I had hoped to make it without a car for awhile, but after walking into town a few times, I quickly realized that my bad feet and ankles, along with my sometimes shaky balance because of them, didn’t mix very well with sidewalks that have been described by others as “occasional” and traffic whizzing by.
I’ve had a couple of reputable “car guys” in Boquete looking for a suitable car for me. I definitely need a higher-clearance SUV, rather than a sedan, because of the many potholes and minor flooding from rain runoff around here. But the cheapest ones they found were about $9200. I could do that, but it would seriously drain my financial reserves. One of them actually found a 2015 Kia Soul with only 5,000 more miles on it than mine that got wrecked, but they wanted $12,000 for it. My Soul had a hard time making it up a long, fairly steep grade in Branson, so I knew this one definitely wouldn’t cut it, going up the twisty, steep roads here, even if I wanted to pay that much for it.
I found an older Honda CR-V listed in a group on Facebook, being sold by a missionary couple from Missouri who was going back to the US after 10 years abroad. They live in Volcán, about two hours away, but the husband was going to the dentist in David this morning, so they came on up to Boquete to let me see it. It’s a 2003 model with about 135,000 miles on it, but it’s been well maintained and is very clean. They were asking $4700 for it, but we agreed on $4500. I figure that if anything goes wrong, I can make a LOT of repairs for the $4700 price difference from the other newer choices.
I think it will be perfect for me – it’s not a huge mini-van (thankfully!), but it has lots of room inside. The visibility through the back window is pretty good. It has fairly new tires, a battery that’s a couple of years old, cold A/C, and they just changed the oil on it.
They’ll come and pick me up on Monday and we’ll go to David to register it in my name and get it insured. Since this car is more than seven years old, I’ve heard that full coverage isn’t available. The sellers of this car told me that liability coverage is about $150 to $200 – per YEAR! That’s great news, since I was paying $80 a month for my Soul. Granted, that was for full coverage, but still….
Here are some pics, taken from their Facebook ad:
That is absolutely marvelous! I am so happy for you! It looks like a pretty clean car! Now u r going to be all over the place! Lol! U can buy more groceries! That’s so good! U can go some places now w/o such tired feet and ankles!!! Way to go!!!!!
It is sparklingly new looking! Hondas are very reliable. I’m glad you’ll be able to get around!
I like your car. I think you got a good one.
I love my Honda. Matt is still driving my 2006 Pilot. Yours probably has at least another 100,000 Miles in it. Sounds like Yareli enjoying your new life.
Well, considering I drove my Soul for over a year and a half and only put 10,000 miles on it, I should be good for quite awhile on this one!