We Bought a Car

How do you go about buying a car in South Africa? Well, it isn't like buying one in the States. First you have to find out what is out there and match that to what your family needs, what your environment is like, and what car is most likely to be stolen.

We used to have a minivan which worked great for our needs. They have them here too, but they are a ton of money. A 3 year old minivan goes for about $35,000. That meant we were not going to buy one of those. Plus, everything that has to do with driving here is designed around a car that is the size of a Dodge Neon or smaller.

So next we started looking at vehicles that sat more than 5 people so that when we have visitors, we can all ride in one car. There are actually a bunch of them around but they are all fairly new. Toyota has a couple, VW has one, Peugot has a station wagon, Mazda has a new one, and Renault has one. We liked the VW and the two Toyotas but the problem with both of those is that they are the two brands that are stolen the most b/c the parts are used to repair the Micro bus Taxis which are all Toyotas and VW's. So here is what we ended up with. A 2005 Renault Grand Scenic dCi. It is sort of a Staion Wagon mixed with a Mini Van. It has 2 extra seats that fold up from the trunk that the kids can sit in when we need to put more than 5 in the car.

It is a wierd car that has way more options than we need but are neat to play with. You basically take what you can find in the used car market and this one was loaded. One of the options that we really like is that it is very low on the stolen vehicle list.

This is the key (card). You put it in a slot and push a button to start it.

Yes, we do have to drive on the "other" side of the car. Everything here is a stick shift unless you spend a ton of money and they all have little engines. This actually has a decent size engine (1.9 liter 4 cylinder) but it is a diesel and has a bit of torque. It also has a 6 speed transmission that make high way driving a bit easier on the engine. The speed limit on the highways here is 120 km/hr (80 miles/hr).

So after 3 weeks of looking and about 1 week for the dealership to get the money, we now own our first SA vehicle. We hope that it is a good enough car that whomever replaces us in a couple years will be able to buy this car and not have to go through the hassle of buying another vehicle.