Car dealer sale

DR Mpe

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Mar 31, 2003
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I read some threads here about dos and dont when you buy a car here but they are quite old. What should I look out for? and how should I do it? I am planning to buy a used car at a dealership.

Should I let them do the paperwork?
 

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
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If it was imported from the US, check the car fax to see how many miles it really had and if it had any accidents.
Verify that the title is clear.

I don't know if you have any choice other than to let them do the paperwork.
 

latitude19

Active member
May 29, 2011
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Hello, Speaking from (bad) experience, YES- make sure to do a car fax. The odometer reads 76,000 in my car, but actually about twice that mileage. If there is ANY warning light on, such as CHECK OIL, don't buy the car. They have tampered with the mileage. Also, research the model and year and make sure it is not a lemon year. (I bought a Volvo XC90 2004, which was a baaaaaaad year.) Almost all dealers, at least from my experience, will give a 1-2 month warranty. Get this IN WRITING. It saved us with the Volvo. We were able to trade for another car. BUT- I am sure not all dealers will respect even a written warranty, especially if you buy from a small lot. The most practical way to think is after the purchase you are on your own, but you may get lucky like we did and have a dealer respect the warranty.

All dealers were fine with having an outside mechanic inspect the car. But, this won't always help, of course. I think the best thing you can do is go to Santo Domingo or Santiago and buy from one of the biggest, best appearing lots- better that they are authorized dealers of new cars, thus will have higher standards.

Bargaining room is lower than the US, especially in bigger lots. Try for more, but expect a discount of about 1/3 of what you would receive in the US. This is only my personal experience- ask others too.

Insurance wise, we pay only 5,000 pesos per year on a 2004 Ford Explorer. You can pay a LOT, lot more, but is not necessary in my opinion.

You must remember this is not the US- people DO pass on blind corners at night and many drive with bright headlamps. It takes a while to get used to. If you have an accident and you are unlucky enough to hurt someone, especially in a rural area, be aware: you are in danger and if you stop to help you MUST have an escape route, as friends and family of the injured can become violent quickly, as learned from stories from my Dominican fiancee.

Finally- drive defensively and slowly. There are many people here who react first and think later. Hope I helped. ....tom
 

zoomzx11

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Jan 21, 2006
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In my experience all the cars on the used lots have the mileage turned back. Stick with Toyotas, you can get them fixed easily and cheaply and they are popular when it comes time to sell. Moca and La Vega are car sale centers besides the larger cities. The Dominican used car dealers are experts at taking a beat up hi miles car and making it look near new. They take out the interiors and clean them with pressurized water and soap. They are good and their cars fool a lot of people. I drove an old Toyota Carolla for nearly 100,ooo miles and before I got it it had been rolled over and was pieced back together from donor cars. I sold it to my wife's sister for $1000 less than I paid for it and they are loving it and its still going great. Every Dominican mechanic can fix a Toyota and they usually have a ton of parts lying around. Only change we made was to put some really really bright headlights on it. We were kings of the night. This was after we got tired of all the other cars blinding us. In general driving at night is a bad idea if you can avoid it. Good luck
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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In general driving at night is a bad idea if you can avoid it. Good luck
This is the best solution. But retina searing headlights are a good idea, also, mainly because the roads are all dark with few, if any lighting.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
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My amiga was inches from buying a car only to find it had been rolled back by 100,000 miles - no, not a typo, 100,000 miles
 

belgiank

Silver
Jun 13, 2009
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I got a buddy here who drives a mercedes 300 diesel of 38 years old, and the odometer says it has 1,800,000 km on it. Wonder whether that was tempered with as well... lol

Hos does it run? It creaks a lot, the steering is kind of funky, I do not think it has any suspension left... but hey, it starts every time and apparently it is cheap on gas... lol
 

nyc dad

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Jul 28, 2011
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you have options

I read some threads here about dos and dont when you buy a car here but they are quite old. What should I look out for? and how should I do it? I am planning to buy a used car at a dealership.

Should I let them do the paperwork?

I've read before that espaillat dealership in Moca is supposed to honor the warranty once you acquired the vehicle,also have your own lawyer do the paperwork.I believe their website is espaillatmotors.com? Look it up
 

hammerdown

Bronze
Apr 29, 2005
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I've had good luck with the Toyota dealership in La Vega. Also Espaillat motors is highly recommended by others on this board.
 

william webster

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Jan 16, 2009
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My amiga was inches from buying a car only to find it had been rolled back by 100,000 miles - no, not a typo, 100,000 miles

When you think of it thats the easiest thing to do.

165,000 miles becomes 65,000 - they just roll back one tumbler.

Dominicanos are good at shortcuts !! jejejeje
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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Always do a carFax but understand rolling back the odometer is SOP.

