FINALLY

After (over) one and a half months, our hunt for a car has FINALLY come to an end. I am going through buyer’s remorse as I’m writing this post, but Azadeh assures me that we made the best decision given our situation, and I reluctantly admit it. We agreed to pay 38,250,000 Zambian Kwacha (between $6,800 and $7,700 depending on the exchange rate you choose to use) for a 1996 Honda CRV. Out of tons of cars (We must have test driven over a dozen cars) this was clearly the second best choice.

The best choice, was a 1997 Toyota Rav 4 for $6,100 with (what I consider to be) significant cosmetic damage, but clean mechanically. Unfortunately, that was the first car we test drove, and by the time we figured out how good of a car that was, someone offered about $7,000 for it.

Most of the cars we saw had been in accidents, and all of them, without any exceptions had cosmetic damage. The car we bought is the one that was in the best shape in that respect, and “only” has a “few” dings and dents – 3 significant dents. In addition, it is missing a drive shaft that enables the 4x4 function, something makes a clicking noise when we drive on un-even surfaces, and the driver’s window moves slowly (about to break?!). Even with these issues, it is considered to be in excellent shape when compared to its “competitors”. Therefore, I agree with Azadeh. We did make the best decision, given our situation. The “only downside” is the fact that I feel that we overpaid by a few hundred dollars, but our landlord thinks it’s a better than fair deal, and people who have bought similar cars also don’t think that we overpaid either. Time will tell.

An entire team of people helped us through the process:

Jason – First and foremost. He is a friend of ours who is a mechanic. He helped us tremendously by inspecting at least half a dozen cars. The car we bought is the only one he approved of, other than the initial Rav 4 we almost bought. On Saturday he spent over an hour and a half just on the Honda. (He was looking for the source of the clicking sound). Thereafter, he spent some more time, repairing the car we borrowed, which, after having a series of issues, finally broke down. It wouldn’t start. I kept trying and trying, with no success. Once we smelled gas, we got concerned and gave up. It turned out that each time I tried starting the car, it lost about a liter of fuel. (Look at pictures below.) Jason came over and corrected the problem. That’s right in addition to checking out the Honda, Jason also repaired the VW. In other words, he spent all day Saturday with me and my cars. I don’t know what we would have done without him. THANK YOU JASON!

Mr. Shula – An employee of PCI who is also a member of the police force, he helped us “check out” the sellers. At one point, we were about to make a move, and it turned out that the potential seller wasn’t actually the owner of the car. What a relief to have people like him around. In addition, he is taking care of all the paperwork, which would have taken me at least an entire day.

Hamed – He helped us with the transaction. He advised that we should not pay the entire amount until we have proof of ownership of the car under our name. At this time we paid 29,000,000 and we will pay the remainder when we have a “white book” (A sheet of paper that states who the owners and “absolute owners” are). Although Hamed’s help was tremendously important, he is also the main reason for my feeling of buyer’s remorse. He is pretty experienced in buying and selling cars, and mentioned that he would not go for anything other than a Toyota, and that we may have trouble selling this car for the same amount we bought it for. Given that we’ve spent over six weeks looking for a Toyota, I feel that we made the right decision in buying this car. However, I also agree with him, and therefore, I’m not too excited about this purchase.

Mehran & Joyce – THANK YOU to our friends who have allowed us to borrow the VW for such a long time!

Moses – The “car agent”. Many cars are sold by agents around here. They collect a fee of around 10% (from what I hear). Moses showed us the initial Rav4, and several other cars. I hoped that we would buy a car from him, as I started getting along with him pretty well. Unfortunately, that did not happen. We ended up buying a car from a private party. However, the seller also had a co-worker/friend/agent.

For consistency’s sake, I’ll bring up the time issue again… although it’s starting to get old, I know… – Total hours I waited for people during the car buying experience: Any guesses?! ….. 15+. The potential sellers were almost always late. The ones I met with more than once improved, given that, as you can see, I am pretty expressive with respect to “time management issues”. I honestly believe that if people here would be punctual on a regular basis, the economy would improve. The most amazing fact however, is that more than once, a potential seller and I were waiting for a member of my team, and the potential seller was always very relaxed, and didn’t mind waiting at all, while I grew more and more impatient every time. In a couple of cases we waited for over two hours. One particular time, the seller even started telling me stories, and then got into Zambian history, just to keep me entertained, where I felt that if anything, I should be the one apologizing to the seller, and attempting to keep him* entertained, given that we were waiting on my team members.

*All sellers I met with were male. Even the cars, that were owned by females, were shown by male representatives (cousins, brothers,…). I’m not quite sure what the reason is, but I imagine that it’s a combination of safety and culture.

Hopefully next week’s post will finally include pictures of “wild animals” other than spiders and lizards… Keep your fingers crossed!

Our new car:




The seller and his agent.





That's GAS streaming out from underneath the car.


Our Landladies - Current and Former

Where's Waldo? Can you see an animal in this picture?