Taking delivery.

Finally!

Since our arrival in Israel we have been renting our car.  We have finally taken delivery on our new automobile purchase:  A Škoda Yeti.  Back in May, before we arrived here, we were considering a sister car, the Škoda Octavia.  But the Yeti had a better availability date, and besides, my wife missed the higher road view of the vans she had been accustomed to driving in the States.  And the Yeti has more room than the Octavia, which has already come in handy.

We purchased it with the proceeds of selling our two cars in the States (each within a week before we departed).

In Israel, taking delivery of a car is different from taking delivery in the USA.  In the States, you go to the dealer who sold you the car; in Israel you go to the regional distribution center (which, for us, is on the other side of Tel Aviv, about a 30 km drive each way.  We both drove down in the rental car, then drove back to the Avis car rental place near our community to return the rental car.

We had the foresight to purchase the bumper-to-bumper body damage insurance when we took out the rental because, during the past 5 and a half months we had the car we put lots of mileage on it and it got a few scratches and dinks in the process (plus a flat tire).  And the dust cloud last August/September didn't help matters much.

We now have our own car.  So far, we enjoy the ride.

What to do for wheels?

One question now weighing on the minds of me and my wife, as we prepare for our relocation to Israel, is the transportation problem.  What shall we do for an automobile?

Our son, who, as noted previously, is already in Israel and who is making preparations for our arrival (he has already lined up an attorney and an apartment for us), has provided us with a short list of vehicles for us to consider.

One of the vehicles on the short list is the Škoda Octavia.  This model is frequently used as a police vehicle or a taxi in Israel; certainly a notable positive factor in arriving at our decision.

[Though Škoda is a Czech brand, it actually is in the Volkswagen group.  It has long fascinated me that  Israel, a country with so much nominal animosity towards Germany, is so, so German in its motor vehicles, architecture, and haute couture.  And now, it seems that Germany is Israel's only friend in the European Union.].

Well, our son has now provided another piece of intelligence to consider in our car purchase decision:  A man was arrested in Tel Aviv for driving a Škoda Octavia at 229 km/h (142 mph for those of you who are not conversant in the metric system).  A confirmation that, unlike its senior relative the Volkswagen Beetle (at least the ones when I came of age), the Škoda Octavia has good acceleration.

We obviously will need to look at cars after we get over there before making anything resembling a final decision, but the Škoda Octavia will certainly be on our "to be considered" list.