×

We use cookies to help make LingQ better. By visiting the site, you agree to our cookie policy.


image

English LingQ Podcast 1.0, One hundred and three: Buying a Car

One hundred and three: Buying a Car

Mark: Mark Kaufmann here, how's everybody? Jill, how's it going today? Jill: Good, thanks, how are you?

Mark: Good, welcome to the EnglishLingQ Podcast. Well, it's not raining right now. We were just talking about how…

Jill: Don't jinx it! Mark: …it's been extremely miserable around here lately, although, right now there's this bright thing sort of shining in my eyes through the window. Jill: I don't know what it is. We haven't seen it for a while. Mark: No. I hope somebody does something about that because it's hard on the eyes. Jill: Oh gosh, yeah, it's terrible. Actually, I think it was on Thursday we had several nice hours because I went out for a walk at lunch and there was blue sky. Maybe it was Friday, I can't remember, Thursday or Friday, because it was the only day in the last two weeks where there was some blue sky. Mark: Right.

Jill: So I went out for a walk and it was really beautiful, but then I notice by the time I left at the end of the day it was raining again and, basically, has been raining ever since with a few breaks here and there. But, apparently, it's supposed to start being nice tomorrow for a few days. Mark: Oh really?

Jill: Yes.

Mark: I hadn't heard that I was expecting more of the same. We've got to be setting some records. Like it's not just raining, it's raining hard. Jill: And windy and, I mean, I guess… See, the temperatures are quite high.

Mark: Right.

Jill: There's been a lot of sort of 8-9 degree weather, so it's not really cold, but it's damp and it's gray and dark. Mark: The problem is when it's that warm then it's not always snow up on the mountain. At least if it's a little cooler you can justify it by saying boy, is the skiing or snowshoeing ever going to be great this weekend. Jill: Yeah, exactly.

Mark: Chances are it's been raining up on the ski hills also, which is too bad. Jill: It was just sort of very wet snow on Saturday; I went up snowshoeing.

Mark: Oh you did, yeah.

Jill: And so in the morning when I was up there and it was pouring rain down here it was, you know, probably just zero degrees up there, because it was barely snow, kind of icy snow or wet snow. So, yeah, it's not getting that cold up on the mountains either. Mark: Although, it looked like they had fresh snow up there. Like driving in today you could see up the hill.

Jill: Yeah.

Mark: I guess even to 2 or 3 above, very often, snow will still fall up on the hill. It doesn't have to be zero for snow to fall, like it comes down if it's cold enough… Jill: Yeah.

Mark: …or close to zero. Anyway, I think there's still a lot of snow up there. I didn't quite get up there this weekend I was busy watching soccer in the rain. Jill: Like most other weekends in the winter.

Mark: That's right. What was funny is, as you say, on Saturday it cleared up for a couple hours and I thought oh, it's going to be nice. I went to the soccer game without my raincoat or umbrella or a hat or any type of rain protection.

Jill: And how long have you lived in Vancouver?

Mark: Yeah, it really wasn't very smart, but maybe I'm a bit optimistic. Jill: Yes, yes.

Mark: The minute her soccer started it started raining and rained the whole time. I was pretty damp by the end of it.

Jill: Ah, that's not pleasant. Mark: Anyway, that's how it is here. Jill: And it can change so quickly the weather here. It can go from being sunny and nice and an hour later it's pouring rain outside or vice-versa. Mark: You find that? I mean there's some change but, in general, if we've got nice weather we have nice weather for a while. If we've got bad weather we get bad weather for a while. Jill: Yeah.

Mark: We get weather systems that kind of stick around, I thought.

Jill: Well yeah, for sure, but within a day it can be decent out for a while and the next time you look out all of a sudden it's hailing or something. All these weird things can happen very quickly.

Mark: Yeah.

Jill: Usually, though, you're right, you get a system that is there for a few days or a week or whatever, but it's been particularly bad the last couple weeks. Mark: It has been; I can't deny that. We've got Henry our programmer…any of you who have been listening to the French LingQ Podcast will know Henry…anyway, he's from France and he's now here in Vancouver working with us. I think he's wondering what all this weather is about here in Vancouver. Jill: Although, he said it's very much like this where he's from in France. Mark: Oh, is that right?

Oh, okay.

Jill: He said the weather is very similar, wet and rainy in the winter.

Mark: I mean a lot of places in the winter if it's not snowing it's kind of gray and raining, yeah. It's wintertime, what can you expect? Jill: That's right. Mark: We should all move somewhere more south.

Jill: No, I love it here. I don't want to move, I just want to get away once in a while and see some sunshine. Mark: I thought you were going to say I'm just waiting for global warming to kick in. Jill: No, no, I won't hold my breath. Mark: No. Anyway, we thought today…because in the last I guess six months or so both of us bought new cars, not necessarily new, but new to us…I thought that might be an interesting topic, something that many of our listeners experience in their own countries or if they're immigrants to North America experience here or immigrants anywhere for that matter, just to sort of give people a bit of a sense of what it's like here when you go car shopping. Not that I know what it's like everywhere else, but I thought why not talk about that today. Jill: Sounds good.

Mark: So you, I guess, got a car in the summer.

