Buying, Owning and Driving a Car in Cambodia Part 2

The first consideration once you’ve got the car is where to park it. Most of us don’t have first floor apartments where we can just drive it in at night. Still looks strange to me, especially since nearly all the cars I’ve owned in the past had leaks which would have been quite problematical if parked in a living room. (Humorous aside: Saw a great scene in Kampot recently; shoes off outside, car parked inside.)

Unguarded cars are simply not left outside at night in Phnom Penh. As a result, you see quite a few spots around where young guys stay up all night to watch over a stable of cars and motorbikes. Actually, if you’re out late you often see them sleeping on the job though their mere presence probably deters most evildoers.

At the end of my little alley, there are a couple guys, relatives of the owners of several properties, who sleep out so it’s pretty safe to park a car there. Only problem is it gets pretty crowded sometimes and I’m afraid to create animosity with my neighbors so I park there sparingly.

The alternative for me is a 24 hour car park situated at the rear of the National Museum. Every nook and cranny is packed with cars and bikes at night. It’s a little-extra-cash maker for the institution. Standard rate is one dollar a night, though sometimes I get charged 3000 riel – not sure exactly what makes the difference. No matter what time I get home, there always seems to be a place for me.

The next thing you need, if you’re like myself and want to play it straight, is a driver’s license. Actually, considering how often you’re likely to get stopped and asked to see your license and that this is Cambodia, you’re probably better off cash wise slipping the cops ten bucks each time than paying for the license which costs $35.

There are two types of valid licenses one can obtain – both cost the same 35 bucks. One, an international drivers permit requires a valid license from your home country. The other, a Cambodian license, can probably be had without a license from abroad, but it’s probably a lot easier and cheaper if you have one.

The international one has the benefit of allowing you to drive legally in about 80 countries that recognize it. It also has the advantage of being valid for three years as opposed to the local one which is only good for one year. However, if you hand one to a Cambodian cop he’s not likely to have any idea what he’s looking at unless you also hand him a little booklet in Khmer, which is provided by the agency that issues them, that explains it: so not exactly ideal.

I applied for an international permit through a guy who worked at a western owned garage in town, who took my $20 deposit and promptly did something besides get me a permit with it – injected? snorted? up in smoke? I thought I had remembered him being somewhat of a flake, which turned out to be all too true.

Since that wasn’t happening I followed up an ad that appears regularly in our daily newspaper, which promises a local driver’s license in 1 minute. In fact, it takes about three weeks: the one minute refers to the amount of time you need to devote to it. They come to your house, fill out the forms, get your signature, take a picture if you don’t have one handy and bring it back when it’s ready. All you need is a copy of your passport, visa and home country driver’s license. All very easy.

I paid $40 for mine because I’m over 60, supposedly for an eye test. Don’t worry they assured me, this is Cambodia, no need to take the test, only pay the extra money.

The next thing you need to do is pay your annual vehicle tax. For a car this is the same curious $35. The fellow who sold me the car said I didn’t need to pay for this year until June. Meanwhile, no more than a few days after I wrote in a previous paragraph that you’re not likely to get stopped often, so probably not worth getting all your paperwork straight, I sure enough got pulled over. Considering I don’t drive the car all that often I was surprised they had fingered me so quickly. I was glad to have my driver’s license, but had to slip the cop ten bucks to compensate for not having a valid 2008 tax sticker. But, I protested, no need to pay until June. He insisted that I had to have a current sticker and held onto my license till I coughed up.

Being a little peeved at my friend’s false information I sent off an sms, saying you must be mistaken about the timing for paying the annual tax. Ok, next day in Kampot I go to the tax office to get my sticker: I sure don’t want to go through that again. Sorry, the tax man says, you cannot buy it until June and besides you don’t need to have it until August. Clever cop, that one, makes you pay for not having something in May that you can’t even buy until June. Next time I’ll ask for a receipt; anyway, right around June first, I’m buying my sticker.

One more thing it’d be wise to have when owning a car is insurance. The previous owner paid about $80 for six months liability coverage. At first I thought insurance wouldn’t make much sense because hardly anybody you got into an accident with would understand the concept. In fact, it makes everything much easier since you call them up first thing after a crash and likety split, there’s an adjuster on the scene to negotiate for you. Much better than trying to do it yourself. Still haven’t gotten around to it though.

