Car Buying

Wow, it's been a busy few weeks. I had a few days off so we took some time to travel, Elizabeth's parents came to visit for a few days, and we bought a car. In the last week we've been to six different cities in Belgium, France, and The Netherlands. There are lots of things to tell, so the next few blog entries will bring everyone up to date. Also, just as a reminder, you can see all of the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/keith.schaffer.

First I will start with our car purchase. It took almost three full months, but I finally received my Belgium ID card, which was required to purchase a car. So, we drove down to the Ford dealership where a coworker told me about a nice Belgian guy who spoke English well. We were greeted by a skinny little Belgian guy with a cigarette in his mouth and a nice black toothed smile and a wandering eye. He had a high squeaky voice that didn't match him at all, kinda like Mike Tyson. He is a very nice guy, but very odd as well. During one of our discussions with him we happened to ask where he learned to speak English so well...to which he replied, "I lived in Thailand for a few years..." and nothing else, as if this was a perfectly logical answer to our query.

They had two used cars on the lot, one was a newer BMW...way out of our price range...and a 2004 Ford Fusion. Ironically, the Ford is the exact same car that we have had as a rental for the last month, and we already knew we liked the car. So, we asked Eric if we could drive it. We got the standard Belgian answer that we have heard so many times, "They are not here, can you come back tomorrow." Now, this was 1 1/2 hours before they closed for the evening, and the person who was in charge of the test drive license plate had already gone home. So, we went back on Saturday to drive it, everything checked out, and we told him we would like to buy it. Then the fun part begins...

First, we had to pay a deposit of 500 Euro. Easy enough. Then, we had to wait a few days while he had the car inspected and a form stamped. On Tuesday, we went back to the dealership to pick up the form to register the car. You can't register a car in Belgium until you have insurance, so it was off to ING to purchase auto insurance. That was actually pretty easy, I bought the policy online and drove to their office the next day to have my form stamped. (I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Belgians LOVE stamps on their forms. No form can be turned in without a minimum of three stamps, probably more. This applies to everything, everywhere you go.)

Once I had my form stamped by the insurance company, it was off to the DIV (Belgian DMV) to request a license plate. I arrived at 1:00 in the afternoon, and as always in Belgium, the office was closed for lunch. I waited in a huge line for about 30 minutes until they were done with their lunch break and they opened the doors. Of course, the second the doors opened the once orderly line turned into a mob scene. (The concept of a line doesn't exist here) I finally pushed my way in and grabbed ticket number 88. I looked up to see that they were now serving 22. Ugh. I waited 90 minutes in a hot, tiny room full of Belgians who clearly don't shower often and smoke heavily. When my number was finally called, an angry little lady who didn't speak a word of English took my forms, stamped them a few more times, typed some things into the computer, and then handed me a license plate. One plate down, but you are required to have one on the front and the back here.

So, you take your newly received plate to yet another completely separate building, where for 10 Euro they stamp you a second copy. I can't figure out any good reason for this procedure other than to give this poor schmuck a job. Now that I had my two plates, it was back to the bank to pay for the rest of the car. Unfortunately my English speaking lady was on holiday, so it took me a good hour to communicate what I wanted to another lady there. After about 45 minutes, I figured out that she was trying to give me a loan....so I had to start over. It was a struggle, but I finally got the payment made.

Overall, the purchase took me to 5 different buildings over ten days...but at least we have a car. It's a diesel (diesel fuel is about 1 Euro / gallon cheaper) and gets 5.4 litres / 100 km...or roughly 42 mpg to you Americans. At $7.10 / gallon for diesel ($8.25 / gallon for regular), the mileage is very important. Yeah...you read that right...no complaints about gas prices in America yet. As you can see from the picture, it's nothing like the Fusion back in America. It's much smaller, but it meets our needs here. One more step down!