Archive for Transportation
Ask Don Marco
Posted by: | CommentsFrom an email:
Hola Don Marcos, how are you?
My name is [obscured].
First of all, I´d like to tell that your blog is being really helpful and I´m having a lot of fun reading your stories. It´s like an addiction. I have to read it everyday otherwise I feel like something is missing and I can´t hit the pillow.
I´m new here in Guatemala(came from Mexico about 2months ago) and I´m begining to learn how things work around here.
Since last month, I´m trying to find a nice used car, I´ve tried through gt.clasificados.st online,
yeah there are lots of cars tagged with nitido, reciente ingreso, papeles a toda prueba, etc etc
but when i saw them physically they were horrible… roaring engine, rusty parts, loosen driver´s seat, you name it… and they insist on calling that NITIDO…
I also met one seller that loves to say FIJESE…that word gets on me nerves…It´s really stressful to find a BONITO Y BARATO car around here
Anyways, today we found a good car according to my father´s test drive and engine check
Mazda MPV 2000 w/leather seats for $6,875 and negotiated to be $6,200
I told the guy(seller) to meet me tomorrow to make the payment since i´m waiting to get my NITBut once i got home I checked the VIN history and found out that the odometer might have been tampered…the report shows more than 159,000 miles and the car shows 92,700!
another thing is the salvage title…as total lossWe liked the car…besides we are not expecting to buy a luxury car since we don´t have enough money to do so, and looking at the highways and streets here an expensive car is not worth it.
SO, i was thinking to re-negotiate with this guy and ask him to make it for $5,000 or LESSPls, Don Marcos give me your advice
What should i do?Sorry for bothering you with this but I don´t know anybody else around here to ask to
and you seem to be a nice person with lots of experience here in GuateHave a nice weekend !
Sincerely yours,
[obscured]
Dear [obscured],
I would not buy a car (for any price) that I thought had been tampered with. If the odometer has been manipulated, what else is wrong? There is a big business here bringing cars from the US that have been totaled and then they fix them up like nothing ever happened.
It is possible to find a decent car here, but most people I know import them from the US. Cars are generally more expensive here as well because of the 26% import fee (plus $1000 to transport).
I hope that helps.
Mark
A Little Chat with El Taller
Posted by: | CommentsAs I mentioned in the last update on Fraulein, the drama escalated to a point where calling in Santiago was my only hope of pre-abogado resolution. True, Santiago does carry a gun, but the real purpose in taking him is because he grew up in HueHue in the ’50s and ’60s and retired here about 10 years ago and, to the point, understands how things really work here. Besides, suing this guy and putting him in jail for defrauding me doesn’t get me my car back, and it won’t even make me feel any better. After all, el abogado doesn’t work for free and I just want my !@#$%&* car back.
Of course, I wanted to call the taller to make sure he would be there, but Santiago says, “That’s not how it works. First, he won’t answer the phone. Second, you don’t want him to know you’re coming, and third, if there is something really nasty going on you’re more likely to discover it with a surprise visit.”
We arrive in San Felipe and Santiago strikes up a conversation with the mechanic. He’s pretty aggressive at first, really grilling the guy on how many months the car has been there, missing parts, asking for more money after we supplied the parts he said he needed, etc. The old mechanic held his own, with lots of gesticulating about pressure, valves, the car not having enough ‘oomph’, etc. I was only catching about 50% of what Santiago said and about 30% of what the taller said. What was clear to me was that Santiago was engaged in a dance of sorts, and I’m not just referring to the way he moves when talking as if he were involved in some sort of native feria, but a well-understand and time-tested dialogue of posturing and negotiation. Stuff that for better or worse has been eliminated from all but the most grand transactions in the US.
I could see him gradually easing up on the guy, and the guy gradually letting his guard down as the conversation continued. They were rehashing all the old things, and then throwing in new pieces of information here and there. It wasn’t unlike the negotiation at the mercado, except far more complex and lengthy. About 10 minutes into it-with only the occasional short explanation by Santiago-it started raining harder than it has since Agatha. The tin roof on the shop made it impossible to hear anything, but I could tell from the increasing frequency of smiles and laughs that Santiago was getting on well with the guy. Before long I could hear them commiserating about the Catholic Mafia in Antigua and other pejoratives that I can’t print here, more than one of which was launched in my direction.
