Santo Domingo is EXPENSIVE - Living Expenses for Past 3 months

[JMB773]

Chip this way to easy! Ok your friends make 48000USD a year and yes it is a lot fo the DR. This the best part a lot of people including myself lease cars because the price to buy is very expensive. The DR does not lease high end cars for less of a monthly payment. With all of the high living expenses shown on this post, how can a family making only 48000USD buy a NEW Land Rover. 48000 is what a teacher would make here in the states. I know for a fact no new Land Rover is in a school parking lot other then maybe the principle. A new Land Rover in DR is around 80,000 to 100,000USD. You proved my point.

 

[Criss Colon]

300 pesos will buy you just over 1 gallon of gas!
Cars in the USA get over 20 miles to the gallon,many get a lot more.
Cars in the DR might get 10 mpg!
Chip lives in a Dream World!
I spend $4,500 a month (no house payment,no car payment)and wish I had twice that!
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[Chip]

Chip this way to easy! Ok your friends make 48000USD a year and yes it is a lot fo the DR. This the best part a lot of people including myself lease cars because the price to buy is very expensive. The DR does not lease high end cars for less of a monthly payment. With all of the high living expenses shown on this post, how can a family making only 48000USD buy a NEW Land Rover. 48000 is what a teacher would make here in the states. I know for a fact no new Land Rover is in a school parking lot other then maybe the principle. A new Land Rover in DR is around 80,000 to 100,000USD. You proved my point.

What point have you made?????

You do not know how much these people are paying for the Land Rover nor how much their living expenses are.

 

[JMB773]

I do not need to know what their expenses are they own a very expensive car, and you said its new it does not take a wizard to get a ballpark figure for a new Rover. Any SUV in DR is very expensive and you said a Land Rover. I do not know this people, but with the info you provided I know 48000USD a year will not buy you a new Rover in any Time Zone.

 

[Chip]

I do not need to know what their expenses are they own a very expensive car, and you said its new it does not take a wizard to get a ballpark figure for a new Rover. Any SUV in DR is very expensive and you said a Land Rover. I do not know this people, but with the info you provided I know 48000USD a year will not buy you a new Rover in any Time Zone.

Well maybe you never heard of financing???

You know the thing banks do (or used to)??????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

[rubio_higuey]

Well maybe you never heard of financing???

You know the thing banks do (or used to)??????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Financing a new car which costs US$80,000 (e.g. Land Rover) over 4 years, at 15% p.a. interest, via bank, you would have a monthly payment of US$1,700, which is 65,000 pesos. I think that a person that targets a Land Rover can pay 65,000 pesos per month. That is with no down payment. With 20% down payment your monthly payment would be US$1,570 or 60,000 pesos. Many business owner can pay that money, especially if they are successful.

Consider a midsize car (Chevy, Honda, etc.) US$30,000 car over 4 years, at 15% p.a. interest, via bank, your monthly payment would be US$630 or 24,000 pesos with no down payment. With 20% down payment your monthly payment would be US$510 or 19,500 pesos. Many professionals working in SD can pay that.

 

[JMB773]

I understand about financing listen I was in Bavaro 2yrs ago and my friend showed me a LX570 SUV he asked how much this cost back home I said new with about 1000 miles 73,000USD he told me that was cheap. When we arrived in SD he show me on the car the same one it cost 140,000USD. Chip please please tell on that island other then a baseball player who could finance that for a car not a home or business, but a car. BTW the SUV in Bavaro was owned by a government official. If a congress person had a 150,000USD car and drove it to The Capital Building in DC what will happen. SD and DR is a very shaddy island.

 

[JMB773]

Cool ,but when you own a 80,000 car you pay a nice piece of change for insurance, and for that car in DR insurance have to be very expensive. Tell me Rubio have you ever heard a person in US , DR or Europe making only 48000USD a year with a 2000USD car payment and insurance every month.

 

[Chip]

SD and DR is a very shaddy island.

Rather it appears you have spent too much time in the resorts or worse here.

Learn the language and come live here for a few years and get back with us as your propositions are downright laughable.

 

[Criss Colon]

The annual rate to finance a new car here is 15%,or more!That is for one year.I doubt you can get four year finance rate.Rate goes up a lot after one year.
However,most Dominicans will go without food,or a nice home to drive a nice car!
They think about having a car,like North Americans think about buying a house!
After 10 years you still have your house,what about the car?
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[keepcoming]

For your mid-class, have a decent job Dominican, a car is expensive. Finance , bought with cash, whatever, it is expensive. My sister in-law ( who is a OBGYN/Oncology) bought a Honda Civic, even with a down payment (20% +) her monthly payment was approx $500.00. Now in the USA depending on your ($$) situation you could maybe (probably) pay less. This is one area where I think in the DR it is more expensive. Most car dealers here tack on the customs charge which is what makes it more expensive. I have ALOT of experience in this. We have shipped car's and have bought car's here. Here in the DR it may be less expensive depending on what your looking to buy. Anyone who has had experience with the "Aduana" will know what I am saying.

 

[rubio_higuey]

Cars are more expensive by 40% than in USA. if the same model is being sold more expensive in the DR, buy in US and import. You will pay 40%. So a 70k Lexus mentioned above would cost 98k after import taxes, still a hefty discount off 140k asked by the dealer, in one of the posts above.

 

[belgiank]

The annual rate to finance a new car here is 15%,or more!That is for one year.I doubt you can get four year finance rate.Rate goes up a lot after one year.
However,most Dominicans will go without food,or a nice home to drive a nice car!
They think about having a car,like North Americans think about buying a house!
After 10 years you still have your house,what about the car?
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Here they still have it, or at least it still is driving around in the country. Have a friend here with a mercedes 300 diesel, 38 years old, 1.8 million kilometers and he prefers it to his new American pick-up (something with Z1, or something like that, on it).

Mind you, I have joined him in the mercedes, not the pick-up, and although it hurts me to say so... in this case I think I would have preferred the pick-up... lol

 

[belgiank]

I agree cars are very expensive here, but you also have to remember that, if you bought one of the right brands and models, they also retain their value real well.

In Europe it will be hard to find a second-hand car older than let us say 8 years old, although 5 would be closer to the mark. Any car older than that, and you try to sell it will be almost worthless, as it will be destined for export (to the DR f.e.).

In reality this means a lot of families in Europe finance the purchase of their car for anything between 2 to 5 years, and by the time they have paid for it, they sell it and use the amount received as a down-payment for their next car. As car loans are cheap in Europe, they would be dumb not to do it as they would lose money if they kept driving their car and then sell it at a huge loss.

Both systems (over here and in Europe) are crazy...

Nevertheless buying a car with a monthly payment of almost 50% of your monthly income sounds crazy to me. If he owns his own house outright, it could be justified if a car is that important to the person.

 

[imfromda305]

LOL! $5000 a month!?!?! Some people don't even EARN that much!

 

[imfromda305]

Ooh well, it seems like being single without kids is really paying off!