Friday, August 19, 2011

Used Car Shopping in Kisumu

Thus far, shopping for used vehicles in Kisumu has been an amusing experience.  To begin with, almost none of the vehicles' names match their US counterparts' names.  A few examples: a Prado is a Land Cruiser; a Pajero is a Montero . . . the list goes on.  There are also a number of Japanese models here that they don't even have in the US.   Toyota has the Wish, Noah, Voxy, Ipsum, Gaia . . . to name just a few.

Originally we were planning to buy a 4-wheel drive SUV because of some of the rougher roads in the area, but the prices are really high.  You will pay at least $16K for 10-12 year old SUV here.  If you want to get a nice SUV you can pay as much as $40K.  Needless to say, we won't be getting an SUV.

Instead, we began pursuing cheaper options.  Because of past good experiences with Toyotas in the US, we're taking a look at the Wish and Ipsum.  We also looked at the Noah, but it's a little too "minivanish" for us.  Tammy firmly believes that minivans automatically add at least 5 years to your true age!  Here are some photos of the vehicle types we have been looking at (they all seat 7):

2005 Toyota Wish 2.0G Model (Japan)
 Toyota Wish - Kinda like a station wagon

2003-2010 Toyota Avensis Verso (ACM21R) GLX wagon (2011-06-15).jpg
Toyota Ipsum - getting closer to a minivan, but still kinda like a station wagon

2007 Toyota Noah
Toyota Noah - definite minivan territory

You can get one of these for about half the price of an SUV.  Sutton and I spent part of this morning going to around 7 different dealerships.  The funny thing was that every dealership had the same exact price for each model; a little pricing collusion maybe?

Be praying that we somehow figure out how to negotiate a good deal!

*UPDATE*  We are dealing with a new Tammy here in Africa.  After viewing the different options in Kisumu this morning, she has opted for the Noah (or the Voxy).  Yes, you heard me . . . she has selected a minivan.  Now begins the process of finding one that we like (at a good price).


Toyota Voxy - a boxy Noah; probably should've been called a Noxy.

Posted by at

6 comments:

  1. TammyAugust 19, 2011 at 6:33 PM

    Hey guys,

    Love reading your posts throughout the week. The world just got smaller. Praying for you...

    Guthries

    ReplyDelete
  2. The PagesAugust 19, 2011 at 10:08 PM

    Thanks Tammy! Just trying to give everyone a small taste of what we're experiencing here in Kenya!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 20, 2011 at 6:12 AM

    well, i agree with Tammy--to me it looks more like an SUV than a minivan! (think honda element) will it do okay with bumpy roads?

    ReplyDelete
  4. peggypageAugust 20, 2011 at 7:09 AM

    I like the Noah too....it looks a lot like the new smaller SUV's here.Can you get used ones?How gas prices there?

    ReplyDelete
  5. The PagesAugust 20, 2011 at 9:39 AM

    Julia, they'll do okay on bumpy roads, but the biggest problem is speed bumps . . . they are everywhere. We tested the Noah on a speed bump and it scraped a little. So, we'll have to put spacers on whatever vehicle we get to raise it a few inches. Evidently this only costs around $70 to do (we'll see).

    Mom, yes, we're looking at 2004 Noahs and Voxys. One big headache is that whoever drives the vehicles from Mombasa (where they are imported to from Japan) smokes like a chimney, and all of the cars small like a tobacco barn.

    ReplyDelete
  6. kelly wilsonOctober 24, 2012 at 5:27 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)