Jill: Yeah, we ordered… Well, we got it from the states because right now with the Canadian dollar being so strong cars in the states cost a lot less money than they do in Canada. I think that's changing a bit, manufacturers, car manufacturers and dealers, maybe independent dealers, are offering rebates and very low financing options and stuff in Canada to try to keep people here. But we actually bought a car in the summer and another one about a month ago off eBay from the states. I know it's kind of a big purchase to do through eBay and not everybody would feel comfortable doing that, but we've done it twice and it's worked out really, really, well and we've saved a lot of money. We didn't buy brand new cars; both of them are 2004s, so a few years old, but in great condition. We bought them through reputable dealers who had a history on eBay as being very good to deal with, always 100 percent positive feedback and yeah, it's just worked out really well for us. Mark: Well, good for you. In this Internet world, why not? I mean, yeah, especially given the big difference in car prices because of the big change in the value of the Canadian dollar. Yeah, if you can get on the Internet and save yourself, you know…it's significant; it's like 25 percent, like it's a big difference. Jill: It's a big number, yeah. Mark: When you're talking about cars that's a big number. And, yeah, there's a bit of hassle at the border bringing it in, but I think you said really not too bad. Jill: No and I mean this last one that we got there was no trouble at all, no hassle at all. It was very easy, it went very smoothly and we probably saved about $8,000 even after paying our shipping and paying duty and Canadian taxes and all of that. At least $7,000 anyway we saved and it really wasn't a big hassle in any way. Mark: Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, I guess prices will eventually reflect the change in the dollar, but I tell you, the dollar has been strengthening for a few years now and prices have not adjusted for anything as far as I can tell. Even at the bookstore you look at books and books here are still 25 percent more expensive than they are in the states.

Jill: At least 25 percent. I have noticed though that a lot of stores here are putting things on sale. Some places are even offering if there are two prices to charge the American price.

Mark: Oh, is that right?

Jill: Because I think the retailers and the merchants are realizing that -- especially places close to the border like Toronto and Vancouver -- it's so easy to get across to the states that people go down there for the day and shop and they're losing all of that. Mark: Yeah and it's quite a touchy issue or a prominent issue right now. People are complaining about, you know, why are prices here not the same? I guess the merchants are saying well, you know, we paid what we had to pay…

Jill: And they did.

Mark: …for these goods when we bought them and very often they're buying ahead, you know, six months, a year, in advance so that “What are they supposed to do?” type of thing. Jill: That's right. People feel ripped off, especially when you can see two prices.

Mark: I would imagine they move more quickly when it's time to raise prices. Jill: Well, this is the thing, yeah.

Mark: It's not like it's a surprise. I guess people always assume that we don't want to cut prices and then have the dollar go the other way type of thing. But, anyway, yeah, no, I thought that was neat to buy not one but two cars on eBay.

Jill: Yeah, yeah.

Mark: Yeah, I mean why not? I think from what I can tell there's a lot of people…not a lot, but the number of people buying cars on eBay, especially Canadians buying cars from the states on eBay, is increasing rapidly. And people buying cars in the states, in general, and importing them; there's been a big rise in people doing that. Jill: I think some people…especially high-end vehicles and probably brand new high-end vehicles – things like Porches and Mercedes and very expensive cars – I think you save a lot of money. Like I think you can save $20,000 on a new one.

Mark: I would think so.

Jill: And so I think some people even buy them and then sell them here.

Mark: Yeah, right. Yeah, I would think that happens, for sure. I know that some car manufacturers forbid their American dealers from selling new cars to Canadians to protect their Canadian dealers which, again, seems kind of unfair.

Jill: Well, especially given the fact that for years when the Canadian dollar was low Americans came up here left, right and center to buy vehicles here because for them it was a good deal.

Mark: Yeah, exactly.

Jill: You know, so what's the difference? Mark: Yeah, now I don't know if they tried to prevent Americans from doing that then. Jill: Yeah, I'm not sure either, but I've read some articles that say that was happening a lot. Mark: I remember that, for sure. Americans would come up here and buy cars before when the dollar was the reverse; when our dollar was so weak, yeah. I know that the car that we bought when we looked at getting it in the states they wouldn't sell a new one because it's a North American car and they said no. Jill: Really?

Mark: Yeah.

We can't sell you a new one, but we have some 2007s that they can sell. So they can sell used cars, but not new and so we ended up getting a 2007 anyway, but we got it here.

Jill: Well, because like I said, they're offering such low financing now, right? Mark: Yeah.

Jill: Rebates and all sorts of different…

Mark: So there were a number of incentives that they brought in, obviously, to get people to keep their money in Canada and buy here. The financing was a nice option because, obviously, if you're buying on eBay you've got to buy it you can't borrow the money. A lot of car manufacturers here when you buy a new car you have the option to buy it outright or to lease it or finance it, which means you're borrowing the money from the manufacturer, basically. They offer quite low rates, so why not? Why wouldn't I? Jill: Yeah and then you're not dealing with, you know, any of the headache of importing a vehicle. Mark: Well, that's right, you avoid that. To be honest, after your stories about buying cars on eBay we definitely were looking on eBay. We were kind of thinking yeah, you know what, we probably will do that and then we looked at the particular car that we got and liked it and it turned out that for that car it wasn't such a great… Jill: You weren't going to save much, right? Mark: We weren't going to save that much, so it wasn't worth the hassle. Jill: And I think you were saying that for the same year any of the cars you saw in the states had way more miles or kilometers on it.

