After not owning a car until I was 29, at the moment, I have two cars. One I bought at an auction in Miami, and brought back to Guatemala on a boat, which is a story in itself, that you can read more about here, and the other one is a beaten up Suzuki Samurai, from the good old year 1996, that we use to drive up and down our land to supervise the works. When I got back from Miami with a new to me car, “only” a 2006 model, so 10 years younger than the Suzuki, and equipped with (oh, bliss!) air conditioning, I thought that I would be able to ride it on the land instead of the old one. But unfortunately, after a couple of attempts, I ended up with three flat tires. Yes, three. Thankfully there is a guy in the village that will come on his motorcycle, take out your wheel, go back to his place, fix and inflate it for around £2 per tire. Living in Guatemala sure has its perks.
So back I was with the old car, breaking a sweat every time I had to go check on the workers, and seriously considering getting rid of it, and upgrading it for a newer one. Suzuki Samurai is use quite a bit by farmers around here, as they know they are reliable, and can endure pretty much anything. We have carried wood, concrete, five workers in the back, and much more, the thing is like a horse, it never gives up. So I was pretty sure I could get almost the price I paid for it if I tried to sell it. Unfortunately, we bought it when we had just arrived, and it looks like we paid a little over market for it.
Other options included selling it for parts, which may have landed a better price as parts are hard to get around here, then looking for someone to buy the scrap once all the good parts have been taken off. Sadly, companies like Sell the Car Ltd are almost non existent around here, and scrap metal buyers offer you a pittance, sometimes not even worth your while as they would charge you for the transportation back to their point of sale.
So in the end, we decided to make the best of it. Sure, it is not the nicest car around, but it does the job when we need it locally. I would never go more than 100 miles away from home with it, the journey would take twice the time and it would be tiresome, but it is great to have a sturdy little car that won’t break if treated badly. My little brother is learning how to drive with it at the moment, relieving me of the worry of having to lend him my nicer car. When it gets dirty inside, it is no trouble. And even the dog is allowed on the front seat, which he loves.
Financially, it is not much more expensive to run two cars, as both are paid for. And I hope we can still get a decent price once we have no use for it anymore.