Purchasing transportation here in Dominican Republic

Expats love so much not to have the responsibility of driving, or maybe it's just me and the ones that I've encountered? Nevertheless, eventually it comes a time to purchase your own transportation.

Living about a 10-minute drive to the beach, a 10-minute drive to the center, and a 5-minute drive to the grocery store and always using taxis or Ubers. Not to mention that the Uber drivers often like to negotiate the price upwards when you're paying cash, but that’s for another conversation. Having said that, being self-reliant, the time has come to have our own means of transportation.  

scooters/pasola

Since I got to Dominican Republic, everyone here has been saying “why don't you buy a scooter?” Not a bad idea, a scooter doesn't require insurance, a driver’s license or a license plate, you only need a helmet to drive. Plus they are very cost efficient, a few dollars ($5) of gas can last about a week lol. The truth is, I never felt the need for a scooter while being in the small town I was previously living in. Everything in that town closed pretty early and most of all, everything was literally around the corner from where I lived. The furthest walk to anything needed was 5 minutes, so I didn't see the purpose of buying a scooter. Now things are different, this new location I’m currently living in is a city, it’s bigger with much more going on and open around the clock. A scooter here would be very convenient, and transportation is needed.  

1 of the 4 showrooms

The first step was to look online for prices and locations to get an idea of what to expect. Instantly, I notice that the prices are all over the place, for example a specific scooter could be selling at a store for $1500 and at a few other stores the exact same model is going for $2000, $2500, $2700. Not really a set price that you can expect to find all across the board, so it's best to shop around. Normally everything cost more in the capital city, but in this case, we happen to have found a location with the best priced scooters right in the capital city, Santo Domingo. Located in a mall, with a huge selection to choose from, great service, I would definitely recommend. As with all companies, the company we choose has a financing plan that we decided to look into. The requirements for financing are quite simple, a 30% - 40% down payment with monthly payments duration of 12 to 15 months. If you don't have a job in Dominican Republic as a lot of foreigners could run into this. Or if you do have a job, resident or not, but your credit is bad, you would need to have a present guarantor. The guarantor would only be responsible to make the payments if by some reason you don't. A credit check is necessary and the guarantor must sign the contract. 

calculating the numbers

Now, before you or your guarantor sign anything, it’s best to do some math. My main question was in those 12 to 15 months grace period, am I allowed to pay off the scooter before 12 to 15 months without a penalty? The answer was surprisingly no, the interest will remain. This store had the best prices hands down, a great selection of scooters, with a good, helpful, well informed customer service to match. They were busy with many customers coming in, also a famous Dominican comedian popped in to buy from this location. The only knock against this whole ordeal was the financing was the worst I've ever heard of in my life. The interest rate was quite high of a percentage (in one ear and out the other) that I didn't pay much attention to it. The financing plan was so bad that even after completing all the required payments, it would be that you paid almost double for the scooter. This is not information that they give you over the phone, and we came along way to get there. So, to avoid paying so much extra down the line, it made the most sense to buy the scooter outright cash.  

scooter being transported on the bus

The company will ask for a day to prepare the delivery of the scooter for their clients. The displayed scooters are only for the showrooms. That's fine, because we don't live in the capital city and we will have to figure out a way on getting the scooter back 4 hours north. Unfortunately, this company doesn't deliver outside of the province, and I wouldn't expect them too either. We could drive it back, but it’s not something that you'd want to drive all the way back 4 hours, but too each is own. One option was to rent a cube van from a local rental, to pick up scooter and bring it back ourselves. Another option was to hire a delivery service that could pick up the scooter and drop it off to our front door. Both options were fine, the delivery service would have actually worked out to be the lesser cost of the two options. One of the delivery drivers we called recommended that we could save a lot of money by carrying it on the bus, he said that's what he's done. Sounded like a good idea, delivery was about $200 and the bus is $40. Looks like we're heading back to Santo Domingo, we call the bus station and get in contact with a driver to confirm every detail and to arrange a pick-up time. His only request was that the scooter had no gas in it. The next day everything went as smoothly as planed, and to top it off the bus driver decided to charge us a little less. The bus was spacious, with comfy seats so I definitely got in some sleep on the way back. Purchasing a scooter was pretty straight forward, but now my mind is on purchasing a vehicle. I imagine that's going to be a different process. Until then, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.