Our Auto Travails

Before moving to Aarhus, we were in touch with the previous resident of our apartment, Diana, and we decided to purchase her car, sight unseen. We did this because the person she bought the car from, Lars Skytte, a car salesman, agreed to purchase the car from us a year from now when we return to the states. He also agreed to help transfer the registration from the previous owner to us when we arrived. And, he made it easy for Diana to transfer the car to us by leaving it at the Hertz rental lot at the Aarhus airport.

The car we bought was a Toyota Avensis similar to the one shown below.



We liked this car a lot and enjoyed driving it... however we are not driving it any longer! :-(

When we first visited Lars this past Friday, he told us that Diana had registered the car with tax-exempt status, and that once a car has been registered this way, it is not allowed to be registered that way again. So, we could either pay the taxes on our new car to get it registered or we'd have to sell the car and get a new one! Since cars are taxed at 200% in Denmark (Note: that is NOT a typo.), we chose the latter option.

Fortunately, Lars bought our first car for the same price that we paid to Diana, and is selling us our new car for that same price, so the end result is that we didn't lose any money as a result of this complication. We are currently driving a rental car until our new car arrives.

Our new car will be a Corolla Verso, shown below.



We like this car because it has better seating options than the Avensis. The Avensis can just barely seat five people (2 in the front, 3 in the back). With the Corolla Verso, we can seat seven people (2 in the front, 3 in the middle row, and 2 in the back). So, if a family of three were to visit us after Ilene leaves us in September (hint hint), we'd all be able to get around in one car!

Just a few final notes to wrap up.

1. Car insurance in Denmark is a bit weird. We are trying to set up a policy through our current insurance company, USAA, but they can only add insurance to what is known as a "compulsary policy" that has to be issued by a Danish insurance company. We won't pay that company, however, we'll pay USAA and they will in turn pay the other company for the compulsary policy. So, when I contacted USAA, they gave me the name of their Danish insurance company and asked me to give that information to Lars. Furthermore, according to Lars, I don't actually have to contact this other company until we receive the car... so our car insurance for this new car is currently up in the air, but I'm hoping the situation will resolve itself once the car is actually here and I can contact the Danish insurance company to get the ball rolling.

2. I'm making progress on my stick shift driving! Leysia has been doing most of the driving since we've been here; she had to drive stick back in San Diego and also when she lived in London, and she's found that driving stick is liking riding a bicycle, you never forget! This has allowed us to get around the city without having to worry that we're going to plow into some other car as a result of my inexperience driving stick! In the meantime, I've practiced driving the car several times near our apartment and it provides me with multiple opportunities to practice shifiting into first gear, driving the car in reverse, and shifting into first while going up a hill (quite scary if you've never done it, since the car starts moving backwards the second you take your foot off the brake!). I'm happy to say that I'm getting much better, shifting into first gear quite smoothly, and no longer sending the car off like a bullet when attempting to go in reverse! :-)

3. We still haven't quite figured out how cars and pedestrians are supposed to interact in Denmark. You can say that, in general, you would like it such that cars do not hit pedestrians, but we've been in several situations where we were left wondering if the pedestrian we just missed had a death wish stepping out in front of us the way they did!

4. Danes like to drive fast, about 10-15 klicks above the posted speed limit.

5. Finally, in Denmark, you are not allowed to turn right on a red light.

Alright, that's it for now. Its almost 2 AM local time and I need to get to sleep! Stay tuned for new posts... I've got a backlog of stories accumulating!

Ken