Judge a car's condition and price based on the higher mileage and contents of the CarFax report instead on JUST the mileage. A well-maintained high mileage single-owner vehicle from a dry area may be a much more decent car compared to a lower mileage one with multiple owners and non-existent maintenance records having gone through nemerous wholesale car auctions in cold locations.
 

william webster

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Jan 16, 2009
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Right CB - it was the CarFax that tipped of my friend about the 100k missing miles.

Most of these are US based so the history is available.

If you see fish or frogs in the back seat - safe to assume the car is from a flooded area.
There will a ton of those showing up thanks to Irene
 

pelaut

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Aug 5, 2007
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www.ThornlessPath.com
Also buy only Japanese made cars made in Japan for the American market (NOT made in US, Malysia, etc., for the Japanese, Mexican or whatever market), and freshly imported from the US auction lots never roaded in the DR (Doms don't change oil, etc.). Toyota or Mitsubishi have good used (chop shop) parts everywhere cheap and shade tree mechanics can fix them up better than dealers.

Never use a lawyer. Always let a reputable dealer do the paperwork. Throw it in as a last bargaining chip including some insurance.
 

frank12

Gold
Sep 6, 2011
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I don't even know where to start here--this will come as a suprise for many people here.

I was living in Bonao, circa 1993-2004, i was playing poker at a family member's house when someone came over to look at some cars he was selling. we stopped the poker game so that he could go outisde and show the cars he just imported; every one sitting around the poker table immediately got up and ran to the bathroom, because, as many people already know, when playing poker, no one wants to leave the poker table to go and pee, even it means death by drowning. As a result, we all sit around suffering for hours..sometimes days before our bladders explode and we're carried off to ake room for someone other idiot that wants to punish himself.

My cousin--who's not really a cousin--we just call each other cousin because we're all related somehow through other distant dominican cousins--was outside showing a round 5 or 6 cars that he had just picked up in the Santo Domingo port the day before. he imports around 9 or 10 cars a month, sometimes more.

anyway, i was doing nothing so, after peeing for what seemed like 30 minutes--and nearly passing out from the ecstasy of bladder relief--i walked over and looked at the cars. he had mini-vans, Honda CRV's, toyotas, etc. i've seen so many cars pass through his house that, i've seen nearly every make and model over 20 years. anyway, I was looking at a beautiful, nearly new Honda mini-van. it was maybe a year old. it was beautiful and smelled great and it didn't have a dent anywhere. in fact, there was still plastic on the seats. it looked as if it had never never been sat in. it had few miles, and did i mention...it was new looking?

there were a couple guys looking at the engine bay. you could have eaten off the engine. it was that clean! it was easy to see this was hardly ever driven. the stickers on the radiator and water hoses were as clear and new as they could get. did i mention the engine looked new? Well, it looked new becuase it turned out that it was in fact new. however, after some further inspection i noticed something odd. i didn't bring it up right there because, honestly, i kind of forgot about it becuase i was still swimming in my bladder relief and feelings of ecstacy.

Then, sometime during the poker game, i turned asked him, "How much you asking for the Honda mini-van?" he thought about it and said, "well the blue book value is around $30,000. But in santo domingo, the same van would cost you "new" $48,000. However, i'm only asking $18,000." I thought to myself, man, thats a very good deal for a fully loaded mini-van, especially one that was only a year old! but then i remembered what i noticed while i was looking inside the engine bay, and said, "Oh yeah, i almost forgot, when i was looking in the engine bay, although i could see that the engine was clearly new, i noticed that the bolts on top of the struts, and the bolts surrounding the engine bay were all very rusty. why is that? Everyone at the poker table laughed. I laughed with them! I had no idea why? And then he told me something as if it was such common knowledge that i must be an idiot not to know about it..."All those cars out there, Frank, are from the Katrina hurricane that rolled through New Orleans. they were all flooded. We purchase all our cars from car dealers auctions (You must have a dealers license to both enter or purchase a vehicle at a "dealer" auction.) Then we clean them up and then send him to different central and south american countries. Although they all had salvage titles when we bought them, once the vehicles enter another country (any central or south american country), a new Matricula (Title) is issued and the salvage title is replaced."

Then he proceeded to explained why this is neccessary. "Think about this for a second," he said, "how could I purchase a nearly new mini van for $30,000, then pay to have it transported to a shipping port, then prepped (draining of all fluids in the vehicle) put inside a container, pay the aduana taxes for the new country, pay the "first time registration" taxes (for the license plate) for the new country, pay for the handling and transporting to different dealerships, and then make any kind of profit that would justify the financial investment and logistics involved? after everything is paid for, the profit margin would be so slim that the only way to make it worthwhile is to buy the vehicle (at a dealer's auction) with either high mileage (which gets rolled back) or with a salvage title (which gets replaced with a new title)."

