You're kidding. A gringo driving around in a flashy sports car with a $200K+ price tag in
a country where the average monthly working wage is around $300 USD a month....
What could possibly go wrong?
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A question for expats
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You're kidding. A gringo driving around in a flashy sports car with a $200K+ price tag in
a country where the average monthly working wage is around $300 USD a month....
What could possibly go wrong?
The difference is that these guys almost never got robbed, nobody wants problems with important families and they are always armed and dont think twice to shoot.
That is not to be recommanded to a foreigner.
exactly. the guys who might be potential robbers know that if they carjack the son of one of the owners of La Sirena, the collective might of the police and armed forces will be looking for them. the results will be ugly, because high level families in third world countries answer to no one. Moises will get shot in the middle of the street by some rich kid, and there is nothing his abuela can do about it.
Get a Hummer or Range Rover if you need to impress a chica, if you are more practical an Isuzu Mux or Toyota Fortuner will do just fine and with a good sound system and a few fancy lights from the local Autorama and serious window tint and premium wheels you will be considered coll enough without tearing up some over-priced low ride. And who likes to slow down for the speed coconuts anyway ?
get current. the Hummer is passe. yesterday's news. today's panty dropper is the Jeep Wrangler
https://www.supercarros.com/jeep-wrangler/887352/
$41 K for a 5-year old Wrangler ? I guess I won't be dropping many panties ( in my age group I prefer they keep them on anyway)
that is the normal price with these Jeeps. that one is an Unlimited, which is the cheapest base version. the Sahara and Rubycon is even more. a brand new one is going to run you 70k.
My old 2005 Wrangler Unlimited is the envy of my area.... a chick magnet they call it
Roof rack, lights across the top... fully islandized !
Running joke is people ask to borrow it for holiday weekend
Roof rack, lights across the top... fully islandized !
Running joke is people ask to borrow it for holiday weekend
Well it's not going to run me that much. Granted they are serious off road vehicles but I'm not Nanuck of the North and I'm not shelling out $70K for something to haul my groceries.
But more power to those who can spring for it. But it's still a Chrysler product right?
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The OP has already stated that if no car then no DR. You won't be able to convince this guy otherwise. He'll learn very quickly that his car and his lifestyle won't integrate well in a corrupt and mostly poor third world country. As stated it will be a major expense to get his car here, insured, plated and out of the port.
If he is lucky he may even be able to drive it all the way to Punta Cana before someone takes it from him or fills it full of holes just because they can. The instant he is seen arriving at his new swanky condo he'll be a person of interest to every matón for miles. He will come to realize that he can't drive it here like he is used to and probably expects to. It will sit parked and rusting away, otherwise he'll be risking the car, himself and his family if he has one.
The smart and successful people arriving to start a new life here choose not to stand out until they get a feel for the reality of life in this place. Like so many before him, the OP probably thinks that moving here is just a lateral transfer to a new place just like home except with a beach, palm trees and small quaint beach bars; Where the grass skirt clad women fawn over rich foreigners and the lads are eager to do all the heavy lifting for the cost of a Mochachino.
Assuming the OP has at least two functioning neurons, after a bit of practical research the OP's car will not get anywhere near this island. That alone might be a good thing if the OP doesn't yet know that foreigners sometimes get killed here for the $100 gold chain around their neck. The adjustment and the acceptance of the reality here damn near broke me and i'm still learning how snafu'd things can be, years later.
But I do enjoy reading the posts where people seek validation for the poor decision(s) they have already made. If being honest in his original statements, we'll not see the OP moving here anytime soon - and that looks to be a pragmatic decision I could support.
If he is lucky he may even be able to drive it all the way to Punta Cana before someone takes it from him or fills it full of holes just because they can. The instant he is seen arriving at his new swanky condo he'll be a person of interest to every matón for miles. He will come to realize that he can't drive it here like he is used to and probably expects to. It will sit parked and rusting away, otherwise he'll be risking the car, himself and his family if he has one.
The smart and successful people arriving to start a new life here choose not to stand out until they get a feel for the reality of life in this place. Like so many before him, the OP probably thinks that moving here is just a lateral transfer to a new place just like home except with a beach, palm trees and small quaint beach bars; Where the grass skirt clad women fawn over rich foreigners and the lads are eager to do all the heavy lifting for the cost of a Mochachino.
Assuming the OP has at least two functioning neurons, after a bit of practical research the OP's car will not get anywhere near this island. That alone might be a good thing if the OP doesn't yet know that foreigners sometimes get killed here for the $100 gold chain around their neck. The adjustment and the acceptance of the reality here damn near broke me and i'm still learning how snafu'd things can be, years later.
