Buying a Car in Indonesia

Of all the things ExxonMobil provides for us while we are here (housing, cost of living allowance, club memberships, etc…) there is one thing that they don’t. A car. Expats moving to Indonesia are on their own when it comes to providing their families a means of transportation. This is something I knew early on and honestly it was something I was not looking forward to. I mean, buying a car in the US is a big headache, how am I supposed to do it in a foreign country whose language I don’t speak? I kept putting the purchase off, relying on the loaner car EM has provided during our first month here. Then on May 27^th I found out that a new 10% car tax goes into effect on June 1^st in Indonesia. So I decided that if I had to buy a car I might as well try to do it in the next 4 days.

As I alluded to in a previous email, to buy anything here in Jakarta you need “a guy”. Well, my housing consultant, Ivan, told me to let him know whenever I was ready to buy a car because he has “a guy” at a local Honda dealership, and he would be happy to introduce me to him and help translate during the negotiations. So on the 27^th, Sheuwen, Ivan, and I headed over to Honda Megah Motor and checked out the Hondas in stock. We quickly were drawn to the Honda Freed because they offer a good combination of space (seats 7), convenience (auto sliding doors), and price (within our budget). That’s good and all, but personally I hate buying cars at first glance, I usually do a lot of research, price out several models, evaluate competitors, and spend at least an hour negotiating. But here I was in a foreign country, unable to communicate well, looking at a car I liked and knowing I better make a decision soon, oh and by the way, I had about the equivalent of $50 in my new Indonesian bank account. So after about 15 mins of looking at the car in the showroom Sheuwen and I agreed to buy it, assuming we could get a down payment (about $10k) to the dealer by end of business on the 31^st in order to avoid the extra tax.

This is 2010, so how hard can it be to wire $10k from my bank account in the US to my account in Indonesia. Turns out it is nearly impossible unless you have an identical twin in the US. Apparently Bank of America wants you to come to a branch in person so that they can verify authenticity. Can’t come in person, then let us send you a “Safe Pass” in the mail, to a US address only, by the way. Oh and after talking to my bank here, they informed me that wires take 3-4 business days to get processed so the chances of me getting my money by the end of the month looked pretty dim. So the weekend came and went, and then on Monday the 31^st I was explaining my dilema to a coworker that I had about 10 hours to get $10k to avoid paying the extra tax. My coworker proceeded to tell me about a secret Bank of America here in Indonesia. It’s not like your typical BofA in the US. No ATM, no sign out front, no friendly customer service agent waiting to greet you. In fact, it’s on the 23^rd floor of a random office building in downtown. Apparently only those that need to know about it know about it. Great, I can go there and have them wire my money to my Indonesian bank account. Not so fast, 3-4 days processing. Great, another dead end. But wait, apparently there is another option. I call it the Mafia Option. Cash. That’s right, get $10k in cash from the non-descript BofA, but it in a brown paper bag, walk to your car, have your driver take you to car dealer’s bank, walk into that bank throw the money on the counter and tell them you want to put $10k into the car dealer’s bank account. Done deal. So that’s what I did. Quite an experience walking around with $10k in cash in a paper bag. Now I know what it feels like to be a drug dealer.

So that’s what it’s like here. You have to be creative, patient, and willing to do things you normally wouldn’t do. And I’ve learned the importance of asking for help. There aren’t many problems that we will have that others haven’t already had.

So with that, I hope all is well in the States. We miss you all and hope you all are doing well. Stay in touch and hope to talk to you all again soon!