Up till now Peter has had the use of an official
Civil Aviation car.
(From Jan's letter home Sep 76)
The poor old kombi was objecting to the amount of work it was getting, so it was an imperative that I get my own car as soon as possible. We couldn't afford a new car, and there was no such thing as advertising, even if we could read the papers, so it was the, ask around, routine again.
There are new car dealers, but no second hand sales yards. When anyone wants to sell a car, he takes it to the used car market.
This is an open area in one of the inner suburbs. You drive in, select a space, and wait patiently with all the other owners for a buyer to show up.
I eventually found this place and it certainly looked promising. It had quite a carnival atmosphere, coloured lights rigged up, stalls selling food and soft drinks, crowds wandering about, hundreds of cars, all with their owners in attendance. All makes and ages were represented, but nowhere was the price shown. Oh Well! Into the fray. First, I had to find a car I liked the look of and whose owner spoke English.
When I did, we talked for a while. His name was Muhammad, which was not really a surprise, and eventually I asked. "How much? ".
"2,500 Dinars" said Muhammad. I had no real idea how much to pay so thought a little bargaining would give me an idea.
"I'll give you 2,000" I said. Muhammad looked at me strangely. "No, you must offer more." This required a little thought, so I said. "Well thanks very much I’ll just look around for a while", and wandered off.
This was definitely a job for a Fixer, and when I got back to work, I told the story to Youssef, the best of the Libyan techs, who spoke good English. This caused a fair bit of laughter, particularly when the rest of the techs heard about it.
I had gone wrong again by assuming the Libyans did things the same way we did at home.
Their selling method, which makes sense when you think about it, is to first have a price in mind that you will sell the car for and will not take less. You don't give this price out but wait until a prospective buyer comes along, he will then make an offer, if it's at or above your price, you will probably accept it and the deal is done.
If it's below your price you decline the offer, but this now becomes the price you quote when the next prospect comes along. This was the price quoted to me by Mohammed and of course, I should have raised it. It's really an auction with a reserve and seems to work quite well.
Every afternoon for the next few days I turned up at the car market with one of the airport people and rather more carefully checked out what was on offer. On the whole, prices were high, and I didn't have much cash.
Then as luck would have it, we found a young man with a three-year-old Mazda 383. He had bought the car on time payment (unusual in this society) and couldn't keep up the payments.
The car dealer would not take the car back so he had to sell it. I could not afford the cash price so asked him if I could pay some cash and take over the rest of his payments. He was more than agreeable and much to my surprise, he had it organised in a couple of days. I think he had a relative in the car dealership, which was how he got it in the first place. So I ended up with a rather nice car and 12 months of promissory notes that I had to clear monthly. This was no problem as my pay was starting to come through more or less regularly. Things were definitely looking up all round.
Our transport problems were solved, we were independent of the airport car, and Jan had a car to use while I was at work. This extended her horizons considerably, once she overcame her initial reluctance to drive in the Benghazi traffic! Here is what she said in a letter home..
We reckon we've got a good buy, judging by prices being asked elsewhere. Peter says the engine is immaculate; it’s small but peppy. The condition of the car is very good. It’s just comfortable for the four of us. Next job is to get the children’s seat belts in it so we will all be secure.
Peter bought the car home last Wednesday at lunchtime and after he'd had his lunch, he said. Right, into the car Jan, you're driving
. So, then and there I drove. Round our area and then into town. My first foray out. I started off in fear and trembling, but soon got the hang of things and managed to stay on the right side of the road. It was just as well he did it then and there, or I would have been working myself up into a lather over it all. At last, I can get around a bit now.
That car served us well for the next three and a half years. It seldom gave trouble and survived the pounding it got from the worst of Benghazi's potholes. We paid 1100 dinars for it, and when we left, I sold it for 750 dinars. Which was pretty good going, though we were very lucky when we sold it.
A few weeks before we were due to leave I mentioned to a few people that the car was for sale. A new chap just out from England said he was interested. It turned out his job was to organise offices and transport for his firm, which was coming to Benghazi on a contract.
They were not due for a few weeks and he had organised everything but the transport. He liked the Mazda and the price. He duly bought the car and best of all paid for it then and there. Not only that, he said we could keep it till his firm arrived.
This was great for us, and a few days later, his work in Benghazi finished he went back to England. Before he went he told us where to deliver the car when it came time for us to leave.
The best part of this story is, a few days before we were due to go, a directive came from the R.C.C. that there was to be no more private selling of cars. All cars had to be taken back to the original dealer for resale. Used car prices plummeted by two thirds. I would have been lucky to get 250 dinars for the Mazda. It was unfortunate for the English chap and his Company, but maybe there is a lesson in there for them, that doing business in Libya can have many unforeseen twists and turns.
Next page. Chapter 7 Driving