Beware of the minimun insurance... most times its totaly worthless, lets say 2 Dominicans have a car accident if both say the other has the fault,,, both insurance companies wont pay $1 peso.............
- Thread starter MariaRubia
- Start date
Car advice - hire or buy?
It all depends on where you live.. Here in Sosúa, taxi's are really expensive. I would have to pay 10x more than what it would cost for gas to go from A to B. Uber doesn't really exist up here. The only the other options are public transport. Motoconcho, which is just too dangerous and also not very doable if for example you're going to the supermarket and you need somewhere to put all your groceries.
Guaguas and Carritos they are just inconvenient. You have to wait for them to arrive, which very often can take a LOOOONG time, and then you have to hope that they are not full which happens a lot. So you could many times have to wait for at least 30 minutes to get a ride.
But I agree, if it weren't for the inconvenience I would also not own a car and drive around as I really hate it, but it's kind of an necessary evil...
In the OP the person involved might pay $1400 USD per month to rent a vehicle. Unless you are travelling long distances much of the time, you can take a lot of taxi rides for $1400. Practically speaking a car spends a lot of time sitting in a driveway going nowhere. Expensive is subjective. Buying a car for a stay of a few months sounds like lunacy and a really poor financial decision.
Between the two option that was present in the OP, renting for $1400 USD/month or buying, the lest poor financial decision would be to rent. A car is not being depreciated $1400 USD/month here. Let's say that the person might stay here for 3-4 months. That person might purchase a car for let's say $20k and would have to pay the 2% tax and something more, so let's say around $500. But when they're going to leave the car would most likely still be worth $20K, so the only thing that it would have cost would have been the $500 and the insurance cost...
So it all depends if the person doesn't mind doing the paperwork and everything.
As I stated in one of my posts, a friend of mine, does that EVERY time he comes here, although he never buys a "new" car, but something reasonably used, and many times he's even able to make a profit out of it.
And as I guess this person would be staying in the capital, so then it doesn't really make sense to rent or buy, just use taxis, uber and whatever other transport that is available.
Have you ever walked from Cangrejo to Sea Horse Ranch? You know Sosúa isn't just El Batey.......
Be sure that the mileage is correct. It is easy, and this happens a lot, to reverse the mileage (even with modern cars). Purchase (for a recently imported car) must always be provided with a 'clean carfax'.
I have been looking for a long time and recently bought our car from Santo Domingo Motors. Perfect service and guarantees.
Value for money; buy a Toyota or a Nissan.
I have a 2017 Hyundai Tucson (White) with 110,000 km in great condition incl. new marbete and full cover insurance for 3 more month. 19k and it is yours