Another 10 minutes of this and the heavy rain and I had figured out that the ‘missing’ part that had been ‘found’ was not so much found as ‘replaced’, through a ‘friend’ of the mechanic’s in the city. That had cost me Q1200, something Gunther had forgotten to mention. The odd thing was that this same ‘friend’ of the mechanic had also been able to locate the eight valves that needed to be replaced, the same eight valves that Gunther explained he couldn’t find in the US or Germany.
It was these valves that presumably keep the pressure inside the transmission that allows the parts to work at maximum efficiency, and the cost was Q3,500. So then Santiago asked an interesting question. “Don Marco wants the original parts back when you’re done; that’s no problem, right?” The mechanic paused for a moment, there was a fijese, and then, “Sure, no problem”. I realized that a great deal had just taken place; the mechanic had gotten the message that if the original part were to go missing like the earlier one, it might raise questions about the ‘new’ part, which just happens to be in an ‘inaccessible’ part of the ‘box’.
Next Santiago suggested that if the part was with a good friend of the mechanic’s, it would be no problem to install it first and try it out before paying for it. That led to another 5 minutes of conversation or so, and then I caught up to the mechanic saying, “Well, if you think you can get the money together, I can get the part from my friend, perhaps for even less than Q3500″.
That launched an entire additional round of conversation, with Santiago explaining that we had given Gunther the money months ago to buy all these parts, and the problem wasn’t with our money, but with the mechanic losing parts, etc. They rehashed everything again, apparently like chewing a piece of tough meat sufficiently, at which point the mechanic agreed that he would install the part ‘manana’, which seemed very timely indeed considering he didn’t have the part yet, and that he would take a few days to test it, and if we were happy, then we would pay. (Perhaps even a reduced price).
We all shook hands, with smiles all around, and left San Felipe. I immediately called Gunther to give him an update and to let him know that once the car had been fixed and we had all the old parts in hand, he could go ahead and pay the mechanic whatever we owed him. He agreed, but kept expressing that he was uncomfortable with how things were going.
Well, he had good reason to, because five days later the mechanic showed up at Gunther’s telling him he was tried of the gringos taking advantage of him, how he was losing money on the deal, and that he would never install a part without getting the money first, etc., etc. He then told Gunther that he was going to throw all the parts in the trunk and push the car out into the street and abandon it. My first instinct was to call Santiago and a few other locals and show up armed and ready to tow the car. We had obviously caught the guy in one big scam to sell me old parts as new (or not even change the parts and sell them as new), and he was going to keep milking this as long as he could, which had come to an end with our friendly visit and insistence that we get the old parts. At the very best, he was completely incompetent and was unwilling to admit it until we forced the situation.
But assuming we towed the car out, we’d have no idea about the location of the parts or the condition, and jerking the car off his lot still wouldn’t get me anywhere. I did have clarity about one thing; we couldn’t trust this guy and there was no reason to expect anything good to come from additional good will or patience.
(to be continued)
Ever Wondered What a Life Is Worth?
Posted by: | CommentsIt is one of our biggest fears while driving. José was driving yesterday on a dirt road and as he passed a stopped Microbus, a 9 yr. old boy ran out in front without looking. He tried to brake but couldn’t stop in time. They rushed him to the nearest hospital (1.5 hrs away) but they boy died within 30 minutes so they turned around and took him back.
At Least Someone Is Having Luck with their Mechanic
Posted by: | CommentsLook:
Over the past few days I have been spending time with the mechanics checking brakes and changing oil on the Nissan and also, changing the glow plugs and fixing a dent on on of the trucks. The dent happened a couple of years ago and is starting to rust, so best to get it sanded down and painted. We did not feel the need to fix it real perfect as dents are a part of life here, so we had it banged out as well as it could be, painted and had the bumper straightened so the tire does not hit up against the frame anymore and had a hole repaired in the back side of the head light with fiber glass (so now no dirt will get in the head light weaking the beam). All for Q100 or about $13. With changing the glow plugs and fixing the dent, total cost Q570 or $71, with most of the cost on the glow plugs (Q320 / $40). At least our mechanic costs are low here. Here are some before and after pics.
Fijese
Posted by: | CommentsAt the last update I left you off with Gunther relating that there was ‘a problem’. Here’s how that conversation went:
Gunther: Yeah, apparently we didn’t get the ‘reverse band’ back from the HWTP.
DM: What are you talking about, that was weeks ago, and you guys said you had everything?!
Gunther: Yeah, well, the mechanic says he gave the reverse band to the HWTP months ago but when we got the other things back he didn’t return that.
DM: I can’t believe it. I mean, I can, Santiago told me this is how things work but I refused to believe him.
Gunther: Who’s Santiago?
