Truck shopping

The process of shopping for a truck here in Paraguay is a little different than in the US. Typically we would either buy used and go directly to someone's house to look at the vehicle, or go to a dealership and just take whatever you want out for a test drive. This week I have spent a lot of time looking at vehicles. When you go to a car lot, many times the person selling cars only has a few on a their lot, but often they know of other cars that are for sale. We were at one lot and they didn't have anything we were interested in, but the salesman knew of someone selling a car that might be of interest to us. So he got in the car with us and we drove 30 minutes or so to downtown Asuncion where this man was working who was selling his car. He came out to the parking lot and we took his car out for a drive. That one I wasn't convinced was in good shape. The next day, the same guy called us and told us of another truck he knew of that was for sale. So we picked him up and then drove to a neighborhood about 15 minutes away. When we got there, we found out we were picking up another guy, but the first guy didn't know where his house was at. After finding the house, the second guy got in with us and we drove about another 45 minutes out of town to another small car lot which was totally unrelated to the lot where the salesman guiding us worked. We finally got there and took the truck out for a test drive. We made it about a block in the truck before it ran out of diesel. We sat and waited while the first salesman walked to a gas station. Another place we stopped and looked at a truck that looked very promising. Low mileage, no damage, and good looking interior and undercarriage. We took it out for a test drive and everything sounded good... until we tried to put it in 4wd. I tried and could not get it to work. The salesman got from the back into the front and tried and tried to get it into 4wd without any success. He then asked if we really needed 4wd. We we said yes, he paused and said, "look it has an electric cooler to keep your drinks cold." Well played with the sleight of hand my good man. So we keep looking. We have one that we are seriously interested in. We took it to a mechanic and his only concern was the clutch. The mileage seems low and the mechanic said it could have been altered but there is really no way of telling. It also has definitely seen use out in the country, which is much harder on vehicles. So we continue praying that God will give us wisdom in the decision. It is more than we have ever spent on a vehicle before, and for an older vehicle than we have ever bought. Here is a little video of some of the roads around here to give you and idea of why it is important we have a sturdy 4wd vehicle.

Road to Yuty from 5Larrabees on Vimeo.