We were really blessed to be able to quickly find a good car that meets our families needs thanks in great part to the help of our friend Bernie. We know that many people spend weeks checking out cars before they find what they need. In our case, Richard and Bernie went shopping at Star Cars, and found our van right away. Bernie had bought a car there before and felt confident about their quality and prices. We have found his assessment to be accurate as far as we can tell.
The next day, we had a mechanic check out the car. The car dealership had to fix a few issues on the car, so we picked it up the day after that. All in all, it was a pretty good experience. We ended up with a 2011 Mitsubishi van for $15,000.
Cars in Costa Rica, like everything else, are really expensive because importing fees are outrageous. Importing fees are based on the features the car has too, so many cars are pretty barebones, including ours. Ours has a manual transmission, manual doors and windows, and ac only in the front. One good thing is that cars hold their value really well here, so we will likely be able to sell our van for close to the same price we paid when we leave.
When we picked up our car, it was dark, rainy, a new driving environment, and I had not driven a car with manual transmission in 15 years. I was a little nervous for sure. But, I was able to jump right back into driving and now feel comfortable driving all around.
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