DM: Never mind, listen, I’m going to call the HWTP and tell him that if he doesn’t get all the rest of the parts, whatever they may be, to you today, I’m going to call the police, okay?
Gunther: The police?
DM: Yeah, because I think they’re taking advantage of me because I’m a gringo and if the police get involved maybe they’ll have to take it seriously.
Gunther: Ok.
So I call the HWTP and guess what? He won’t answer the phone. So I call the friend of the HWTP, who still owes me money and has agreed to work it off and I tell him that I want the parts at Gunther’s by 6pm or I’m calling the police:
Amigo de HWTP: The police?!
DM: Yeah, I’m just going to give them the names of all the Chapines that have touched my car or the parts and say they stole it, and we’ll see how it settles out.
Amigo de HWTP: But, but…
DM: Look, this is three months and Q10,000 and I’m pretty sure that when I explain things to the Judge, or the Mayor, or anyone that will listen, it’s going to look pretty bad…
Amigo de HWTP: Wow.
DM: So, do you think you can take care of this?
Amigo de HWTP: I will go to the house of HWTP and also go to the mechanic and find out what is missing and then call you.
DM: No, the only phone call I want today is from Gunther telling me all of the parts have been found.
Amigo de HWTP: But what if we can’t find the part?
DM: Well, that would be a big problem for someone since we would have already purchased a replacement part if we could find one.
Amigo de HWTP: So what will happen?
DM: I don’t know, what’s it like in a Guatemalan prison?
Amigo de HWTP: Uh, prison?
DM: Well, I can have someone wacked for Q2,000, but that still won’t get me my part, but perhaps the threat of jail time might help someone remember where it is. As I understand it, when you go to jail for owing someone money they don’t let you out until it’s paid. Maybe his family will take his being in prison more seriously than he takes my transmission.
Amigo de HWTP: Okay Don Marco, I think I understand.
So of course the phone call never came.
I called Santiago with an update. He said, “Dude, this is an old scam. They figure you’re only here for a short time and that you’ll just get tired of the whole affair and will abandon the car. The smart thing to do would be to go down there and just tow the car away. I’ll go with you and take my gun, if you want.” I thought about it but decided to sleep on it. After all, if I towed the car away, I still wouldn’t have the transmission, in fact, I’d likely have the car without a lot of parts, and I’d have a mechanic who might be able to come after me for not paying ‘rent’.
The next morning I contacted my attorney, who had such a hard time following all the twists and turns that he asked for a meeting. Unfortunately it took a week to get a meeting. I kept calling Gunther every few days for an update, but it was always the same, “We have all the parts except the missing one, and I’m worried about ordering a replacement from the US or Germany without having the actual part in my hand.”
Eventually I met with the abogado and afterwards he agreed to call the mechanic and ‘encourage him to find a resolution’, but as the abogado said, “People here in the rural areas can be a little tricky. I’ve already had to sue a few just to get them to talk, whereas in the capital people are more reasonable.” I conveyed to him that all I really wanted was the job done and was willing to pay a reasonable fee to get it but felt I was being taken advantage of. I would even pay to replace the ‘lost’ part if I could be confident that we were ordering the right one. I mean, at this point what’s a couple of thousand Q? I’m a gringo after all, so for me money grows on trees.
So the abogado said he would call the mechanic that very day and encourage him to find the part. The next morning I got an email from the attorney:
Dear Mark, I talked to the mechanic and he said that he has suddenly found the part. The car should be ready in a few days.
Just to see how the communication was working, I called Gunther who shared in my surprise and delight at the sudden recovery of the part. He said he would talk to the mechanic the following Tuesday and take the car for a test drive.
So the following Friday I call Gunther, who said the car wasn’t ready and the mechanic was working on ‘the pressure’. At least that sounded like progress. In my non-mechanic mind I envisioned a rebuilt transmission with a guy tweaking something to get it ‘just right’. So the following week I called again, and this time Gunther said, “I’ve been over there twice but he’s never around. His kid said he had to go to the capital for a part.” I wondered…a part for my car or another car? Why can’t this guy just call Gunther and give him an honest report on his status? I must be delusional.
So another week passes and this time Gunther tells me that the mechanic went to the capital to talk to a friend of his who “is an expert in automatic transmissions”. That doesn’t sound good. Anyway, apparently he wasn’t able to maintain pressure in the transmission and this guy told him he needed a vacuum valve or something, which the mechanic has priced out at Q3500.
