A while ago we thought about buying a car here because we felt the van system that the company provides doesn't work for us all the time. To be honest "It dose my head in".
I started to look at some of the car places around town to gather an idea on some prices. People had told me that it is better to go to the Black Car Market where all types of cars are sold, prices are a lot cheaper there. You would think it would be easy to buy a car but here are some things we had to take into consideration.
- Take someone who speaks Mongolian
- Have cash in US dollars
- Know if you want right or left hand drive
- Make sure when you have decided on the car that items are not swapped out of the car
- Have a letter from land lord to say you are living in the apartment
- Obtain Mongolian driver licence
- Ensure you have a car spot to park your car in your apartment block (extra cost to consider)
We where lucky enough that one of our friends who work for Boroo had just brought a car so we where given a number of good tips to help with the process. With all that taken into consideration we set off on the adventure with fingers crossed.
Friday - We first went to the Black Car Market last Friday and found it a little over whelming. With a company van being late for picking us up we didn't have as much time to look. The market was full of different types of cars all owned by different sellers in no real order. Some cars had the price clearly marked on the windscreen and others if you wanted to know the price you had to call the phone the number which was on the car. We had taken one of the ladies who works for us as her English is very good. She was making calls finding out the asking price of cars we where interested in. Only being able to spend half an hour at the market we found it a good chance to get an idea of what types of car would best suit us and our budget. We decided that we would return the next day, being a Saturday and spend two hours looking, with fingers crossed we would find something.
Our wish list was;
Saturday - Back to the market we went with a better idea of what to expect. As we walked around looking at cars we decided that we would take two cars for a test drive one being a Mitsubishi and another a Nissan. Seeing as the Nissan was boxed in, the man said it would take him a while to get the other cars to be moved so we said we would return. We headed back to test drive a small Mitsubishi Pajero Io. It was funny, the man couldn't understand why we wanted to test drive it before we brought it. Our friend explained to him that we wouldn't consider buying any car without first test driving it, that's what most westerners do. The man wasn't happy but came with us on the test drive. Ben did the driving as my licence hadn't come through yet. With the fuel light flashing we took the car for a small test drive. It wasn't bad for a toy car, a little squashy and didn't have much get up and go. We decided to head back to the Nissan and take it for a test drive. This car felt good to drive Ben said, I wasn't to squashed in the passenger seat. The engined didn't seem to have any strange sounds coming from it. We had given it a once over already, checking the body, tyres, seats and motor all seem to look OK. We decided this car was the one so we pulled over and started talking price. After agreeing on price, we could take the car then and there. The seller would meet us at the transfer office to sign the paper work on Monday so we turned the car around and dropped the man home so he could take all his personal belongings from the car. On the way to the mans home, he was busy letting us know of things about the car, explaining the radio system, explained we would need to replace one of the hoses after ten thousand kilometers and the front tyres would need tube inserts as the tyres where tubeless. I thought this was nice of him to let us know this information, Mongolians are not so helpful at times but this man was. Our friend found out that the man wanted to sell the car because we wanted to buy something bigger for his growing family.
So now we have a
Picture: Paige standing with our car
Picture: Front view of our car
Picture: Paige pretending to drive our car
Monday - Now the fun and games begun with the paper work. True to his word the man who sold us the car met us at the registration office. We had to drive to another office location as one of the people where away who processed the paper work there. Once the process started we where told that the letter from the land lord needed to be stamped by another office and to come back once we had that completed. So off we went, while I looked after Paige Ben and our friend did the running around. To cut a long drawn out story short, 10 hours, 2 visits to the housing office, three visits to the registration office later, the car was now in our name.
Wednesday - Wanting to jump in and take a drive I had to wait another couple of days as my Mongolian licence hadn't yet been processed so once again it was a waiting game the wheels do turn slow here in Mongolia. Paige had fun helping clean the car, I couldn't get over how black the water was after washing the car mats and seat covers but I was glad that job was done. Ben said I was like a child with a new toy, and yes he was right, knowing I would soon have a bit of extra freedom to come and go when ever I liked.
Thursday - It has now been two days since I have been able to jump in the car and drive myself. "Freedom" at last, it sure makes a big difference to life here. Paige is enjoying the car as well. I am finding driving here isn't as hard as I thought it would be. "Think like a Mongolian" I say to myself if I need to push my way in some where. Tooting of the horns takes a bit of getting used too. Expect the unexpected is the key to safe driving here I think. I don't think seven months ago I could of jumped into a car and had driven here. Getting used to the traffic as a pedestrian has helped. Driving on the opposite side to Australian roads takes a bit of getting used to but having so much traffic around you it is easy to go with the flow. I am sure there is a blog in the making about my driving experience here.