But I do enjoy reading the posts where people seek validation for the poor decision(s) they have already made. If being honest in his original statements, we'll not see the OP moving here anytime soon - and that looks to be a pragmatic decision I could support.
I don't know where you and some others here get their information, but you need a reality check on a few things. People drive $120,000 dollar cars here daily. My cousin is now driving a brand new Porsche Cayenne as his daily driver. Before that, he drove an even more expensive car. I have some friends driving even more expensive cars then the Porsche. My 3rd cousin--owner of Bonao Tipico--has 3 Porsche's now, and he drives them back and forth from Bonao to SD almost daily.
Anyway, there is so much money on this island, that it seems shocking to most people. I don't know why, it's a big island! There is enough money here to support the Porsche, Mercedes, Bentley, Ferrrari, Ducati, KTM, Harley Davidson, dealerships and many more.
Nothing is happening to the owners of these cars. These cars are all over SD and Punta Cana. People are not "filling these expensive cars full of holes!" I really don't know where some people get their information from??
There are thousands of sports cars here that cost way over $100,000. Everything from Bentley's to GT3's, to Ferrari's...you name it, it's here! Spend any afternoon in SD, around any of the malls, and look at some of the cars going in and out of the malls.
Punta Cana must be chalk-full with expensive cars running around.
The only thing you have to worry about here is the expensive maintenance cost of dealerships (the owners can afford it), salt air, salt air, more salt air, and oh yeah...the constant battle with salt air.
My little single cylinder 2017 690 just cost me $16,500 in SD. And it's only a single cylinder bike!! The 1200cc KTM's & Ducatis begin at $35,000 dollars and go up from there. And there are plenty of them running around SD. And these are just people's secondary motorcycles--there cars are way, way more expensive.
This is a big island, its full of money, and the people that have money, like driving nice things, and living comfortably.
Oh yeah, my regular Ametican-made sedan, I had to "raise" it to drive more comfortably in the DR. A two hour job, 1000 pesos lighter, struts "raised"... a few years ago.
i agree with you, whole heartedly. there are probably more Porsches in this country, on a per capita basis, than in any country outside of Germany. if you go to a place like Jarabacoa on a holiday weekend there are probably more helicopters than Audi R8s.
however, locals know who drives these things. they know that if Hippo's nephew gets out of a Benz, he is the wrong guy to mess with, because if he does not shoot you there and then, his cop friends will get you later. a foreigner does not have that luxury.
Of course, drug money, corruption money, more drug money,\more corruption money, some business money where dad is working 18+ hours at corporate boardroom and sonny is enjoying life, more drug money, more corruption money, and it goes that way ... As my lawyer friend said, this country lives on appearance. "se vive de apariencia". You see large business owners in Europe and USA flashing much less money than here.
of course. go to the homes of some of these guys who are driving Land Cruisers, and the guy does not have a bottle of water in the refrigerator.
You have to be kidding to think a new gringo here driving that kind of car is the same as a local.
I see tons of expensive cars of course in SD and Santiago driven by Dominicans not idiot gringos.
Um, no, I'm not kidding. Not remotely.
You must know some of the people that live inside Sea Horse Ranch, Casa Linda, Panarama Village, Hispaniola village, Ocean Village, etc. There are Porsche's and some very, very expensive toys here--just on the north coast.
Some people here will remember David Jennings? He lived in Sosua, drove one of the only Porsche Turbo Cayenne's here, also drove a brand new $20,000 Ducati, the only TM 530 on the island, the only Twin-Turbo custom made "Rattletrap" Jeep that he paid $80,000 just in taxes to get here, plus another $100,00 to have it built in Florida. And then he also had the only custom signed Valentino Rossi Yamaha R1 that cost around $20,000, and then, wait...he saw my Supermoto and scooter and went out and bought those too!!
I have pictures of all of his toys, and i drove most of them as well.
Anyway, David Jennings loved Haitian women and took frequent trips to the Haitian border, and every other poor village his girls came from, in colossally expensive cars, jeeps, and motorcycles. He lived here for about 20-years (Hedge Fund manager), and never had any issue, whatsoever. And neither have I.
So, again, I don't know where all of this miss-information and fear comes from? The rumors grow and grow here until they take a new life of their own!
Where do they originate, i have no idea. But this island is one of the safest islands to travel around on, and i do it almost weekly--and I've been doing it my entire life--and i've yet to have a problem.
Could i have a problem tomorrow? Sure. But then we're talking about 30+years of traveling this island without one incident. And the same goes for my friends and family.
Where does this fear of traveling around in a nice car and thinking that you will be targeted come from?
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