Buying a car

[scott h]

7 hours ago, Gary D said:

a foreigner is always expected to be in the wrong and expected to pick up the tab.

The foreigner and the survivor of an accident from my reading of the news over the years.

Insurance or not, if anyone is involved in a serious accident expect to be hauled off to jail pending investigation. I asked an attorney a while back about this practice and was told it was to insure the driver didn't disappear.

[mogo51]

15 hours ago, robert k said:

There are not a great many high speed roads in the the Philippines and while minor accidents appear to be common, the major accidents appear to involve buses and commercial trucks or someone driving off a mountain. I intend to get the cheap insurance that is just enough to get registration when I buy a vehicle, and yield to larger vehicles at all time. Might makes right on the road in the Philippines. Body work for a car is relatively cheap in the Philippines if you shop around.

If you survive a bad accident, good health insurance will probably be more important than good car insurance, in my opinion. If you are involved in an accident and you are, or may be at fault, settle it on the spot if the other person is amenable. If they are NOT amenable, call the police and give them your insurance information and bless them and wish them luck dealing with the insurance company. An SUV with a ladder type frame, basically any design that started out as a light truck, is a difficult vehicle to get killed in at 60 KPH. An Asia standard car you could easily be killed at those speeds due to thinness or lack of steel. I'm going to buy a new van when I come back but my mind would be more at ease in a toyota surf/fortuner or nissan terrano. I will just let a few dings and scratches accumulate and put the van in the shop when they get to be too much.

It's not all bad to have a vehicle that has what I call Road Cred, a dent or ding or two that shows you will not do absolutely anything to protect your paint. My Toyota Tamaraw FX newly painted seemed to be a magnet for being hit, my M-35 Willys Jeep was never hit because nobody wanted to take the chance of hitting it. I was driving my friends nice looking car for a few days and got rear ended by a trike and a kid on a motorcycle. The trike probably had no brakes and that was his normal way of stopping. The kid was just young and stupid and the road wet. Neither accident did any damage to the car but the kids front wheel really needed to be straightened and the spokes re-laced. This is what it looked like to me from driving quite a bit over a year.

I'm willing to take a bit of a calculated risk in buying a van instead of an SUV but it isn't a cabover design and there are the wheels and significant structure in front before passengers would be effected. Those multicab cab-over designs are awesome in their turning radius but there is only a few inches of sheet metal and plastic in the front, nothing structural, between a person's legs and destruction. Happy motoring!

I feel so much better now Robert after reading this!!!

 

[jpbago]

16 hours ago, robert k said:

If you are involved in an accident and you are, or may be at fault, settle it on the spot if the other person is amenable. If they are NOT amenable, call the police and give them your insurance information and bless them and wish them luck dealing with the insurance company.

Do you get the settlement signed off on the spot? What if they come back for more? They signed under duress?  Might be better to make the settlement at the police station.

[robert k]

7 hours ago, jpbago said:

Do you get the settlement signed off on the spot? What if they come back for more? They signed under duress?  Might be better to make the settlement at the police station.

What duress? You need to explain that. You are using a legal term, are you a lawyer giving legal advise?

If you are certain the police are going to be impartial? You can go ahead and do that. I am under no such delusion.

You really should read Gary D's post, and Scott's post above. Do you really believe that the police will improve your position? I believe it is equally likely that the police could become witnesses against you, because the one with the most money pays whether it is his fault or not?

I won't include multiple recounts of people advising you to settle on the spot [one because they run a Philippines based business and I know how the forum feels about free advertising] and multiple more from youtube because it's easily searchable.

If you really believe you need to go to jail until you have paid, I believe you should be in jail also. Does that make you feel better?

Edited June 26, 2017 by robert k

[DavidK]

Last "accident" I had was a motorcycle driving into the back of me when I had to stop fairly quickly to avoid hitting the motorcycle in front. His first words when I got out were "Give me money". My response of "Well you ran into the back of me how much will you give me?" met with blank looks. I passed him a couple of thousand peso and pissed off promptly. Waiting around would likely have cost me quite a bit extra.

[robert k]

3 hours ago, DavidK said:

Last "accident" I had was a motorcycle driving into the back of me when I had to stop fairly quickly to avoid hitting the motorcycle in front. His first words when I got out were "Give me money". My response of "Well you ran into the back of me how much will you give me?" met with blank looks. I passed him a couple of thousand peso and pissed off promptly. Waiting around would likely have cost me quite a bit extra.

David, you are a good sort! I might have given him enough for a Redhorse Grande. The ones that hit me generally bugger off because they have no license, registration, insurance, lights...brakes and so on.

[mogo51]

On 26/02/2017 at 7:46 AM, scott h said:

Eduardo, wait until you are here to buy a car. I see so many red flags here, on so many different levels I wont even bother listing them.

Oh and welcome to the forum

Sorry everyone this is not right location but have limited internet access. Looking to buy a mcycle after our arrival. 

Anyone know about Kymco mcycle and if they are ok.? Can get new 59k pesos drive away registered?

Thanks everyone.

[Jack Peterson]

3 minutes ago, mogo51 said:

Can get new 59k pesos drive away registered?

 

4 minutes ago, mogo51 said:

Sorry everyone this is not right location but have limited internet access. Looking to buy a mcycle after our arrival. 

Anyone know about Kymco mcycle and if they are ok.? Can get new 59k pesos drive away registered?

Thanks everyone.

Kymcos are fine I have had 3 over the years, don't know about prices now but I do know about LTO Registration it takes forever

[robert k]

13 minutes ago, mogo51 said:

Sorry everyone this is not right location but have limited internet access. Looking to buy a mcycle after our arrival. 

Anyone know about Kymco mcycle and if they are ok.? Can get new 59k pesos drive away registered?

Thanks everyone.

Ron, Kymco is what I would buy for a new general purpose motorcycle to ride. In my opinion they are good quality and I presume the lower price stems from them not having the "Big Three" manufacturers name on them.

[AlwaysRt]

4 hours ago, mogo51 said:

Sorry everyone this is not right location but have limited internet access. Looking to buy a mcycle after our arrival. 

Anyone know about Kymco mcycle and if they are ok.? Can get new 59k pesos drive away registered?

Thanks everyone.

 

3 hours ago, robert k said:

Ron, Kymco is what I would buy for a new general purpose motorcycle to ride. In my opinion they are good quality and I presume the lower price stems from them not having the "Big Three" manufacturers name on them.

Good but less expensive because they are a step down (is the price difference worth a quality and therefore peace of mind difference) from the "Big Three". Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki... yup, that's all three