Matricula!!!!

HA! On January 8, I posted a story about how it had taken 17 days to get our car after we purchased it. “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.” What a fool I was. If you are ever in a situation where your patience is tried as we were when we purchased the car, I want you to always keep in mind that it can, and probably will get worse.

In Ecuador, when you purchase a car, you get something called a matricula. Essentially a matricula amounts to a car’s title, registration, and emissions inspection all in one. It is reasonable to expect the transaction of a matricula to take as long as getting a car’s registration in your name when you make a purchase. It’s essentially the same step. But not here!

I have not posted anything about this process since we purchased the car for fear of jinxing us. This week, we finally got our matricula. It took 153 days. Now, for context here are some things that one can do in 153 days: 2 trimesters of child incubating, biking across the United States, and about 1/8 of a Presidential term.

Over the 153 days, we visited the dealership between 9-19 times to harass the dealership manager and the salesman who sold it to us. I heard the phrase “We’re so sorry, we’ll have it done by Monday Wednesday Friday” at the very latest about 60 times. Our friend who helped us through this process, and I made about 90 phone calls to the Jefe (boss), his cell phone, the dealership in general, and the car salesman. Every time we heard the famous Ecuadorian phrase “manana manana”

Apparently, the dealership received the car because the previous owner had passed away. She did not have a proper will and therefore her valuables were split between her 5 children. The executor of the will sold the car and split the money but without securing the legally necessary contractual agreements of all 5 children to sell their share. As a result, while the dealership had possession of the car, they did not legally own it. Therefore it was illegal to sell it to us. But..they did and pandemonium ensued.

Either way, 153 days older and wiser we have our matricula and we officially own our car. That’s all that matters now.