Frank
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
30,247
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Frank, I think we all - most/some of us - know what happens, but to have you explain the logistics is eyepopping.

Once again, the Dominican way is ingenious. Devious, but ingenious nonetheless.

They never cease to amaze me.
 

belmont

Bronze
Oct 9, 2009
1,536
10
0
I don't even know where to start here--this will come as a suprise for many people here.

I was living in Bonao, circa 1993-2004, i was playing poker at a family member's house when someone came over to look at some cars he was selling. we stopped the poker game so that he could go outisde and show the cars he just imported; every one sitting around the poker table immediately got up and ran to the bathroom, because, as many people already know, when playing poker, no one wants to leave the poker table to go and pee, even it means death by drowning. As a result, we all sit around suffering for hours..sometimes days before our bladders explode and we're carried off to ake room for someone other idiot that wants to punish himself.

My cousin--who's not really a cousin--we just call each other cousin because we're all related somehow through other distant dominican cousins--was outside showing a round 5 or 6 cars that he had just picked up in the Santo Domingo port the day before. he imports around 9 or 10 cars a month, sometimes more.

anyway, i was doing nothing so, after peeing for what seemed like 30 minutes--and nearly passing out from the ecstasy of bladder relief--i walked over and looked at the cars. he had mini-vans, Honda CRV's, toyotas, etc. i've seen so many cars pass through his house that, i've seen nearly every make and model over 20 years. anyway, I was looking at a beautiful, nearly new Honda mini-van. it was maybe a year old. it was beautiful and smelled great and it didn't have a dent anywhere. in fact, there was still plastic on the seats. it looked as if it had never never been sat in. it had few miles, and did i mention...it was new looking?

there were a couple guys looking at the engine bay. you could have eaten off the engine. it was that clean! it was easy to see this was hardly ever driven. the stickers on the radiator and water hoses were as clear and new as they could get. did i mention the engine looked new? Well, it looked new becuase it turned out that it was in fact new. however, after some further inspection i noticed something odd. i didn't bring it up right there because, honestly, i kind of forgot about it becuase i was still swimming in my bladder relief and feelings of ecstacy.

Then, sometime during the poker game, i turned asked him, "How much you asking for the Honda mini-van?" he thought about it and said, "well the blue book value is around $30,000. But in santo domingo, the same van would cost you "new" $48,000. However, i'm only asking $18,000." I thought to myself, man, thats a very good deal for a fully loaded mini-van, especially one that was only a year old! but then i remembered what i noticed while i was looking inside the engine bay, and said, "Oh yeah, i almost forgot, when i was looking in the engine bay, although i could see that the engine was clearly new, i noticed that the bolts on top of the struts, and the bolts surrounding the engine bay were all very rusty. why is that? Everyone at the poker table laughed. I laughed with them! I had no idea why? And then he told me something as if it was such common knowledge that i must be an idiot not to know about it..."All those cars out there, Frank, are from the Katrina hurricane that rolled through New Orleans. they were all flooded. We purchase all our cars from car dealers auctions (You must have a dealers license to both enter or purchase a vehicle at a "dealer" auction.) Then we clean them up and then send him to different central and south american countries. Although they all had salvage titles when we bought them, once the vehicles enter another country (any central or south american country), a new Matricula (Title) is issued and the salvage title is replaced."

Then he proceeded to explained why this is neccessary. "Think about this for a second," he said, "how could I purchase a nearly new mini van for $30,000, then pay to have it transported to a shipping port, then prepped (draining of all fluids in the vehicle) put inside a container, pay the aduana taxes for the new country, pay the "first time registration" taxes (for the license plate) for the new country, pay for the handling and transporting to different dealerships, and then make any kind of profit that would justify the financial investment and logistics involved? after everything is paid for, the profit margin would be so slim that the only way to make it worthwhile is to buy the vehicle (at a dealer's auction) with either high mileage (which gets rolled back) or with a salvage title (which gets replaced with a new title)."

Frank

The short answer to your long story.....do a CarFax, the salvage title will have to show. Currently beware of cars from the Northeast hurrican area.

BTW, you must play poker like a typical Dominican player and never fold. Most other players have plenty of time to fold and run to pee.
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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I thought salvage titles were unacceptable coming into the DR.
 

belmont

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Oct 9, 2009
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I thought salvage titles were unacceptable coming into the DR.
That wouldn't stop you from buying a slavage in the US and then (in a few states) obtaining a "rebuilt" title after getting inspected at approved facility (if everything is still working, hard to inspect for flood damage after cleanup). DR will accept a "rebuilt" title.