The Waiting Game

“What can I do to get you leaving in this car today?” said every car dealer ever. Well, much like most things, buying a car is a bit different in Ecuador.

As a part of our school’s recruitment package, they offer interest free loans to all of their new teachers. They are paid out via direct deposit and can be used at the teachers’ discretion.

Cars are very expensive in Ecuador. A BMW that might go for $30,000 in the States goes for about $90,000 here. That is not an exaggeration. In an effort to encourage local businesses, the Ecuadorian government places high tariffs and various other import taxes and restrictions on cars. It’s a great idea in theory to stimulate the economy with the exception of the fact that Ecuador…doesn’t produce its own cars. There are assembly plants here and that is one of the ways to try to skirt the taxes, but nonetheless cars are outrageously expensive here.

If you want to bring a car to Ecuador with you…nah. It has to be within 1 year of being brand new, and you have to attach a 40% tax of the cost of the car plus import fees and transportation cost. It’s not worth it.

So with all of this information in hand, and our loan money in our accounts, Shannon and I set off to buy a car. We asked a few teachers who had already purchased a car and heard that most people go to something called patiotuerca.com to purchase their cars. This is basically a Craigslist for car purchases in South America. There were some decent options on their (relative to Ecuadorian markets) but no one ever emailed or called us back.

We asked for a different method and found that simply asking for help finding a car was useful too. We received a few emails from people either encouraging us to use patiotuerca.com or giving us a phone number of a “cousin” who knows a guy who sells cars. When we tried to contact them…again no luck.

Admittedly, we were in a difficult spot. It is one of my great shames that I am not a proficient driver of manual cars and 98% of all cars in Ecuador are manual. I thought of this as a great opportunity to get better at it but with the country being nestled in the Andes Mountains and our roads as flat as a ski slope, Shannon didn’t feel like she’d be comfortable learning manual here. So we decided on an automatic car.

Having been around the country as well and seeing what roads were like outside of the city, we decided on an SUV to navigate the dirty and dust and mud. Clearly, our options were limited.

Eventually, one of the kindest and most genuinely helpful people in or school offered to help us. He said “I know how frustrating it is to not have a car here and how difficult it is to buy one. Plus you are still learning the language and locals here will try to upsell you since you’re a gringo.” Fair enough. This savior of ours picked us up on the first day of Christmas break and drove us around from dealership to dealership for 9 hours. We visited 14 dealerships and found that either every used car was above $17,000 or the cars were crap. We even went to one place that quoted us a price but only if we took it then and there and didn’t take it to a mechanic first. Real slick…

After 9 hours of this guy taking one of his vacation days to translate, drive for us, and negotiate we found a car that fit our needs. It was a 2005 Hyundai Tucson that fit our budget, our automatic preference, and our road needs. The dealership was closing so we told them we’d be back the next day.

The car of our dreams...or the best thing we could afford.

When the dealership opened, we went to take the car to a mechanic that came highly recommended to us. The mechanic did a thorough inspection and found a myriad of issues; most of which were cosmetic and the rest of which were very minor. We went for a lunch and deliberated and eventually came to the conclusion that we wanted to buy the car.

We went back to the dealership, put a down payment on the car and made an agreement that we would transfer the rest of the money for the car in the subsequent days. For some reason, Ecuadorian banks don’t let you transfer more than $4,999 per day from one account to another. As a result, this had to be a multi-day purchase. Before we left, we made an agreement that we would transfer the money each day and the paperwork would be ready for us to take the car on Friday. We couldn’t do it sooner since the following days were Christmas Eve and Day so we reluctantly left the dealership having paid some money but without a car.

When Friday rolled around, we woke up excitedly and went to go get our car. But…our paperwork wasn’t ready. It would be ready on Monday of course, but we were scheduled to leave the city on a vacation with Shannon’s family the next morning. (more on that later) We were scheduled to come back the following Wednesday and Thursday before leaving the city again, but of course we couldn’t get the car those days either because it was New Years Eve and Day and everything would be closed.  We clenched our teeth and resolved to get the car when we came back. In fact, we arranged for the car to be delivered to our school as we didn’t have licenses yet and didn’t want to drive without them. Also, we both had sports practices to coach, plus a full day of teaching.

When Monday came, we were told that our last transfer never came through. They couldn’t give us the car with a mere contract and $12,000 paid already. That would be outrageous.  The reason the last transfer didn’t go through was because it was placed on 12/31 and in Ecuador, Y2K is a real thing and happens every year. When the clock strikes 3:34 pm or some other arbitrary number on New Year’s Eve, every computer and banking system goes crazy. Our payment didn’t go through because the account that we had already authorized, called and checked, and transferred money to…didn’t exist. We had to resubmit the transfer and of course due to Y2K, that wouldn’t process until about 20 days later because…well…of course it wouldn’t.

With the help of our savior who took us to the dealership, we called hourly until we made an agreement that the dealership would write a certified and notarized letter saying we owned the car and had permission to drive it. That would help us bridge the 20 day waiting period.

Oh, also we still don’t have the car. It was paid for and the contract was signed 17 days ago. I now have my license. The transfer is officially accounted for and processed and we don’t have our car. We hope that will be resolved today or tomorrow; but while the hopes are high the expectations are not.

The next time a slimy car dealer says to you, “What can I do to get you in this car today?” hug that man or woman. Hug them hard and hold them tightly because there are worse things when car shopping. 

UPDATE: While coaching a basketball game yesterday, the friend who was helping us get the car and helping us with the communication walked up to me dangling keys in front of his face with a big smile. He told me he finally had the car and when I thanked him but told him it was not a good time, he said "No problem, I'll just give it to Shannon." Then he proceeded to walk across the court while the game was going on, apparently oblivious to the outside world and consumed with his personal victory on our behalf. Either way, we have been reunited with the car that we purchased. It may be a decade old now, when it was 9 years old at purchase time, but that's beside the point.