Choosing A Car

Many ex pats make a choice of buying a brand new small japanese sedan car like TOYOTA VIOS or HONDA CITY which you can avail from around 650 000 Philippine peso (around $15 000). You can go much higher above that or go for a second hand car, it all depends on your budget. It’s good value for many since used cars are more expensive in the Philippines than in the western countries. Although the repairs are cheap. For example for used Toyota Corolla year 1990 you probably gonna spend around 100 000 Philippines peso (around $2300). Repairs will cost you from P250 for simple repair in the authorized garage to P2000-P5000 per day for some serious repair. In the Philippines you can find plenty of mechanics, if you befriend one then they can work for you for cheaper with better effect plus you always sure of the repair since the mechanic is your friend.
If you fancy a vintage car there are plenty of VW bugs here going cheap. Like for a perfect condition, fully refurbished will cost you around P150 – 200 000(around $3500 – 4600). Also you can find here some nice vintage japanese cars from 70s and really nice ones american cars from 50′s 60′s and 70′s. You can also go Filipino style buying a brand new small jeep made of scrap aluminum. It’s new, parts are new, it’s reliable in the hard terrain and easy to repair by anyone. Downside of the project is security since the jeep doesn’t have either doors or windows. Protection from the rain gives you sheet of tarpaulin on the back. and the windscreen with a bit of roof on the to

Sorting Out Papers

After purchase of a car you take the papers to the local LTO (Land Transportation Office), pay a tax equivalent to the VAT (about 10% ) and get your papers. Like everything else in the Philippines that has to do with the government offices, The process can take all day or a few minutes. All depending on how much “snack money” you are willing to use to grease the wheels. You can easily find “fixers” outside the LTO who will charge you whatever they think you will pay but P500 is more than enough. Often they will be retired government workers, policemen, etc. or their wives. When I was buying my car I was lucky enough that the person who was selling me the car had their connections in the LTO.

Ownership

It’s not always a wise idea to put a car in your own name. Accident settlements here are generally low. For example you can’t find a motorcycle liability policy for more than P50 000 but this can change if a “rich” foreigner is involved. No matter who is driving, the owner is ultimately responsible. This is what I have done. My car is registered on somebody’s else name. I am not scared that he will ever claim my car as his because the courts in the Philippines are more interested in equity and if you can show that you provided the money for the purchase of the car and that it has never been paid back than in what is written on the papers. It’s very unlikely the court would award the car to the other person plus it takes months and a lot of money which most Filipinos are usually not willing or having to provide.

Driving vehicle in the Phills

Then comes the most important thing, driving a car in the Philippines! Well, driving here is a bit chaotic. There’s a lot of vehicles on the road, plenty of tricycles, bicycles, jeepneys and old fuming cars. (For the latter reason is wise for you to get a car with good Air Conditioning.) Drivers don’t save on the horns, there’s loads of tooting but the drivers don’t argue! They simply either letting you know that they coming and you should stay where you are instead of joining the traffic, or over taking you. Also there’s whole galactic of another purposes like tooting on a friend, on a too slow going jeepney, on a dog or sexy lady.It gets noisy. After a while you notice that the chaos is only an impression and most of Filipinos drives very cautiously to avoid damaging there ‘expensive’ vehicles.
Parking in the bigger cities may be a problem although in smaller cities you can park literally everywhere. Traffic lights are quite rare here in the Philippines, instead you often see a Policeman coordinating the traffic.

Don’t always expect drivers to use lights at night because they just might be broken, same goes for brake lights and indicators. Also badly tinted windows adding to the danger at the night time when a young driver cannot see enough because of his ‘cool’ car tints. I’ve heard about few accidents caused by negligence in brake servicing as well.
If you have experience in driving in a big city like New York or London with high volume of traffic, then you should be fine. If not you may have a problem with getting used to new ‘road environment’. This problem can be solved by hiring a chauffeur (prices start from P2500/£60 per month) for your vehicle and trying to get a feeling of the Filipino road conduct.

Driving License Laws

So called “international” drivers licenses are not recognized here. You can legally drive on your foreign license for a period of 90 days along with your passport. Then you have to get a RP license. Again, it’s just a visit to the LTO. In theory you take a written test and a driving test but again P500 of “snack money” gets you your “temporary” license immediately. No matter where you are, all permanent licenses come from Manila and will take 6 to 8 months because of the overload there. Although, your “temporary” license is good until you actually get the permanent one.
Plenty of people will tell you how they drove on their US/UK/whatever licenses for years and just played ignorant when caught. That happened to me few times here and Police/Traffic enforcement never asked any questions when saw my british driving license. Sometimes you will be warned to get an RP license immediately. There are also cases when a policeman will use such an opportunity to extort money so it’s up to you what you gonna do.

See you on the road!

Jozef Gorka.