I'm Dreaming of a New Toyota (Well, not so new, maybe)

I know you are tired by now of hearing about car troubles and such. But that has been my life as of late. Now we are in the process of buying a new used vehicle. I have looked at more vehicles than I care to think of. One of the first was a Suzuki Gran Vitara - but decided it was too small in the luggage department, although a very nice car. Below are just a small sample of what I have looked at.

This nice 99 Toyota Land Cruiser also runs on bottled gas - but the bottle takes up at least half of the cargo area and you have to crawl over it to get in and out of the back. Price - $22,500. Decision - too much gas!

Now this next little beauty was eye catching.

A 2004 4Runner for only $19,000. A real nice car, blue color. nice interior. Problem - one head on too many and the right corner of the engine wired together. Oh well, I was really hoping on this one.

Next was the Ivan Cruiser (my name for it). a 1999 nice Land Cruiser, nice body and so on. But, Car Fax discouraged me.

Then there was this 4Runner, half 1998 and half I don't know what. I like half and half on my cereal but not in my cars.

This leads me, then, to this sweet little car.

A 2004 Toyota Highlander, $18,000. So far everything checks out good. Car fax is encouraging, ny coworkers are ok with it. Just need approval from the office and my mechanic. (He nixed my last find.) I have an appointment to drive it a bit more today and run it by the mechanic. So, unless some unforeseen thing happens, it may end up in the Elliott garage.

I share this to illustrate that things which are often fairly easily accomplished in the US just take a lot more time in a developing country like Bolivia. And basically there is no protection for the buyer. So you have to make sure that paper work is ok, taxes are paid, the car is in the country legally and so on because you have no one to blame but yourself. I guess that is part of why your missionary friends need so much prayer. So thanks for praying.