Mark: That's right. Jill: And, actually, we found that too. The two vehicles we bought and all the other ones we've looked at or most that we've looked at on eBay seemed to have a lot higher mileage on them then the same year of vehicles here in Canada. So I don't know if people have longer commutes in the U.S. in general or what, but generally I find there's definitely more mileage on American vehicles. Mark: I'd be interested to see statistics on that because I just had the feeling when I was in Los Angeles recently that boy, people spend a lot of time driving and you're driving long distances. You're on the freeway so you're moving quickly, but you're driving long distances. Jill: Every day to and from work.

Mark: Yeah and I just remember thinking wow, people here must drive a lot more than we do, at least in Vancouver. I mean in Toronto I assume they probably drive a lot because it's that much bigger. Presumably, the bigger the city the more driving you have to do.

Jill: Right.

I guess in Canada we don't really have any huge cities. Toronto is the biggest and it's, whatever, four million people or five million people and Vancouver is a couple million and, you know, Calvary's a million, so they're small in comparison to a lot of American cities, so I guess people don't have the distances to travel. Mark: Yeah, I really don't know. I mean, obviously, in Canada there's long distances between cities. If you do much of that kind of driving then you're putting a lot of kilometers on your vehicle. But I did notice that on eBay anyway that wow, these cars have been driven a lot.

Jill: Two-year-old cars and they have, you know, 60,000 kilometers on them.

Mark: Yeah, I know, I know.

Jill: You wouldn't find that very often here. Mark: Yeah, I know. It just may be that's the kind of car that gets traded in after two years. Jill: Well, probably a lot of them are leased vehicles.

Mark: Right.

People drive them, they know they drive a lot, they drive them for two years, three years and then they turn them in and get another one, right?

Jill: Right.

Mark: Anyway, I know you were quite sad to get rid of your old car.

Jill: To part with my little Honda? Actually, it's still in the family. Mark: Is it?

Jill: I've passed it along. I've given it to my little sister… Mark: Oh really?

Jill: …who's just 16, so she has her learner's permit. In April when she turns 17 she graduates to the next level where she can insure a vehicle and drive without an adult present or without…whatever the regulations are, I'm not even sure. Mark: Yeah.

Jill: So I just gave it to her.

Mark: Right.

Jill: It needs some work it's a '93 Honda Civic. It was a great car; I put so little money into it. It was just awesome, but I didn't want to put any money into it now. It just didn't make sense when it's that old, so I've given it to her and she's going to get a few things fixed on it. Mark: But aren't those cars that the young punks like because they can soup them up? Jill: Oh yeah, yeah.

Mark: Isn't it all the Honda Civics and whatever that the teenagers and street racers like to soup-up? Jill: Yeah, a lot of times they are, yeah.

Mark: It's always those… Jill: …little Honda Civics, yeah.

Mark: Yeah, Honda Civics.

Jill: But they're really good cars that last such a long time so, hopefully, she can get a couple years out of it now. Mark: Oh yeah, Hondas go forever, aye?

Jill: Yeah, they're great. Mark: Yeah, yeah, it was a bit like our old Durango that we got rid of; our kids liked it better.

Jill: They liked it better than your new one?

Mark: Yeah, yeah, I mean you know how they are.

Jill: They're just used to it. Mark: They're used to it, right. Yeah, they liked it; except for the new car has a DVD player in it.

Jill: Oh, that must be a big hit.

Mark: Oh yeah, so that's the only thing they like about it. Yeah, kids are funny.

Jill: Oh, that is funny.

Mark: Yeah, no, it didn't owe us anything either. We'd had that car for, I don't know, nine years I guess, so it was time. Jill: Stuff starts going wrong.

Mark: Yeah and then you have to make a decision whether you want to put money in to fix everything up, fix things up that are going to start to go wrong or give someone else that problem.

Jill: Exactly.

Mark: So that's what we chose to do. Anyway, I hope this has been interesting to our listeners. We're sort of hitting that time when people's workouts are over, so we'll let you go and talk to you again next time. Jill: Bye, bye.


One hundred and three: Buying a Car Einhundertdrei: Ein Auto kaufen Ciento tres Comprar un coche 百聞は一見にしかず:車を購入する Sto trzy: Zakup samochodu Cento e três: Comprar um carro Сто три: Покупка автомобиля Yüz üç: Araba Satın Almak 第一百零三:买车

Mark: Mark Kaufmann here, how's everybody? Jill, how's it going today? Jill: Good, thanks, how are you?