Gunther tells me that we’ve spent about Q7000 on parts to date, so this new expense would put us over Q10,000 before labor, still reasonable if the job is actually done. I don’t know if the part is needed or not, but my real concern is that the mechanic doesn’t know what he’s doing. On the other hand, if I pull the car out now and take it to another guy, who knows what the condition of the transmission will be in, where the parts will be, etc., and I’ll lose any leverage I’ve got with the guy.
I think it’s time Santiago and I make a visit to the mechanic.
(to be continued)
Falling Down in Guate, or Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
Posted by: | CommentsRemember that movie where Michael Douglas loses it? It wasn’t my favorite Douglas movie (that would have to be either Wall Street or The Game), but I’m beginning to feel that way. In the movie Douglas plays Bill Foster, a straight-laced guy who snaps:
Bill Foster: I helped build missiles. I helped protect this country. You should be rewarded for that. But instead they give it to the plastic surgeons, you know they lied to me.
Sergeant Prendergast: Is that what this is about? Is that why my chicken dinner is drying out in the oven? You’re mad because they lied to you? Listen, pal, they lie to everyone. They lie to the fish….
No, I probably won’t start shooting random people but I might get a little more frank with you in these little chats we have across the Wordpress interface. That might mean the end of GuateLiving, because as Santiago said recently, “Dude, you’ve only been here what, a year and a half? What will you say when you’ve been here five years and you’re not hiding behind that bogus morality which causes you to deny what your reason tells you about these people? If you say what you really believe, they’ll kill you, just like your Church does.”
I protested, “Man, we haven’t been killing heretics for centuries…” to which he said, “You fool, they were stoning evangelical missionaries in HueHue when I was a boy”. “Well”, I replied, “That was a long time ago, and besides, just think how blessed they were to share in that little bit of penance, like St. Paul”, which caused Santiago considerable pause.
But anyway…
After the last development in the Fraulein Benz transmission drama, I thought long and hard about it and realized I was approaching things in exactly the wrong way. My skill set is not playing auto parts gopher or mechanic’s errand boy, so I made an appointment with Gunther and met him at the gas station with a larger than normal bulge in my pocket.
You see, I had realized that I was better off to hire someone I trusted who would in turn outsource my transmission rebuild than to play any role in it personally. Somehow I had lost sight of what is the most basic of lessons I learned in Investment Banking 101 way back when, in that crappy windowless office in Tempe, (the one right next to the women’s bathroom with the wall 1/2 inch short of the drop ceiling, so I could overhear all the conversations they had, which wasn’t nearly as exciting as you might think but did aid me in achieving virtual What Women Want status from that point on in life), viz., do what you do best and hire someone to do everything else. (I occasionally impart said wisdom in exchange for a good bottle of wine, a cigar, or bottle of bourbon).
But as it regards the transmission, I knew what I needed to do. So I said to Gunther, “I know you don’t do transmissions, but I trust you and you know these people, they respect you and you’ll make good decisions, so here’s Q10,000, I want you to get my transmission fixed-whatever that takes-and if you need more money, call me.” The first thing he did was stuff the Q10,000 into an nasty, empty old jar labeled ‘toxico’ and then there was a lot of discussion about ‘what ifs’, but in the end I left the gas station with no bulges (artificial ones anyway), and Gunther was on the job. He promised me he would call all his friends, track down the parts, supervise the mechanic in San Felipe and call me when it was done.
Well, a week later I checked in:
DM: Gunther, is Fraulein ready to go?
Gunther: Uh, no, fijese, there is a problem.
DM: Dime.
Gunther: I called the mechanic to make sure he had all the parts because my friend in the capital wants to compare them to the ones he has and make sure they are the same, and also to see if he can refurbish any of them to save you money…
DM: Yeah, okay…
Gunther: So the mechanic said we could come get the parts, and because I didn’t have time to go to the capital I called my guy in the city to come get them, but when he got to San Felipe the mechanic said he didn’t have the parts-
DM: What do you mean he doesn’t have the parts?! There are about dies mil all on the floor…he knows we need the parts to get this done.
Gunther: Yes, but he said some of the parts are with some other guy, who was looking for the parts in Chimaltenango or something.
DM: Wait, that was like a month ago, why would he still have them?
Gunther: I don’t know…
DM: And why would the mechanic in San Felipe tell you it was okay to come pick up the parts if he knew he didn’t have them all?!
Gunther: I don’t know…
DM: Okay, I’ll call you back.
Next call:
Hombre With The Parts: Hola.
DM: Hombre, why didn’t you return my car parts to the mechanic in San Felipe?
