Apr6 Written by:Kayle
4/6/2009 12:21 AM
We've been debating on whether or not to sell our 1996 Honda CRV and to get another vehicle. The CRV always has something going wrong and our mechanic says that it is at the point where you are going to continually be putting in maintenance work. Currently the head gasket needs changed as the vehicle keeps overheating on long shopping trips across the border and just yesterday we heard a new rattling sound—great! We got to import the vehicle duty free when we first came into the country...however now duty is 65% on luxury vehicles. This means that we purchased the vehicle for $6000USD, will probably be able to sell it for $8000USD (as vehicles here can appreciate due to high duty costs to import a new vehicle). However getting a reasonable vehicle that is the appropriate size for our growing family, can accommodate room enough for shopping trips, is high enough off the ground to not be damaged by potholes, is not too old to need constant repairs, etc. we are looking at spending around $20-25K on a used vehicle from South Africa and then perhaps another $17K to import the vehicle!
The other option is to get another Japanese import. We will still have to pay the 65% duty fees but may be able to find a cheaper deal. However, getting parts for a Japanese import is always difficult in South Africa—often you find you think you are buying the right parts for your specific vehicle and then you bring it back to Zimbabwe only to find that the Jap import uses a different sized part!
The third option is to buy a used vehicle within Zimbabwe and hope for the best, not having to pay import duty.
The fourth option is to keep the CRV and keep pouring money into it to fix it. What to do? Ahhh...we have put our car in a popular local advertisment to see if we get any “bites”...I guess we'll wait and see.
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