Mark: Good, welcome to the EnglishLingQ Podcast. Well, it's not raining right now. We were just talking about how…

Jill: Don't jinx it! Jill: ¡No lo gafes! 吉尔:别咒它! Mark: …it's been extremely miserable around here lately, although, right now there's this bright thing sort of shining in my eyes through the window. Mark: ...últimamente se está pasando muy mal por aquí, aunque ahora mismo hay una especie de luz que me ilumina los ojos a través de la ventana. Марк: ...в последнее время здесь было очень жалко, хотя сейчас мне в глаза светит яркая штука через окно. 马克:……最近这里的情况非常悲惨,不过,现在有一个明亮的东西透过窗户在我的眼睛里闪烁。 Jill: I don't know what it is. We haven't seen it for a while. 我们已经有一段时间没看到它了。 Mark: No. I hope somebody does something about that because it's hard on the eyes. Espero que alguien haga algo al respecto porque es duro para los ojos. Я надеюсь, что кто-нибудь что-нибудь сделает с этим, потому что это тяжело для глаз. 我希望有人对此采取行动,因为这对眼睛来说很困难。 Jill: Oh gosh, yeah, it's terrible. Actually, I think it was on Thursday we had several nice hours because I went out for a walk at lunch and there was blue sky. Maybe it was Friday, I can't remember, Thursday or Friday, because it was the only day in the last two weeks where there was some blue sky. 也许是星期五,我不记得了,星期四还是星期五,因为这是过去两周里唯一一天有蓝天。 Mark: Right.

Jill: So I went out for a walk and it was really beautiful, but then I notice by the time I left at the end of the day it was raining again and, basically, has been raining ever since with a few breaks here and there. Jill: Así que salí a dar un paseo y fue realmente hermoso, pero luego me doy cuenta de que en el momento en que me fui al final del día estaba lloviendo de nuevo y, básicamente, ha estado lloviendo desde entonces con algunas pausas aquí y allá. Jill: Yürüyüşe çıktım ve hava gerçekten çok güzeldi, ancak günün sonunda ayrıldığımda tekrar yağmur yağdığını fark ettim ve temelde o zamandan beri burada ve orada birkaç mola ile yağmur yağıyor. 吉尔:所以我出去散步,那里真的很美,但后来我注意到,当我在一天结束时离开时,又下雨了,基本上,从那以后就一直在下雨,时不时地休息一下。 。 But, apparently, it's supposed to start being nice tomorrow for a few days. Ama görünüşe göre yarın birkaç günlüğüne hava güzelleşmeye başlayacak. 但是,显然,明天将会开始好几天。 Mark: Oh really?

Jill: Yes.

Mark: I hadn't heard that I was expecting more of the same. 马克:我没听说我期待更多同样的事情。 We've got to be setting some records. Tenemos que batir algunos récords. 我们必须创造一些记录。 Like it's not just raining, it's raining hard. 看来这不仅是雨,而且是倾盆大雨。 Jill: And windy and, I mean, I guess… See, the temperatures are quite high.

Mark: Right.

Jill: There's been a lot of sort of 8-9 degree weather, so it's not really cold, but it's damp and it's gray and dark. 吉尔:这里经常出现 8 到 9 度的天气,所以并不是很冷,但很潮湿,而且天气灰暗。 Mark: The problem is when it's that warm then it's not always snow up on the mountain. Mark: El problema es que cuando hace tanto calor no siempre hay nieve en la montaña. 马克:问题是,当天气这么热时,山上并不总是下雪。 At least if it's a little cooler you can justify it by saying boy, is the skiing or snowshoeing ever going to be great this weekend. Al menos si hace un poco más de fresco puedes justificarlo diciendo chico, es que el esquí o las raquetas de nieve van a ser geniales este fin de semana. По крайней мере, если немного прохладнее, можно оправдать это тем, что, мол, в эти выходные можно отлично покататься на лыжах или снегоступах. 至少,如果天气凉爽一点,你可以说天哪,这个周末滑雪或雪鞋行走会很棒吗? Jill: Yeah, exactly.

Mark: Chances are it's been raining up on the ski hills also, which is too bad. 马克:很可能滑雪场也在下雨,这太糟糕了。 Jill: It was just sort of very wet snow on Saturday; I went up snowshoeing. 吉尔:周六下了一场非常湿的雪;我穿着雪鞋行走。

Mark: Oh you did, yeah. 马克:哦,你做到了,是的。

Jill: And so in the morning when I was up there and it was pouring rain down here it was, you know, probably just zero degrees up there, because it was barely snow, kind of icy snow or wet snow. 吉尔:所以早上,当我在那里时,这里下着倾盆大雨,你知道,那里的温度可能只有零度,因为几乎没有下雪,有点冰雪或湿雪。 So, yeah, it's not getting that cold up on the mountains either. Mark: Although, it looked like they had fresh snow up there. 马克:不过,看起来那里好像有新雪。 Like driving in today you could see up the hill. 就像今天开车一样,你可以看到山上。

Jill: Yeah.

Mark: I guess even to 2 or 3 above, very often, snow will still fall up on the hill. Mark: Supongo que incluso a 2 ó 3 por encima, muy a menudo, seguirá cayendo nieve en la colina. 马克:我想即使到了 2 或 3 以上,很多时候雪仍然会落在山上。 It doesn't have to be zero for snow to fall, like it comes down if it's cold enough… 下雪不一定要为零,就像如果足够冷的话就会下雪一样…… Jill: Yeah.

Mark: …or close to zero. Anyway, I think there's still a lot of snow up there. I didn't quite get up there this weekend I was busy watching soccer in the rain. Este fin de semana no he podido subir, he estado ocupado viendo el fútbol bajo la lluvia. В эти выходные я туда не добрался - был занят просмотром футбола под дождем. 这个周末我没有完全起床,我正忙着在雨中看足球比赛。 Jill: Like most other weekends in the winter.

