First obstacle: the funds. Jordan's import taxes are so high that cars here cost about twice what they would back in the US. Add to this the fact that the government here thinks that foreign nationals shouldn't be able to buy cars more than 5 years old, and you come up with a very expensive answer: you need at least $15,000 in order to buy a car! A small, used, no-frills car. This is both good and bad: prices are high, but cars keep their value for a very long time. So we started saving back in March, got most of the way to our goal, and then took a pay advance from work to cap us off. Whew!
Second obstacle: a drivers licence. This was a multi-day, multi-office, multi-headache affair. After getting directions for how expats could get a Jordanian drivers license (without which you can drive, but you will be ticketed if you aren't in a car with rental plates), we headed out, only to find that they had changed the process about 2 weeks earlier. Here's how it worked for me. Go to first office, get told to go to another office. Go to second office (miles away) to fill out papers, get told papers go back to the first office to be signed and won't come back for 2 weeks, or I can personally pick them up after 4 or 5 days. Take off work to go to first office to pick up papers early, the guy who signs them doesn't come to work, and the day is wasted. Have a friend pick them up the next day. Take off work again to go to a third office (miles away from either of the other two) to get the actual license, get there and told one spot wasn't filled out completely and we need to go back. Go back to first office, get told we should take it to the second office, but then they complete it anyway. Go back to third office and finally (finally) present my documents, take the eye exam (what a joke!), pay the fee, and get my license printed. Whew!
Third obstacle: buying the car. Another multi-day affair. Went with one friend to look and wasn't very pleased. Went with another friend from work and found one that we liked; the car was nice, if not the price. Went back to get the car inspected and work out payment. However, to buy a car here one must again provide a boat load of paperwork (passport, drivers license, work permit), and our work permits are out of date (our employer is "working on it" currently), so we have to wait to get the official title. Meanwhile, we paid the down payment, and the car dealer still has insurance on the car, so we are driving it. Whew!
Our 2012 Kia Rio:
