as the test drive was over, we told him that we were not interested and walked away. There was nothing wrong with the car. Had Amy wanted to buy one, they would have magically found an automatic. But there was no way in hell she was going to buy so much as a key chain from this guy.

A few days later, the salesman called Amy and asked if she had changed her mind. He also tried to sell the Camry yet again. He was such a terrible salesman that she did something you are never supposed to do in Chinese culture. She just came out and told him that she would never buy anything from him under any circumstances because of the way he treated her. He called her again a week later and she told him she was going to call his manager, which she never did, unfortunately, and that she would call the police if he ever called again. He never called after that. Her grandfather would say that the younger generation is out of control. I say everyone should be more blunt around here. The customer should never have to put up with bullshit just because of tradition.

Toyota was out. There are other Toyota dealerships around here, and Amy wanted either a Toyota or a Honda. So Honda was next. I suggested getting a Mini Cooper since they are easy to park, but she wanted to go Japanese.

The Honda salesman was the polar opposite of the Toyota salesman. He was older than us, genuinely polite, not at all condescending, willing to answer questions and, best of all, he had the car Amy booked. The only new Honda for sale that was not an SUV/van or sports car was the Jazz. They have the Civic, but it is a “high performance” version. To me, the Honda Civic is a basic sedan. In Hong Kong, it is more expensive.

When we went to the dealership, not only did they have a Jazz available, as we reserved, but it was an automatic transmission and the salesman never tried to sell Amy anything else. She did not want an SUV or van, which was 65% of what they sold, and even though sports cars make for higher commissions, this salesman seemed to understand that most people do not buy a car that costs three times as much as their first choice.

Amy could drive the Jazz. I also took it around for a spin. It is not the most powerful car in the world, but it handled well on turns and was easy to park. Something I have noticed over the years is how much smaller the windows are getting in cars. When I was a child, there were large windows in every direction. They are getting smaller every year with more safety features. To compensate, newer cars have digital displays on the dashboard. If you cannot see out the back window in reverse, you simply look at the display. I don't like that at all. I want to face the direction I'm driving. Going backward while looking forward seems counterintuitive to me. I should probably get used to it because those windows are only going to get smaller. Pretty soon, there will be nothing but safety walls in every direction and display screens instead of windows.

The Jazz has larger rear windows. It has the dashboard display just like everyone else, but I could actually look out the window while I was backing up. I liked that. Amy did not care. She will adapt to the display right away.

Another thing I noticed was space. Cars in China, whether made in Japan or Europe, always had sparse leg and headroom. I have driven more than a few cars where I had to move the seat back as far as it could go. I am not exactly a basketball player. I can't see Kareem renting an older car in China. With the newer cars, I actually had to move the seat forward. Even the backseat in the Jazz had enough legroom.

Best of all, the Honda Jazz sticker price was HK$20,000 less than the Toyota Corolla.

Now I just need to find an excuse to borrow it.

Halloween 2019

I went to a Halloween party Saturday night. Halloween was actually on Thursday, but Saturday is a much better day for a party. Especially if you want people to show up.

This was my first real Halloween since 2015. I was in Barcelona last year. I had a nice Thanksgiving dinner in Barcelona, but there was no Halloween to be found. I'm sure there was something somewhere, but I never knew about it. Halloween 2017 was a month after the car accident, so no parties for me. I was in Tel Aviv in 2016. They know how to party in Tel Aviv, but it never felt anything like Halloween. They have their own holiday, Purim, which is a lot like Halloween with religious overtones, but that is usually in February/March. The last time I was in Hong Kong and fully functional on Halloween was 2015. I think that was the year I dressed up as Wendy. Lily was Colonel Sanders and Kevin was Ronald McDonald. No one got it. Everyone recognized Ronald, but they were confused by a female colonel and it probably did not help that there is no Wendy's in Hong Kong.

Past parties in Hong Kong were always what I would consider a Halloween party. Everyone dressed in costume, mostly zombies and pirates, or superheroes in later years, and there was a fair amount of alcohol. There is no trick or treating in Hong Kong, but candy is plentiful. This year was different. Almost no one wore a costume, and those who did put no effort into it. One person had a Guy Fawkes mask, even though no one I talked to knew who Guy Fawkes was or why his mask is used during government protests. I don't think they teach British history in Hong Kong schools as much as they used to. They probably think China is more important to Chinese people. Crazy.

Like most of the guests, I wore regular clothes. Just the idea of putting something together and getting dressed up to go somewhere that would be too hot when crowded with people was not appealing to me. October in Hong Kong is practically summer. I also drank much less than at previous parties, in the sense that I drank no alcohol at all. I have never been a fall down drunk, but I have been known to enjoy a drink or two, situationally. No one else got drunk, that I know of. It was all very sophisticated, or at least as sophisticated as a Halloween party on a Saturday night is going to get. I don't know what happened to us. I think somewhere along the line, maybe when all of our backs were turned, we got older. Next year we might be in formal gowns and sipping champagne.