A few years ago I wrote an article on how to buy a used car in Georgia, now it is time to write about our experience buying a used car in Riga Latvia.
For the past couple of years, we were using mostly car rentals and enjoyed it a lot - I mean no headaches about servicing the car, someone brings your car to the airport, you drop it at the airport. Quite nice, also quite expensive. It was agreed we could buy some used car and use it for some two years to come and then let's see what happens.
A few years ago we had a reliable Honda CRV car here in Latvia, we used it a lot during the Summer months and the car suited well during winter months too, unfortunately, the investment the car asked for was too high and in the end car ended in a car cemetery.
For looking cars in Latvia - ss. lv is a way to go. I opened SS.lv looked for a few Honda CRVs (younger models) made a few phone calls and made appointments. I should note it happened on Sunday.
The first Honda we were looking for was listed for EUR 2,100, the other I looked at was EUR 3,300. This was our approximate budget Something reliable for not a huge money. To make it more fun and have some assistance I called my friend Leo, Leo agreed and in one hour we went to a parking lot on Lubanas street, where the first car was parked. Once we arrived, the other guys already paid EUR 2,000 in cash and literally bought this car in front of our noses. Well, what to do. I called the guy who was selling Honda for EUR 3,300. He was located in Imanta, said he has some more cars.
Once arrived at the parking lot in Imanta, we looked at Honda CRV for EUR 3,300 which had both petrol/gas engines - I personally don't find it attractive using gas ...well that's just my preference.. we started to look that Honda CRV and literally we didn't like what we saw.
Next to the Honda CRV car, there was it - Mercedes Benz ML 400 diesel, listed for EUR 3,300. As we are driving VW Touareg back in Tbilisi, we said that let's check this car and literally wanted it. So we tested the car, did a test drive, agreed that the car is premium junk, but I would better pay EUR 3,000 for something comfortable and EUR 1,000 once a year fixing things than buying some second-hand car for EUR 10,000. Our goal is not to resell this car in a year or two, nope. Once the car is done we can utilize, size it. I won't cry about EUR 3,000 spent on it today.
Once we agreed to buy the car, it was just the matter of transferring money to the seller's bank account (via SEB bank), he made some paperwork to give to CSDD (so we can register the vehicle in our name), additionally bought online OCTA, and we were done. The next morning we went to Bauskas street to register a vehicle, paid a tax of about EUR 200. and were Done.
Overall the buying process was quite simple. Hope the car will suit us for years to come.