So this was an adventure. Started with multiple months of pondering and randomly going to new car dealerships then a friend of my wife (someone she met through one of those “local wives with foreign husband’s” Facebook groups) recommended a guy who turned out to be amazing. I’ll put contact info for the MVPs of this adventure at the end so it doesn’t seem like I’m advertising for them despite heavily recommending them.
We added him to line (note that you’d want someone fluent in Mandarin with you even if the middle man is unlike this guy and can actually speak fluent English so you can be sure there isn’t anything weird going on in conversations being held in a language you don’t understand) and chatted for a while. We had already been to a dealership but felt they were way too pushy (secondhand dealership in Linkou, not going to name names here but feel free to contact me if it might matter for you). At the very least, that visit helped us narrow our choices (going to avoid saying what they were as that’s too identifiable) to essentially 2 models. After filling the guy on line in on our requirements, what was important for us (e.g. mileage, never needed major repairs, etc), and more, we set a time to check out cars. He drove over from Taoyuan and picked us up in his car (a nice but not flashy one, think mid-range Uber) and drove us over to Jilong (or Keelung if you like that weird spelling). Checked out a few places, no pressure, and we’re heading home after deciding we didn’t like any of them enough when we suggested maybe looking at a cheaper one (200k+ instead of 500k+). Without missing a beat, he called some dealers and found one that matched what we wanted in minutes and we were off.
The place we got to was just like any secondhand car/car beautification place without about 12 cars on site. Again without pressuring us and being super upfront about the car’s age, mileage, and a prior repair (nothing structural, but ANY repairs drop resell value a looooot). We chatted about what kind of minimal work needed to be done (a scuff here, a rock chip in the windshield there, etc) and then he took us home, just chatting about random things on the way back.
Eventually my wife and I decided we liked it and despite being “cheap” and old-ish, it was perfect as a first car for us. So we started the process. He found time in his schedule for us readily and we went to check it out again, giving it a test drive and such, getting an inspection done (wasn’t originally done because it was a cheaper car) which came back clean as a whistle aside from that minor bodywork he had told us about already. Chatted with him about the price and he said despite it only being a bit under 300k, he could still get us 10k off that, include maintenance and those repairs we had talked about, and maybe a new stereo system (in the end that didn’t happen, but mainly due to the 10k price reduction which was about what we paid for the new stereo we wanted anyway so all good).
The arduous part of the adventure came next as any foreigner in Taiwan would likely be familiar with. The loan. Oh. My. God. The loan. One bank was willing to send a worker to get our info etc, and we found out later the middle man had to pay the bank $3500 for them to do so… The worker was fairly unprofessional, thought I was unemployed, rushed everything, and a lot of other issues but those would definitely be identifiable. The main problems for us were these:
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My wife has no license, thus the car registration has to be in my name, thus the loan has to be in my name.
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Because of reasons my ARC is on a 12 month max (don’t ask, nothing bad, just annoying).
Reason 1 eliminates most banks from being willing even with my wife as a guarantor. Reason 2 seemed to eliminate every other bank including this one. We came to the solution that we’d have to use a lender like 中租 or similar since they’ll loan to anyone as they are halfway between pawnshop loans and bank loans. These companies are some of the ones spamming your texts and calls with loan offers. This was a somewhat acceptable if not ideal solution but at the same time I figured I’d try one more bank.
Now as most of you are maybe aware, the Costco Cathay credit card is essentially the only credit card we foreigners can get without a guarantor (there are a few we can get with a guarantor but that’s always weird in my opinion). So I thought maybe they’d be fine with loans too since reasons 1+2 didn’t bother them for the credit card.
Turns out I was right. While they don’t do car loans so the interest is a bit higher (not quite as high as 中租), they do have personal loans or lines of credit. The agent was super understanding and helpful. Great guy (again, English wasn’t in his repertoire but we’re used to that so who cares) and he got things sorted through line, sending me files to print at 7 eleven, fill out, and photograph to send back. The bank processed everything and booked an appointment to let them see my ID etc in person about 2 days later (started this all in the evening one day, met an agent at the bank about 36h later in the morning). A couple hours later the money was in my account (after going with the advice to get a loan a bit bigger than the cost of the car because the fees would be the same anyway) and I transferred the money for the car before the banks closed at 330.
Closing things up, I told the middleman, showing him the receipt which he showed the seller. The car was already in my name since I signed a contract a few days before and I had already sorted insurance with another great guy for a super reasonable price, again not pressured into getting more and willing to lower coverage+costs if I had wanted to. Minutes later he was on the road to get my car and bring it from Jilong to Taoyuan to get the work done (windshield, some minor interior repairs, maintenance, the stereo, etc) which he had booked in sequence. And that car was ready for me about 24h after the money transferred. All work done, papers in order, insured, etc.
Exhausting but happy.
Middleman:
梁文宏 0929555820 Line:0976728956
Cathay agent:
何宇鈞 02-2173-2899 extension 6227 he has line but I’d call first before adding him
Insurance agent:
尹治華 0922792957 Line is the same number. He works for Nanshan