Car Shopping

Hi all,


It’s another week or well, closer to 10 days later in the land of “Pura Vida” and rainforests. This was “car shopping week”. After this week, I now remember exactly why I really dislike shopping for cars regardless of the country of origin.

First and foremost, all cars in Costa Rica are imported. Second, Costa Rica has a very robust healthcare and educational system (just ask Rush Limbaugh!). This all adds up to third, very high import taxes making cars almost twice as expensive in Costa Rica as they are in the United States. This brings me to the fourth thing. We wanted to buy a decent small SUV made in this decade under less than $15,000. Most of our Tico and Tica friends laughed almost uncontrollably at this thought.

After many days of going to many dealers, we discovered our quest to buy a car has a lot in common with Don Quixote. (ack!)

Our first “windmill” was “car salesman deal with a lot of expats, surely they speak some English.” Ummmm….that would be a NO. So far, in all of the dealerships we’ve visited, one car salesman spoke English. Great…nothing like talking about cars (anyone know the Spanish word for “shock absorber” or “console”?) and the large numbers which are invariably involved ($15,750 or $29,999) in Spanish. Did you notice none of those price examples were UNDER $15,000?

That brings me to our second “windmill”, finding a decent small SUV under $15,000 made in this decade. That has proved to be a bit of a challenge. Most cars since 2003 will be at least $13,000 and over $15,000 if they fall into the “decent small SUV” category from what we’ve found. As a result, we’re delving heavily into the 2000-2003 model years. Most of these cars will run under $15,000. But finding a “decent” meaning “mechanically sound and including an interior which doesn’t resemble a war zone” is a quest we still have yet to complete.

We shall continue valiantly forward since our rental car is costing us a small fortune each month. We have several dealerships to go and a trove of cars for sale by private individuals. We were fortunately referred to a very trustworthy and competent mechanic who we enlist for about $20 a car to thoroughly check out any final candidate. We’ll find a car. The challenge will be finding a car made in the last decade in this decade. Wish us luck! Once we find this “diamond in the rough”, I’ll post a picture with all the details. Stay tuned!