Shopping for a Car in Spain

A dear friend in Ukraine posted on Scott's facebook page earlier this weekend, remember, T.I.N.A. - This Is Not America.  If that was ever doubted, the process of shopping for and buying a car is a definite reminder.
We are extremely grateful to all those partners who either gave one time gifts or started their ongoing partnerships before we arrived in Spain.  It is because of those givers that we are able to shop for a car.  Although there is public transportation, it is not available everywhere we go and not always easily accessible.  The kids ride city buses to school and we do a lot of walking, but there are many times that a car is a necessity.  We have been blessed by the ability to use borrowed cars from teammates who are on homeservice up until now, but it is time to buy our own.

First, a few rules about car shopping in Spain:

• There is no negotiation - the price on the car is the price - bottom line, no hidden charges.
• There are no test drives - sit in, crank it, open all the doors, put the seats up and down, etc... but no test drives.
• Just because it is shown on the internet as being in their inventory doesn't mean it really is - and vice versa, just because they don't show a model you are looking for doesn't mean they don't have it
• Mileage (or Kilometers) affects the price of the vehicle very little
• Be prepared for this process to take days

After much discussion with our supervisor and others here on the field we made a list of requirements:

• Fits our budget
• 7 seats - a van or similar type car - although there are only four of us, ministry will be much easier with 7 seats
• Less than 40,000 km (approximately 20,000 miles)
• No more than 2 years old
• Automatic
• Diesel
• Has a warranty

Armed with our list we began internet searches.  There is no Craigslist here, but several good websites.  Most of the websites are not really user friendly and this process took hours.  This process allowed us to narrow down our options in regards to models and we thought we were ready to start looking.

Last week I headed to several dealers with Alex was in soccer.  Remember, my Spanish is that of a toddler and I am using it to shop for a car.  Would you let your two year old do the talking for you?  I wasn't sure whether I was petrified, the comedian of the year, or superwoman!

First thing I learned - car lots are nowhere near the size of those in the states.  If  dealer had a total of 50 cars (new and used) they were a big dealer.  Next I learned that what you see outside the dealer's showroom isn't usually what is for sale - what is for sale is inside (guess since you can't test drive they don't need to be able to get them out easily).  And surprisingly to this American, there are no sales people waiting at the door to fight over the possibility of you being their next sale.  You have to ask for someone to help you (you can't see the cars without their help) and it is all low key.

As I left each showroom I would write down what I think they told me.  Who knows if I was anywhere near right!  I'd also call Scott (he was at home supposed to be studying for Spanish class) and get him to do research on the additional models I had found.  It took 1 1/2 hours to stop at 4 dealers (all next door to each other) and to see a total of 4 cars.  One dealer had someone who spoke a little English so that was a nice break in the evening.

The next day was a repeat - coffee moms, grocery shop, errands, and then yes - car shop - several more dealers and only one car on the list of maybes.

Friday evening we decided to attack the list head on.  We printed out all the possibilities from the internet, found their locations, plugged them all into google maps, designed a route to see them, and headed out.  We had 5 possible cars all at 5 different locations.  If we had driven straight from one place to the next without stopping Google said we had 2 hours of driving. 

• First stop - turned out to be a private, one bay garage in the middle of no where - closed, and of course this was off the list because it would not have given a warranty
• Second stop - we never found - GPS and Google and even the street name and # matched, but no sign of a dealer, garage, or used car.
• Third stop - yeah - we finally got to see cars. We learned here that salesmen do not make commission, they are on a flat salary, explains a lot of the process.  The receptionist realized we spoke little Spanish (yes, it is that obvious) and preferred English so she called someone specific to help us - the computer guy.  Yep, the computer guy became our salesman.  Imagine that happening in the US.  He was great.  We looked at quite a few cars and successfully took one model off our list and added a new one to it.  At least we finally got to sit in several and realize something we had not considered - Scott is bigger than the average Spaniard (I'm on the average size - always been on the short size - feels kind of nice for once).  That means several of the vans are never going to be comfortable for Scott to drive.  Found a car we liked, but it was out of our price range.  The computer guy gave us some great information for car shopping and off we went to the fourth stop.
• Fourth stop - no luck
• Fifth stop - found the address and it was a restaurant and it was late so we kept on driving - we were now supposedly only 20 minutes from home.  Set the GPS for home and made a turn and there sat the dealer - just because they have moved doesn't mean they update their information.  (In one town we saw the KIA dealer sign and thought we'd stop while it was convenient and guess what, it had moved more than 10 years ago).  Parked, walked to the door and it had closed 10 minutes earlier.  Looked in the windows, marked the location on the GPS and headed home.

Yesterday we went back to the computer.  Revised our searches based on all the information we had gathered and made a new list of cars to go see (guess we could call, but with the limited Spanish we have, talking on the phone is very difficult).  We realized that one of the dealers (actually one of the largest used car dealers around - they actually have  A LOT of cars, getting close to America's normal stock at a major dealer) had at least one of almost every model that was still on the list, was only a 20 minute drive away, and was open until 8:30.

So here we went again.  After getting turned around a few times we finally arrived.  Gave the receptionist our information and while we waited for an available salesman we walked around and looked in the windows of the cars we were searching for (and even added a few to the list).  About 20 minutes later a very nice gentleman became available to help.  He spoke NO English - I mean no English, as in none!  But he was patient with our Spanish so off to look we went.

We sat in several, opened many, asked questions - oh for you to have been a fly on the wall - we could have won some comedy award - and narrowed it down to one.  One model and one car - at least for the day.

Now we are praying over this model and waiting to talk with our supervisor about this vehicle.  Perhaps on Monday morning we will put a deposit down on this car to hold it for us while we ask more questions and have time to deal with the logistics of buying a car here in Spain.  That is a whole different blog post!

Keep watching - will keep you posted - because as my friend said on facebook - T.I.N.A. so I am sure there are surprises ahead.