Your Chariot Awaits!

Finally! After many months of consideration and waiting, we now have our very own car to use for our guest transportation. It was a big decision and certainly was not an easy process, I can assure you so I hope it works well for our needs. I am not sure about your experience buying cars but I have had cars since I was 16 years old and my first job back then was working at a car dealership (where my Mom also worked). What was my lofty title back then: Lot Boy. That meant I swept floors, emptied trash, cleaned cars and did all the other menial tasks no one else would do. Actually, I enjoyed the job and the people I worked with and it was fun to be around all of the new cars. So, I have been around the block when it comes to buying cars and never does the term Cavaet Emptor (Let the buyer beware) apply more than here in Cambodia.

I went with one of my staff to Phnom Penh as they have a bigger selection of cars there. We had settled on buying a Toyota Camry and we began our search. I told my staff I would teach him about buying cars and boy was I right. Nearly all of the Camrys that we saw had just been shipped in used from the US. I know that the average number of miles driven in America is about 15,000 per year. So, we started looking at 2000 Camrys (or 9 years old) and all of the cars had similar numbers of miles on them, between 55,000-65,000. Wow, what a coincidence! All these low mileage (less than half the average US amount) had landed on the ground in Cambodia. As you can imagine in a third world, developing country like Cambodia there certainly are no consumer protection laws to prevent dealers from turning back the odometer on a car to whatever the wanted. If you don't know the mileage, it is a bit difficult to give a value to the car but no problem, that was done for us. We looked at probably 10 or 11 Camrys from 2001 at several different Mom and Pop car dealers and the price was always the same: $13,000. I should my staff on www.autotrader.com if you search for 2001 Camry you will get mileage all over the board from 60,000 to 160,000 miles and at least a price range of $4,000 from cheapest to most expensive.

As I said, these cars were all just in from the US and many had stickers on them from states around the US. They also had writing or papers on the windshield with information that the dealers did not understand, otherwise they would have cleaned it off. On one Camry I saw written 83,056 which I knew right away was the odometer reading at that time. Turn the car on and the odometer says 58,000+. Every other place I went to the dealers would tell me it was actual mileage. When I asked this dealer about it his reply was, "I changed it already." Wow, I like this guy! He is honest! Too bad he did not have any cars that we wanted because I would have liked to have done business with him. Also, several cars had papers in the window from the US car insurance companies indicating the car had been in a collision but was a total loss. But, it looked in perfect condition, how is that possible? As I said, the dealers had no idea what these papers said otherwise they would have removed them. So at the end, we came back from Phnom Penh without a car as I was disillusioned with the process.

I began looking for cars here in Siem Reap with the help of Chetra, one of John McDermott's staff. He was able to find cars and maybe there was a middleman but usually from the owner. It still did not mean anything about the pedigree of the car but after looking at a few the people knew that I knew what I was doing so they would not bring me a car that they knew was suspect. At least I think so. So, yesterday I bought the beauty you see below: 2002 Silver Camry with almost leather interior (I think that is called "pleather" in some circles). Did I get a good car? Did I get a good deal? Only time will tell but I am hopeful. We look forward to chauffeuring you around in The One Hotel Collection's sedan limousine soon!