Mark: That's right. What was funny is, as you say, on Saturday it cleared up for a couple hours and I thought oh, it's going to be nice. I went to the soccer game without my raincoat or umbrella or a hat or any type of rain protection. 我去看足球比赛时没有带雨衣、雨伞、帽子或任何类型的防雨用品。

Jill: And how long have you lived in Vancouver?

Mark: Yeah, it really wasn't very smart, but maybe I'm a bit optimistic. 马克:是的,这确实不是很聪明,但也许我有点乐观。 Jill: Yes, yes.

Mark: The minute her soccer started it started raining and rained the whole time. 马克:她的足球一开始就开始下雨,一直下着雨。 I was pretty damp by the end of it. 到最后我已经湿透了。

Jill: Ah, that's not pleasant. 吉尔:啊,那可不太愉快。 Mark: Anyway, that's how it is here. Jill: And it can change so quickly the weather here. 吉尔:而且这里的天气变化得很快。 It can go from being sunny and nice and an hour later it's pouring rain outside or vice-versa. 天气可能会从晴朗宜人变成一小时后外面倾盆大雨,反之亦然。 Mark: You find that? I mean there's some change but, in general, if we've got nice weather we have nice weather for a while. 我的意思是有一些变化,但总的来说,如果天气好的话,我们会持续一段时间。 If we've got bad weather we get bad weather for a while. 如果天气不好,我们会持续一段时间。 Jill: Yeah.

Mark: We get weather systems that kind of stick around, I thought. Mark: Creo que tenemos sistemas meteorológicos que se quedan. Mark: Sanırım etrafta dolaşan hava sistemleri oluyor. 马克:我想,我们的天气系统会持续存在。

Jill: Well yeah, for sure, but within a day it can be decent out for a while and the next time you look out all of a sudden it's hailing or something. Jill: Bueno, sí, por supuesto, pero en un día puede ser decente a cabo por un tiempo y la próxima vez que mirar hacia fuera de repente es granizo o algo así. Джил: Да, конечно, но в течение дня может быть вполне приличная погода, а в следующий раз, когда вы выглядываете на улицу, вдруг идет град или что-то в этом роде. 吉尔:嗯,是的,当然,但是一天之内,天气可能会好一阵子,下次你向外看时,突然会下冰雹什么的。 All these weird things can happen very quickly.

Mark: Yeah.

Jill: Usually, though, you're right, you get a system that is there for a few days or a week or whatever, but it's been particularly bad the last couple weeks. 吉尔:不过,通常情况下,你是对的,你会得到一个可以运行几天或一周或其他时间的系统,但最近几周特别糟糕。 Mark: It has been; I can't deny that. Mark: Lo ha sido; no puedo negarlo. We've got Henry our programmer…any of you who have been listening to the French LingQ Podcast will know Henry…anyway, he's from France and he's now here in Vancouver working with us. I think he's wondering what all this weather is about here in Vancouver. 我想他想知道温哥华的天气到底是怎么回事。 Jill: Although, he said it's very much like this where he's from in France. 吉尔:不过,他说他来自法国,情况很像。 Mark: Oh, is that right?

Oh, okay.

Jill: He said the weather is very similar, wet and rainy in the winter.

Mark: I mean a lot of places in the winter if it's not snowing it's kind of gray and raining, yeah. 马克:我的意思是冬天很多地方如果不下雪的话就会是灰色的并且会下雨,是的。 It's wintertime, what can you expect? Jill: That's right. Mark: We should all move somewhere more south. 马克:我们都应该搬到更南边的地方。

Jill: No, I love it here. I don't want to move, I just want to get away once in a while and see some sunshine. No quiero mudarme, sólo quiero escaparme de vez en cuando y ver algo de sol. 我不想动,只是想偶尔出去走走,看看阳光。 Mark: I thought you were going to say I'm just waiting for global warming to kick in. Mark: Creía que ibas a decir que estoy esperando a que se produzca el calentamiento global. 马克:我以为你会说我只是在等待全球变暖的发生。 Jill: No, no, I won't hold my breath. Jill: No, no, no voy a contener la respiración. Джил: Нет, нет, я не буду задерживать дыхание. 吉尔:不,不,我不会屏住呼吸。 Mark: No. Anyway, we thought today…because in the last I guess six months or so both of us bought new cars, not necessarily new, but new to us…I thought that might be an interesting topic, something that many of our listeners experience in their own countries or if they're immigrants to North America experience here or immigrants anywhere for that matter, just to sort of give people a bit of a sense of what it's like here when you go car shopping. 不管怎样,我们今天想……因为在过去的六个月左右,我们都买了新车,不一定是新的,但对我们来说是新的……我认为这可能是一个有趣的话题,我们的许多听众在他们的生活中经历过的事情自己的国家,或者如果他们是北美移民,在这里或在任何地方移民,只是为了让人们在购买汽车时对这里有一些了解。 Not that I know what it's like everywhere else, but I thought why not talk about that today. Başka yerlerde nasıl olduğunu bildiğimden değil, ama bugün neden bundan bahsetmeyelim diye düşündüm. 虽然我不知道其他地方是什么样子,但我想为什么今天不谈论这个呢。 Jill: Sounds good.

