When we moved to the Philippines, it was already clear that we were going to buy a car that would fit our needs. We also didn’t like to be dependent on public transportation.
We decided that we were going to buy a brand new car in stead of a used one. You will never know what has happened to a used car if you’re not a professional yourself. Could be that there have been severe engine problems or severe damage on the body. Could also be that the mileage is not correct and so on. So we decided to go for a brand new one. In that case we would have the normal factory/dealer warranty.
First we looked around what kind of car (model) we would like to have. We checked in the streets, on parking lots and so on to see what brand and model we would like. My wife has a large family and we would travel to the province over rough roads from time to time. So we needed a car which could accommodate more people and was strong enough to ride on bad roads. The car should have a little bigger wheels and preferably on diesel. And the car shouldn’t be too expensive. My requirements were that I would have a higher seat (not too low to the ground).
We checked on Internet for dealers in the neighborhood and asked for brochures. We’ve got them from Mitsubishi, Ford, Honda and Isuzu.
There were several options. Isuzu Crosswind was the favorite model for my wife. After asking around we’ve got information that this car was not very reliable. So this one fell off. Honda and Ford has a nice model but we found it too expensive. Back in Holland we have a good experience with Mitsubishi. The Adventure model of Mitsubishi was also on our list of preferred cars. So we decided it was going to be this Mitsubishi Adventure.
The Adventure comes in a 7 or 9 seats version. We took the 9 seats in silver-grey color. There were several models of this type but we decided to go for the GLS Sport. We went to a few dealers to ask for their lowest prices. One dealer was a little more expensive than the other so we played the game of telling the one that we could buy cheaper in the other place and vice versa. After a few days of negotiating with those dealers we had the feeling that we really got the lowest price possible.
Finally we agreed to buy the car near our place which was easier for service purposes and in case of problems. All in all we had a large discount because we were paying in cash. The selling price was included insurance premium for one year and three years LTO registration.
After a few days the car was ready to be picked up.
We were able to choose the last digit of the license plate. In the Metro Manila region we have ‘color coding’. This means that license plates with numbers ending on 1 or 2 are not allowed to drive on Mondays, 3 and 4 not on Tuesdays, and so on. Weekend and official holidays there’s no color-coding. The government implemented this rule to reduce the air pollution and traffic in the region. Once you know this, it’s easy to live with it because you plan better when you would like to go somewhere. Not all cities are implementing these rules thee same. Some cities (read: police officers) don’t care, but others are very strict (like Makati City). I recently heard that also the cities of Cebu and Davao are thinking of a simular rule to lessen traffic and pollution.
Until today (after 3 months) we haven’t regret our choice. The car is doing fine and the service of the dealer is perfect.
Filipino time:
to buy cars you should have knowledge of buying cars so you could buys best fit to your age and budget