We have a car!

I'm not sure which was worse...handing over the money to but the car, or getting the bill for the rental car and seeing that renting the car for 3 weeks was 16% of the cost of our new Mazda (by new of course I mean new for us). Car rentals in Ireland are insane...In fact if you have a credit card that includes insurance for car rentals...if you look at the fine print, you'll see that Ireland is one of the only countries where they will not insure your rental. And then they require you to pay an insane amount for daily insurance.

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by bob

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Aug 2, 2012

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Comments (2)

I know we put a picture up a couple days ago…but now it’s our car in our parking spot! (at least as long as we are at the Garzas.)

I’m not sure which was worse…handing over the money to but the car, or getting the bill for the rental car and seeing that renting the car for 3 weeks was 16% of the cost of our new Mazda (by new of course I mean new for us). Car rentals in Ireland are insane…In fact, if you have a credit card that includes insurance for car rentals…if you look at the fine print, you’ll see that Ireland is one of the only countries where they will not insure your rental. And then they require you to pay an insane amount for daily insurance.

You sign up online thinking that you are paying €25/day and it usually ends up being at least double what you think it is going to be…maybe others have worked this out…I’m just glad I don’t need to rent cars here anymore.

Enough whining…

We had something very cool happen today. When we had our mechanic look at the car, he said it was in great shape (less than 50k miles), but needed brake work. (he estimated about €300-500 to service the car). When we started talking to the seller, (by we, I mean Liz, since I am not allowed to negotiate…I tend to end up paying more than when we started,) we tried to get him to take some money off for the brakes…he wasn’t going for it.

Today he called about an hour before we were supposed to meet to say that when he left work, the car was dripping something…turns out a brake line was leaking.

So, I think this is pretty cool…while he wouldn’t budge on the price he ends up paying for at least one of the items that needed fixing. Also, the fact is, he was honest enough to admit that…I wouldn’t have been looking under the car & he could have easily let that slip, but he didn’t. Plus it’s nice to know the mechanic was right about the car having brake issues.

On the way home from dropping off our rental I mentioned to Liz how weird it is that we own a car in another country…she simply said that it feels right. And it really does…everything about being here feels right and good at this point. Thank you for praying for us!

Next stop, a place to live!

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What about Bob?

bob

I grew up in Western New York and have started and led missional church planting efforts for a little over 30 years. As you might gather, I have opinions about the church, and I share some of them here.

It is said doctors make the worst patients. So, when I visit a church, I work at being positive and noticing the good. At the same time, I believe it is crucial to critique what we, as the church, do. In Ireland, just as in the States, the fastest growing religious group is the “Nones”. While you can find a lot out there blaming the Nones, the ex-vangelicals, or those who are deconstructing their faith, for why fewer people attend church than did previously, I believe the first place we need to look is at ourselves.

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Comments

2 Comments

Kathy Powell Nelson on August 2, 2012 at 11:18 pm
If you had listened to our Engaging Ireland podcasts, you would not have been surprised about the car rental… I’m just sayin’! But I’m so glad you have found reliable & safe transportation. Yay!!!!
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- Bob Wilson on August 2, 2012 at 11:35 pm
  We weren’t surprised this year…two years ago I almost had a heart attack.
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