Mark: So you, I guess, got a car in the summer.

Jill: Yeah, we ordered… Well, we got it from the states because right now with the Canadian dollar being so strong cars in the states cost a lot less money than they do in Canada. 吉尔:是的,我们订购了……嗯,我们从各州获得,因为现在加元如此坚挺,各州的汽车价格比加拿大低得多。 I think that's changing a bit, manufacturers, car manufacturers and dealers, maybe independent dealers, are offering rebates and very low financing options and stuff in Canada to try to keep people here. 我认为这种情况正在发生一些变化,制造商、汽车制造商和经销商,也许是独立经销商,正在加拿大提供回扣和非常低的融资选择以及其他东西,以试图留住人们。 But we actually bought a car in the summer and another one about a month ago off eBay from the states. 但我们实际上在夏天买了一辆汽车,大约一个月前从美国的 eBay 上买了另一辆。 I know it's kind of a big purchase to do through eBay and not everybody would feel comfortable doing that, but we've done it twice and it's worked out really, really, well and we've saved a lot of money. 我知道通过 eBay 进行的购买是一笔大笔交易,并不是每个人都愿意这样做,但我们已经这样做了两次,效果非常非常好,而且我们节省了很多钱。 We didn't buy brand new cars; both of them are 2004s, so a few years old, but in great condition. No compramos coches nuevos; los dos son de 2004, así que tienen unos años, pero están en muy buen estado. 我们买的不是全新的汽车;这两辆车都是 2004 年的,已经有几年了,但状况很好。 We bought them through reputable dealers who had a history on eBay as being very good to deal with, always 100 percent positive feedback and yeah, it's just worked out really well for us. Los compramos a través de distribuidores de confianza que tenían un historial en eBay como muy bueno para tratar, siempre el 100 por ciento de retroalimentación positiva y sí, sólo ha funcionado muy bien para nosotros. 我们通过信誉良好的经销商购买了它们,这些经销商在 eBay 上有很好的合作历史,总是获得 100% 的积极反馈,是的,这对我们来说效果非常好。 Mark: Well, good for you. 马克:嗯,对你有好处。 In this Internet world, why not? I mean, yeah, especially given the big difference in car prices because of the big change in the value of the Canadian dollar. 我的意思是,是的,特别是考虑到由于加元价值的巨大变化而导致汽车价格的巨大差异。 Yeah, if you can get on the Internet and save yourself, you know…it's significant; it's like 25 percent, like it's a big difference. 是的,如果你能上网并拯救自己,你知道……这很重要;好像是25%,差别很大。 Jill: It's a big number, yeah. Mark: When you're talking about cars that's a big number. And, yeah, there's a bit of hassle at the border bringing it in, but I think you said really not too bad. Y, sí, hay un poco de lío en la frontera para traerlo, pero creo que has dicho que en realidad no está tan mal. 是的,边境带进来有点麻烦,但我想你说的还不错。 Jill: No and I mean this last one that we got there was no trouble at all, no hassle at all. It was very easy, it went very smoothly and we probably saved about $8,000 even after paying our shipping and paying duty and Canadian taxes and all of that. 这非常容易,进展非常顺利,即使在支付了运费、关税和加拿大税等等之后,我们可能还节省了大约 8,000 美元。 At least $7,000 anyway we saved and it really wasn't a big hassle in any way. 无论如何,我们至少节省了 7,000 美元,而且无论如何,这确实不是什么大麻烦。 Mark: Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, I guess prices will eventually reflect the change in the dollar, but I tell you, the dollar has been strengthening for a few years now and prices have not adjusted for anything as far as I can tell. Es decir, supongo que los precios acabarán reflejando el cambio del dólar, pero ya te digo que el dólar lleva unos cuantos años fortaleciéndose y los precios no se han ajustado a nada, que yo sepa. 我的意思是,我猜价格最终会反映美元的变化,但我告诉你,美元几年来一直在走强,据我所知,价格尚未调整。 Even at the bookstore you look at books and books here are still 25 percent more expensive than they are in the states.

Jill: At least 25 percent. I have noticed though that a lot of stores here are putting things on sale. 我注意到这里很多商店都在打折。 Some places are even offering if there are two prices to charge the American price. Hatta bazı yerler iki fiyat varsa Amerikan fiyatını almayı teklif ediyor. 有的地方甚至还提供如果有两个价格就按美国价格收费。

Mark: Oh, is that right?

Jill: Because I think the retailers and the merchants are realizing that -- especially places close to the border like Toronto and Vancouver -- it's so easy to get across to the states that people go down there for the day and shop and they're losing all of that. Mark: Yeah and it's quite a touchy issue or a prominent issue right now. People are complaining about, you know, why are prices here not the same? I guess the merchants are saying well, you know, we paid what we had to pay…

Jill: And they did.

Mark: …for these goods when we bought them and very often they're buying ahead, you know, six months, a year, in advance so that “What are they supposed to do?” type of thing. Mark: ...para estos bienes cuando los compramos y muy a menudo están comprando por adelantado, ya sabes, seis meses, un año, por adelantado para que "¿Qué se supone que deben hacer?" tipo de cosa. Марк: ...на эти товары, когда мы их покупали, и очень часто они покупают наперед, понимаете, на полгода, на год вперед, так что "Что они должны делать?". Jill: That's right. People feel ripped off, especially when you can see two prices.

