Finding Shubie

Beep! Beep! Beep!

What is that?

Should I pull over?

Not even 24 hours had passed since the three of us had bought our Great Australian Road Trip car, a bright red 2006 Mitsubishi that we had christened Shubie.

There’s a light blinking on the dashboard.

I’m pulling over.

We take the car off the winding road leading up to the Blue Mountains and stop in front of train tracks that are now lit only by Shubie’s headlights.

So, the blinking light looks like…a coffee cup? With steam coming out of it?

Do you think Shubie is trying to tell us that the engine is steaming? Like overheating?

Buyer’s remorse kicks in.

***

I promise you that this oil stain is from another car. Who knows how long it’s been there. Can’t you girls see that it’s an old stain?

Camila stuck her finger in the puddle where the old Toyota RAV4 had been parked before we test drove it and held out her hand slick with oil towards the car salesman. Only then did he begrudgingly drop his story that the car wasn’t leaking.

To the frustration of the car salesman, we were very dedicated to finding any flaws the car might have. Especially Camila.

Although Jana and I hadn’t planned on purchasing our first car in Australia, some research revealed that buying a car with our friend was the best and most economical option for our road trip. However, after trekking two hours by train, bus, and foot to the outskirts of Sydney just to see the disappointing Toyota, we came to the realization that it wasn’t the easiest option. It was becoming clear to us that we’d probably need a car in order to effectively purchase a decent, inexpensive car in Sydney. Absurd.

We were about to give up, but after some detective work, our hope was restored.

Car City Minchinbury. We should go there.

What is that?

A lot of the cars that we saw on Gumtree, which is the Australian equivalent of Kijiji, linked back to a mysterious location. Some Googling later, we identified the location as Minchinbury Car City, a group of about twenty used-car dealerships that together formed a “dealership city” in a town just west of Sydney.

If we don’t find a car there, we won’t find it anywhere.

We hopped on a train to Minchinbury.

***

We entered Car City early in the morning, the sun bright and our moods optimistic, glad we hadn’t settled for the leaky car we saw the day before.

The first dealer showed us some viable options, making sure to point out also which cars he wouldn’t recommend to us. He was a family man. He had daughters, so he would NEVER EVER let us go on a trip up the coast in an unsafe vehicle. Did he mention he was a family man?

As we walked through the dust, barely noticing where one dealership ended and another started, dealers popped out of every direction, slithering between cars to yell after us: Girls, girls! What are you looking for? Come back!

A barefoot dealer with a very chilled-out vibe informed us we were wasting our time at Car City. It was absolutely ridiculous of us to spend another minute there! We needed to just buy his car and get back to the hostel and drink a beer. Despite his indisputable logic, we passed on his offer.

We really liked a Mazda that a dealer named Bobby was selling...until he wouldn’t stop dropping the price.

There was probably something wrong with the Mazda.

We followed our instincts and kept looking. When we walked by Bobby’s dealership later that day, he hustled towards us. Someone’s looking at the car now, he whispered, but I’ll get rid of them if you want it.

There was definitely something wrong with the Mazda.

By midafternoon, the sun was scorching and our patience was dwindling. We carried on.

Following the regular testing protocol we had developed for cars that we were considering, Camila revved the engine on a Camry as Jana and I crouched near the exhaust pipe with a salesman, all of us sweating in the winter heat.

So you don’t want to see any smoke, he barely finished saying as a cloud of grey smoke billowed out from the pipe. His sweaty polo suddenly seemed even wetter. After a moment of uncomfortable eye contact, he dropped the price by a thousand.

And then there was Shubie.

Shubie and Jana in their natural habitat.

***

I’m not going to say it was love at first sight, but it was a very intense “like.” Shubie was one of the first cars we saw in the morning, and he stuck in our minds as we walked through Minchinbury Car City, determined to see every single affordable car before we made our decision.

The sun was beginning to set when the three of us made it back to Zaw’s dealership where Shubie was patiently waiting for us to realize he was the best thing we’d find.

Zaw, his wife, and their crew ogled us with a mix of curiosity and judgement when we spent an hour walking around Shubie looking for errors. Camila’s brother from Mexico was rattling off advice in Spanish over Skype while our dad in Canada was examining the tread of the tires over Messenger video call.

The Mitsubishi passed all of our tests. The only thing holding us back was the damaged paint on the Shubie’s hood, which we worried would affect his resale value. As we debated among each other, Zaw’s wife quietly came out with a bottle of red nail polish and dabbed at the blemishes.

***

The dashboard light is still blinking.

All three of us are on our phones now, the screens lighting our faces as we search up variations of “coffee cup,” “Mitsubishi,” and “warning symbol.” Shubie didn’t come with an owner’s manual, so we’re relying on Google to tell us just how screwed we are.

Found it! Jana says. She falls silent while she reads.

Camila and I wait. I think we’re both holding our breaths, wondering just how much this will cost and where we’ll find a mechanic up in the Blue Mountains.

It’s not an overheating engine, guys. Jana starts to laugh.

The blinking dashboard symbol is actually a coffee cup.

Shubie is trying to tell us that we are too tired to drive and that we should have a cup of coffee.

He doesn’t account for the fact that we’re drifting because we just haven’t gotten used to driving on the left yet.

But, bottom line, our dear Shubie is concerned about our safety. And that’s when we know we picked a good one.

We sold Shubie a few weeks ago. But for three months, from Sydney to Airlie Beach, through 5,000 km of all kinds of terrain, he never let us down.