Buying A Car In Costa Rica

Buying a car in Costa Rica is a B*%&*$!  It's a beast!  I cannot believe how hard it is to actually buy a car here, I just wanna rip my eyes out and weep.

So we have been needing a bigger (newer) and better car for a while now.  Once we got pregnant with our fourth child, we knew my Hubby's 5 passenger Honda Civic sedan was not going to be roomy enough for our large family.  We needed something bigger but affordable and also reliable as well.

We started researching and looking into the cars we wanted about the time we had our baby, who is about to turn 3 in a matter of weeks, so we have been searching for a good deal on a car for a long while.  Mind you, we were not really in a position at that time to actually physically purchase a newer car, but we wanted to make sure we did our research.  We knew what kind of vehicle we wanted and around how much we could afford to pay each month.  Plus we factored in a rough estimate of how much we would need for a down payment.  We also knew in order to buy a newer car, we needed to sell our old one.

So in order to sell our car, we knew it needed some work.  After taking our sweet time (after of course getting the funds in order), we finally sent our car to the mechanic for the second time in about  7 months to get it ready for the sale.

In our wildest dreams we never thought how quickly our car would sell.  We purposely priced it competitively (which means below market value, like, way below) because we knew it still needed some cosmetic touches and body work.  In just under 24 hours, our car was sold.  Now we could move onto the next step of seriously looking into purchasing our newer vehicle.

So we knew exactly what we needed in a car.  We needed room for our entire family.  We needed comfort, which meant we needed air conditioning in our new car.  We needed automatic and this was a requirement for me.  And we needed something a bit newer, made in the 2000's.  So we started our search again.

We really only looked mainly at cars we were familiar with and brands we knew we could trust, mainly Honda and Toyota.  We thought the best vehicles to suit our families needs would be either the Honda Pilot or Odyssey, both 7 passenger vehicles with loads of space.  We knew these cars came at a premium price and so in order to actually afford either car, we would have to buy used, like at least 8-10 years old to be exact.  But then something happened unexpected.  Someone told hubby about a 7 passenger vehicle that was roomy enough for our family but less expensive than a Honda and we could get a newer model, like 2015.  It was the Suzuki Ertiga.

Never heard of the Ertiga? Yyou are not alone.  I had never heard of it either.  But now that I know about it, I see them everywhere.  We went to check out the Ertiga and we fell in love.  Now, Suzuki is a good brand and we are familiar with the company so no worries there.  We were impressed with the car itself as well.  Though not as roomy or spacious as a Honda Pilot or Odyssey, it has more than enough room for our family.  The trunk space is little tight, well, a lot tight but it works.

And the best part is for the same price we would pay for a 2008 Pilot or Odyssey, we can get a 2015 Ertiga.  We were ecstatic.  Where do we sign up?!!

I did a ton of research online about the Ertiga to make sure we were buying the right car for our family.  Looks are nice but we needed a reliable and safe vehicle as well.  After all my time on google and Youtube, I was ready to sign and buy our new car.  Halt! Stop! Brakes! Not so fast!  The buying process in Costa Rica is SO MUCH DIFFERENT than it is in the states.  We were so not prepared for what happened next.

With a $2000 down payment in hand (which we thought for sure was enough) and my Hubby's excellent credit, we headed off to the dealership to buy our 2015 Suzuki Ertiga.  As we got excited about having all the paperwork and finally being able to get our car we were blindsided to find out we needed $4000 for a 2015 semi-used car.  WHAT!!!!!  Are they insane?  Costa Rica is a third world country.  Why do they make it so difficult to buy a car???  We were devastated.  We thought for sure we would be walking out of the dealership with a newer car.

Come to find out, you cannot buy a car here without a downpayment and most places, if not all, ask for 25% down on a used vehicle.  We were clueless to this newfound information as we had newer bought such a new car in Costa Rica before through a dealership.  Now, deflated and a little confused, we have to figure out what to do as far as getting our car.  The Ertiga we were about to purchase was the only one the dealership had in their possession and who knows how long they'll get another 2015 Ertiga automatic for that price.  Without that $4000 downpayment, we lost out on our car.

Lesson here:  do ALL your research and don't just assume, like I did.  But there is something positive that came out of all of this.  We are now pretty much debt free and that means hubby's excellent credit just went up a few notches.  That will make it even easier for him to get a loan (again), which we will probably need in order to get the car we want.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will be able to get our newer car in the next month, so stayed tuned.