Mark: I would imagine they move more quickly when it's time to raise prices. Jill: Well, this is the thing, yeah.

Mark: It's not like it's a surprise. I guess people always assume that we don't want to cut prices and then have the dollar go the other way type of thing. Sanırım insanlar her zaman fiyatları düşürmek istemediğimizi ve doların diğer tarafa gitmesini istemediğimizi varsayıyor. But, anyway, yeah, no, I thought that was neat to buy not one but two cars on eBay. Ama her neyse, evet, hayır, eBay'den bir değil iki araba almanın harika olduğunu düşündüm.

Jill: Yeah, yeah.

Mark: Yeah, I mean why not? I think from what I can tell there's a lot of people…not a lot, but the number of people buying cars on eBay, especially Canadians buying cars from the states on eBay, is increasing rapidly. Anladığım kadarıyla çok fazla insan var... çok fazla değil, ama eBay'den araba satın alanların, özellikle de eBay'den Amerika'dan araba satın alan Kanadalıların sayısı hızla artıyor. And people buying cars in the states, in general, and importing them; there's been a big rise in people doing that. Y la gente que compra coches en Estados Unidos, en general, y los importa, ha aumentado mucho. Jill: I think some people…especially high-end vehicles and probably brand new high-end vehicles – things like Porches and Mercedes and very expensive cars – I think you save a lot of money. Like I think you can save $20,000 on a new one.

Mark: I would think so.

Jill: And so I think some people even buy them and then sell them here.

Mark: Yeah, right. Yeah, I would think that happens, for sure. I know that some car manufacturers forbid their American dealers from selling new cars to Canadians to protect their Canadian dealers which, again, seems kind of unfair. Sé que algunos fabricantes de coches prohíben a sus concesionarios estadounidenses vender coches nuevos a los canadienses para proteger a sus concesionarios canadienses, lo que, de nuevo, parece un poco injusto.

Jill: Well, especially given the fact that for years when the Canadian dollar was low Americans came up here left, right and center to buy vehicles here because for them it was a good deal.

Mark: Yeah, exactly.

Jill: You know, so what's the difference? Mark: Yeah, now I don't know if they tried to prevent Americans from doing that then. Jill: Yeah, I'm not sure either, but I've read some articles that say that was happening a lot. Mark: I remember that, for sure. Americans would come up here and buy cars before when the dollar was the reverse; when our dollar was so weak, yeah. I know that the car that we bought when we looked at getting it in the states they wouldn't sell a new one because it's a North American car and they said no. Я знаю, что автомобиль, который мы купили, когда мы рассматривали возможность приобретения его в Штатах, они не стали бы продавать новый, потому что это североамериканский автомобиль, и они сказали "нет". Satın aldığımız arabayı Amerika'da almak istediğimizde Kuzey Amerika arabası olduğu için yenisini satmayacaklarını ve hayır dediklerini biliyorum. Jill: Really?

Mark: Yeah.

We can't sell you a new one, but we have some 2007s that they can sell. So they can sell used cars, but not new and so we ended up getting a 2007 anyway, but we got it here. Así que pueden vender coches usados, pero no nuevos y por eso acabamos comprando un 2007 de todas formas, pero lo compramos aquí.

Jill: Well, because like I said, they're offering such low financing now, right? Mark: Yeah.

Jill: Rebates and all sorts of different…

Mark: So there were a number of incentives that they brought in, obviously, to get people to keep their money in Canada and buy here. The financing was a nice option because, obviously, if you're buying on eBay you've got to buy it you can't borrow the money. A lot of car manufacturers here when you buy a new car you have the option to buy it outright or to lease it or finance it, which means you're borrowing the money from the manufacturer, basically. Burada pek çok otomobil üreticisi yeni bir otomobil satın aldığınızda onu doğrudan satın alma ya da kiralama veya finanse etme seçeneğiniz vardır, bu da temelde üreticiden borç para aldığınız anlamına gelir. They offer quite low rates, so why not? Why wouldn't I? Jill: Yeah and then you're not dealing with, you know, any of the headache of importing a vehicle. Mark: Well, that's right, you avoid that. To be honest, after your stories about buying cars on eBay we definitely were looking on eBay. We were kind of thinking yeah, you know what, we probably will do that and then we looked at the particular car that we got and liked it and it turned out that for that car it wasn't such a great… Jill: You weren't going to save much, right? Mark: We weren't going to save that much, so it wasn't worth the hassle. Mark: No íbamos a ahorrar tanto, así que no merecía la pena. Jill: And I think you were saying that for the same year any of the cars you saw in the states had way more miles or kilometers on it. Jill: Y creo que estabas diciendo que para el mismo año cualquiera de los coches que viste en los estados tenían mucho más millas o kilómetros en él.