HWTP: Fijese…
DM: Don’t give me that BS, it’s been a month since you told me you couldn’t find the replacements.
HWTP: Fijese, I was in a car accident….
DM: Que?! Are my parts okay?
HWTP: Si.
DM: Bueno….are you okay?
HWTP: Mas o menos.
DM: Okay, I’m sending a guy over to your house to get the parts. Are you going to be there?
HWTP: Si.
DM: Are you going to let him in and give him all the parts?
HWTP: Si, perro, can you give me some more money for saldo, you know, from when I was making some calls for you?
DM: Didn’t I already give you money?
HWTP: Si, fijese…
DM: Fine, I’ll send money with him.
So the guy goes to see Hombre With The Parts and delivers them to the mechanic, who in turn gives them to Gunther to have his guy in the capital pick them up to replace those he can and refurbish those he can’t replace.
A week later, I call Gunther for an update. He says all the replacement parts have been purchased and are at the mechanic’s, the torque converter has been rebuilt and he’ll have it in a day or two, but there’s a problem….
To be continued…
Email Correspondence: Moving from Costa Rica to Guatemala
Posted by: | CommentsMy husband and I have been living in Costa Rica for the last 3 years and are ready to make our move to the Antigua area. (Our current location should give you the idea why)
I have been searching for what seems like forever to find answers to my questions. Thank goodness to all the bloggers out there they have answered most of them. One I can’t seem to find is about our little dog and our car. Both from Costa Rica, trying to find if it is best to sell the car here or bring it. Also what requirements do they have for our dog coming from CR. I can find info if I was coming from the states but that is it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Have a wonderful day.
Glory
Glory, importing a car involves paying 26% tax on the fair market value of the vehicle (as determined by the customs). The fair market value is likely to be higher than the value you would assign to it, unless you can get a Guatemalan notary to sign some sort of appraisal. (Usually costs Q100, but not guaranteed to be persuasive). Some people have found it worthwhile, others prefer to buy here, it just depends on your car, your needs and budget. I chose to import my car from the US because I wanted a specific make and model from the US.
The dog is more difficult, they are notorious here for putting you through all sorts of stuff. You might want to write Nancy at Semillas de Amor; she has imported all sorts of animals and might have some insight.
We Need This in Guate
Posted by: | CommentsWhile I may be a fan of limited government, few things about Guatemala are more irritating than the buses, trucks and cars that dump toxic pollutants into the air. The public health cost is enormous, although I’m sure they have no idea of the amount.
We need this:
HONG KONG—Some workers in the central business district here like to pop out of the office for a smoke. Lincoln Chan slips out to spot smoke—the kind that pours out of old trucks.
Mr. Chan, a 41-year-old construction-industry executive, is one of Hong Kong’s 5,000-plus “smoky vehicle spotters.” These government-accredited citizen volunteers are charged with ridding the roads of the trucks, buses and delivery vans whose smoke-belching tailpipes make Hong Kong one of the world’s smoggiest cities.
After Mr. Chan passed his spotter test, he found himself leaving the office for “spotting breaks.” He got so good, he says, he could recognize polluting vehicles from a mile away, nabbing up to 10 of them in a half-hour session. Today, he regularly devotes lunch breaks to staking out vehicles from a secret vantage point in the central business district.
“I don’t want to give away my location, or else drivers will know how to avoid me,” says Mr. Chan, who got into the pursuit because he is bothered by asthma.
Tailpipe spotters like Mr. Chan turn in thousands of smoking vehicles a year. Suspects are hauled into designated inspection centers for a spin on a modified treadmill. If tailpipe smoke exceeds government limits, owners lose their vehicle license and must upgrade their vehicles—or junk them. Fail to show up, and your vehicle license is yanked.
Before you libs all start yelling ‘hypocrite’, let me explain. The primary role of government is protection of the citizens, and that includes protection from pollution. These vehicles weren’t designed to run the way they are, and the way they are being run is a health hazard. In the US I would say it’s a matter for the individual states to handle, but I don’t know how their federal system works here.
Of course, the right way to manage this is to pass a law mandating the acceptable pollution limits, then outsource the testing to private companies. The private companies will do the job for much less and there will be less corruption. The expense involved will be offset by the fees charged by the private companies to test and by fines for those who don’t fix their vehicles. There will be added costs to the bus lines to keep their engines in good working order, but I’ve noticed that some of the bus lines already run cleaner buses than others, so clearly it’s not prohibitive.
Judging by the number of lurkers I see everywhere in this country, it shouldn’t be difficult to get people to start reporting the offenders…
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