Sayonara Skyline

Back in Kuantan, mum bought a second-hand white Iswara Aeroback. From Kuantan, the car was transferred to Kuala Lumpur where we used it for years. Although not the easiest car to drive with its manual transmission, and lack of power steering, that car was my baptism of fire in the Klang Valley's more challenging traffic. That car served us well for many years. An ex-colleague of mine even gave it a nickname-- Iswara Skyline. However, due to old age (the make is 1996), the car got harder and harder to maintain. Until one point, the car could no longer withstand the city's traffic jams without overheating. And the car's rubber seals had all dried up causing it to turn into a swimming pool every time it rained! The pandemic caused the car to fall into disuse because I had stopped driving it to get to the LRT station. In a few short months, the battery died. Since the situation wasn't going to improve anytime soon, I decided not to change the battery. A few months later, a neighbour of mine asked whether I would like to sell the car. We said yes in a heartbeat although the offer was only MYR500! 

However, that "Yes" was the start of a long ownership transfer process. First drama was when I couldn't find the registration card. Ever since the road tax renewal process was computerized, I had not needed to dig out the registration card. I searched high and low for it, but in the end, it was just a spring cleaning exercise for my stacks and stacks of documents. The second drama was when the agent came to my house to initiate the transfer of ownership. With MyEG, agents can initiate a temporary transfer of ownership via a web portal with the biometric validation of the owner of the vehicle. Unfortunately, the transaction could go through due to a validation error. According to the RTD, Credit Corporation Malaysia (CCM) still had a claim on the vehicle. Very surprising when we had paid-off the hire purchase loan years ago. Anyway, we had to settle it with the financial institution. Not a straightforward matter because CCM no longer exists. Back in the early 2000s, it merged with Hong Leong Finance. And today, there is only Hong Leong Bank. 

Anyway, mum went to the Hong Leong Bank branch nearest to us to make an inquiry. To my surprise, the bank teller told her that there is a record of our Iswara Skyline in the system, but the borrower wasn't my mother. Hence, they could not divulge any information to her. 

えっ! 

Third drama. The agent suggested that we visit the RTD. So on Saturday, after our usual morning marketing, we headed to UTC Plaza Rakyat. Traffic was good and parking was easy. Best of all was the fact that we didn't need to wait long for our turn. I told the officer our predicament and he printed out a report for us. Since we were already there, we also got a replacement vehicle ownership certificate for MYR50. We were out of there before noon. Armed with the report, we visited the same Hong Leong Bank branch on the following working day. Magically, the hire purchase loan was now in my mother's name. What a joke. I just wanted to get things done, so I told them to quickly get us a release letter. The bank took more than a week to settle everything, even asking for a copy of the defunct registration card. Luckily we had plenty of copies. In the end, the agent managed to complete the transfer of ownership, and Iswara Skyline left the family. Goodbye, and thank you for your service!