Mark: That's right. Jill: And, actually, we found that too. The two vehicles we bought and all the other ones we've looked at or most that we've looked at on eBay seemed to have a lot higher mileage on them then the same year of vehicles here in Canada. So I don't know if people have longer commutes in the U.S. Así que no sé si la gente tiene trayectos más largos en EE.UU. in general or what, but generally I find there's definitely more mileage on American vehicles. en general o qué, pero en general me parece que hay definitivamente más kilometraje en los vehículos americanos. Mark: I'd be interested to see statistics on that because I just had the feeling when I was in Los Angeles recently that boy, people spend a lot of time driving and you're driving long distances. You're on the freeway so you're moving quickly, but you're driving long distances. Jill: Every day to and from work.

Mark: Yeah and I just remember thinking wow, people here must drive a lot more than we do, at least in Vancouver. I mean in Toronto I assume they probably drive a lot because it's that much bigger. Presumably, the bigger the city the more driving you have to do.

Jill: Right.

I guess in Canada we don't really have any huge cities. Toronto is the biggest and it's, whatever, four million people or five million people and Vancouver is a couple million and, you know, Calvary's a million, so they're small in comparison to a lot of American cities, so I guess people don't have the distances to travel. Mark: Yeah, I really don't know. I mean, obviously, in Canada there's long distances between cities. If you do much of that kind of driving then you're putting a lot of kilometers on your vehicle. But I did notice that on eBay anyway that wow, these cars have been driven a lot.

Jill: Two-year-old cars and they have, you know, 60,000 kilometers on them.

Mark: Yeah, I know, I know.

Jill: You wouldn't find that very often here. Mark: Yeah, I know. It just may be that's the kind of car that gets traded in after two years. Jill: Well, probably a lot of them are leased vehicles. Jill: Bueno, probablemente muchos de ellos son vehículos alquilados.

Mark: Right.

People drive them, they know they drive a lot, they drive them for two years, three years and then they turn them in and get another one, right?

Jill: Right.

Mark: Anyway, I know you were quite sad to get rid of your old car.

Jill: To part with my little Honda? Jill: Para desprenderse de mi pequeño Honda? Джилл: Расстаться с моей маленькой Honda? Actually, it's still in the family. Mark: Is it?

Jill: I've passed it along. Jill: He pasado a lo largo. Джил: Я передала его. I've given it to my little sister… Mark: Oh really?

Jill: …who's just 16, so she has her learner's permit. Jill: ... que acaba de 16, por lo que tiene su permiso de aprendizaje. In April when she turns 17 she graduates to the next level where she can insure a vehicle and drive without an adult present or without…whatever the regulations are, I'm not even sure. En abril, cuando cumpla 17 años, pasará al siguiente nivel, en el que podrá asegurar un vehículo y conducir sin la presencia de un adulto o sin... cualquiera que sea la normativa, ni siquiera estoy seguro. Mark: Yeah.

Jill: So I just gave it to her.

Mark: Right.

Jill: It needs some work it's a '93 Honda Civic. It was a great car; I put so little money into it. It was just awesome, but I didn't want to put any money into it now. It just didn't make sense when it's that old, so I've given it to her and she's going to get a few things fixed on it. Mark: But aren't those cars that the young punks like because they can soup them up? Mark: ¿Pero no son esos coches los que les gustan a los jóvenes gamberros porque los pueden hinchar? Марк: Но разве не эти машины нравятся молодым панкам, потому что их можно надраить? Jill: Oh yeah, yeah.

Mark: Isn't it all the Honda Civics and whatever that the teenagers and street racers like to soup-up? Mark: ¿No son todos los Honda Civic y lo que sea lo que a los adolescentes y a los pilotos callejeros les gusta tunear? Jill: Yeah, a lot of times they are, yeah.

Mark: It's always those… Jill: …little Honda Civics, yeah.

Mark: Yeah, Honda Civics.

Jill: But they're really good cars that last such a long time so, hopefully, she can get a couple years out of it now. Джил: Но это действительно хорошие машины, которые служат так долго, так что, надеюсь, она сможет прослужить еще пару лет. Mark: Oh yeah, Hondas go forever, aye?

Jill: Yeah, they're great. Mark: Yeah, yeah, it was a bit like our old Durango that we got rid of; our kids liked it better. Mark: Sí, sí, era un poco como nuestro viejo Durango del que nos deshicimos; a nuestros hijos les gustaba más.

Jill: They liked it better than your new one?

Mark: Yeah, yeah, I mean you know how they are.

Jill: They're just used to it. Mark: They're used to it, right. Yeah, they liked it; except for the new car has a DVD player in it.

Jill: Oh, that must be a big hit.

Mark: Oh yeah, so that's the only thing they like about it. Yeah, kids are funny.

Jill: Oh, that is funny.

Mark: Yeah, no, it didn't owe us anything either. Mark: Sí, no, tampoco nos debía nada. We'd had that car for, I don't know, nine years I guess, so it was time. Jill: Stuff starts going wrong.

Mark: Yeah and then you have to make a decision whether you want to put money in to fix everything up, fix things up that are going to start to go wrong or give someone else that problem.

Jill: Exactly.

Mark: So that's what we chose to do. Anyway, I hope this has been interesting to our listeners. We're sort of hitting that time when people's workouts are over, so we'll let you go and talk to you again next time. Estamos llegando a la hora en que la gente termina sus entrenamientos, así que te dejaremos ir y volveremos a hablar contigo la próxima vez. Jill: Bye, bye.