Buying a car and banking in Grenada

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a Honda CRV to get around in Grenada. Finding the car was relatively easy, completing the deal with the banks was much harder.

Note the turned in mirror so you can squeeze by parked traffic when meeting other cars #narrow roads

Before leaving for Grenada, I knew that I would be purchasing a vehicle to get around. I inquired about setting up bank accounts in Grenada and decided to open one with RBTT when arriving as they are associated with RBC in Canada whom I also currently bank with. Electronic transfers of funds are not available, and that probably has something to do with taxes on funds in other countries. But after speaking with both banks I was basically told that bank drafts were the way to go so my money would be available right away. After arriving in Grenada this changed. They wanted to hold my money for 30 days to let it clear. This was not good as I could not afford to rent a car for a month while waiting for my money. After pestering the RBTT daily, I was able to get the funds after 2 weeks, they were reluctant though.

If you can, try to befriend a local in the community to help you with your car search. Thank you Tim Morris for introducing me to Sylvester here in Grenada. Tim is a coworker of mine at CFB Trenton who is also Grenadian. After arrival in Grenada I contacted Sylvester and he took me around to see some of the vehicles I had seen on the internet and to some local dealers as well. Sylvester was also able to negotiate a better price for the CRV I bought, as he knew the local market.

My main concern with my purchase was resale value and how quickly I could sell the car when we leave. This caused me to spend a little more than I intended, but as long as I get around 75% of my purchase price back, I will be happy as that would have been the equivalent to my bus and taxi transportation costs while we are here. Champ, the owner of the dealership is interested in purchasing the car back from us when we leave, so this will allow us to keep the car up until our departure date.

As I bought from a dealer, he took care of the transfer of ownership for me and set me up with insurance for the year. $750 XCD or about $300ish CDN. This does not include repairs to my car if I cause the accident. Cars are inspected annually (Green sticker on Windshield) in Grenada and it transfers to new owners, so I do not need a Safety until March 2015.

Note: Cars in Grenada are right hand drive and you drive on the left side of the road. Link to driverabroad.com, a great resource regarding Driving in other countries. Just over 30% of Countries do this.