I’m interrupting other, likely more interesting posts, for this announcement: I bought a car! That’s a picture of it up there. It’s a 1996 Toyota RAV4 with 4wd and only 66k miles on it. It has 4 doors, power steering, power windows and air conditioning. In Southern Africa it is very popular to import vehicles from Japan, and I decided to jump on the bandwagon. You see, right now I depend on taking a taxi everywhere I go. That’s to and from the office plus anytime I need to go to the grocery story, the gym, etc. CF discourages us from using public transportation, so I pay R25 (approx. $3) each segment. The more compelling argument for me wasn’t necessarily cost but convenience. Having the freedom to go wherever I want whenever I want. Including into South Africa where there’s better shopping options and to lots of cool places within Lesotho. (Big bonus, my 4wd will allow me to drive over the Sani Pass from Lesotho in KZN, South Africa.)
It was obvious that having a car would be a big convenience factor so my roommate and I started asking around where other people bought their cars. We got a solid recommendation to check out http://www.autoterminal.com. The cars have already been shipped over from Japan and are just waiting to be picked up from Durban. (Interesting side note: South Africa has a growing car manufacturing business so although the cars come to the port in Durban it’s forbidden for SA residents to register an import car there. Instead all the vehicles go to other countries in the region.) I decided that I wanted a small SUV and then decided on the Toyota because they keep their value over time. Autoterminal.com is great because they provide pictures of everything and list all of the damage. Mine has a minor scratch on the LH rear wheel arch and the interior condition is B out of a possible A. I’ve made my offer to the company and right now I’m just waiting to hear on what the next steps will be. My bank says it takes 3-5 business days to clear an international wire transfer, so if all goes well I should have the car here and ready to drive by the end of next week!
Hi Hannes. So sorry I didn’t respond sooner, but I didn’t get an email update of your comment so I only came across it accidentally! The car was relatively easy to register in Lesotho. I hired a clearing agent to take care of customs and then paid someone to do the registration for me. That cost approx. R2,000 all together. Customs clearance took just over a week and registration took two days. I had to give the clearing agent a certified copy of my passport and residence permit for them to apply for the import permit. Because I work for an international organization I didn’t pay taxes or duties, but I’ve heard they are quite high. Something like 50+ percent. Hope this helps!