Car Shopping

Finding cars to purchase in Antigua has been an experience. Cars are really a necessity here because there is little public transportation and the roads are laid out so that if you want to explore the island you have no choice but to hitch a ride with someone or get your own wheels.    Shipping your own car into the country is not cost effective because there is a 30-40% duty taxed onto any imported goods (that includes the price of shipping too!) Bringing a left hand drive car into a drive-on-the-left country is not a good idea especially because of the frequent need to pass parked minibuses, slow moving cars, herds of goats and other obstacles on narrow, bumpy roads.  You are better off sitting behind the wheel on the right side of the car so you can see what’s coming the other way! 

 

There are many used cars that come from Japan. There is some law in Japan that says you can only have a car on the road there for so many years. After that, they must go and end up in do places like Antigua.  I’ve heard, however, that some of the resellers here change the model years so the vehicle is newer on paper.

 

 

Used cars tend to be expensive because of the duty tax that the seller may be trying to recoup. Because of the condition of the roads, used cars can also have issues with suspension, tires, steering. They are hard to find as well. The newspapers are slim on classified ads and there are few dealers. We realized that the best way to locate a vehicle was by looking at signs posted in supermarkets and asking everyone we came across. People here are always friendly and willing to help out. A shopkeeper would say hold on a minute, get on the phone and within seven minutes someone would drive up with a car for us to look at. This turned out to be comical as ‘Danny’ turned up on three different occasions, summoned by three different callers with the same car that was too expensive for our budgets. The experience was even more frustrating as everyone told us there were lots of cars to choose from because of the bad economy and the repossession of cars as fallout from the Stanford banking crisis.

 

In the end, after driving all over the island, we both found cars. Javier ended up with a Kia Rio, a small sedan, and I found a rather tattered but strong running Mitsubishi 4WD diesel pickup truck that I named Sue B as in She Be Sue or Sue Be She!