Once I got the car on the road, I discovered several minor problems. The first one to crop up was that the front passenger window wouldn’t open. This was not great since I rarely use the air-con - partly because I simply don’t like it, partly because it adds ten to fifteen percent to your fuel cost. Electric windows are a fine convenience… when they work. Anyway, having a window not open is not as bad as, a couple days later, having one not close. The seller said he had taken it in several times to get the windows to work properly to no avail; dust problem, he said.

Not quite. The not closing problem was fixed – temporarily – by a mechanic in Kampot who fiddled with the master switch. Unfortunately, in process of getting the window to work he got the automatic door lock not to work. Wasn’t all that happy about it, but looked at the bright side: now it’s much more difficult to lock the keys inside the car.

The mechanic in Phnom Penh got the problem with the window not opening fixed by replacing a fried motor and connector and got all the windows working correctly; but still never fixed the auto door lock. At one point I told him to go ahead and replace the switch if necessary. Fifty dollars for a used switch, he says; like wow, you wouldn’t want to do that. Mechanics here will go through great lengths to avoid replacing parts – they just keep taking it apart and trying to fix it… and many times it works.

Actually makes sense where shop rates are $30 day to take a couple hours and try to fix it; besides better to recycle than buy new. Back in the states where hourly rates average $80, you’re far better replacing. Moreover, there they insist on using new parts, to insure themselves from having to deal with replacing it again at their own expense. All in all making it impossible for me to take my cars to a garage there: No, if I was to have wheels in America I had to do the wrenching myself.

Dealing with this Toyota, I’ve been reminded why I shied away from Japanese cars back in the states. A used fuel pump for the Toyota cost me $27, a few less dollars than a new pump costs for a Plymouth (at least a few years back). The mechanic said he had a customer awhile back who insisted on a new pump though it cost $130. They last longer but they’re a lot more spendy.

In fact, I’ve done a shitload of mechanics in my life: At one point being responsible for keeping alive ten old trucks owned by a funky, community recycling company. I really like knowing how things work, but anymore, I have no interest whatever in doing it myself. Excellent therefore that it’s so cheap to have it done by someone else.

Another problem mentioned by the previous owner was that it ran pretty rough when cold but you could get it to work better by turning on the air-con. Using the air-con makes the engine run quite a bit faster so masked the problem. As I’ve said, not an option for me. One good reason why it ran poorly when cold was that the sensor that controls the operation of the fan was on the blink. The fan went on as soon as you turned the key; a very big no-no. The radiator fan is only needed when the engine is working hard, like going up a hill or pulling a load, or when you’re stuck in traffic and no air is blowing through to keep the engine cool.

Having it on all the time lengthens the time it takes for the engine to warm up to optimum temperature where it runs better, cleaner and more efficiently. I had a nonworking fan in my last car in America, an ’84 Plymouth Reliant. Though I went as far as going down to the library to get the official wiring diagram, I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out. I also couldn’t bring myself to pay $50 to a shop to have it fixed properly so I hooked up a $3 toggle switch to operate it manually. I realized from that experience that it only needs to be on about 5% of the time - any other time it’s on is a waste of energy. Unfortunately, on several occasions I was too spaced out to remember to turn the fan on until the engine was practically fried: obviously a good reason to have it operate automatically.

A third problem mentioned by the previous owner was that it didn’t like to start when it was hot – the starter would barely turn over. In the event, I got stuck three times, having to cool my heels until it was ready to hit the road again. An additional malfunction which he didn’t mention, which he probably didn’t encounter because he always used the air-con, was that it lurches; that is, it doesn’t run steady - speeding up and slowing down - at idle or when you are coasting.

To head off problems preemptively, I took it to a mechanic in Kampot who cleaned out the air intake for the injectors and took the starter apart to spruce it up. That made it run a little better on the highway and start faster when cold but had no effect on starting when hot. When I arrived in the capitol from Kampot to let off a passenger, I took a chance and turned the engine off. It made me wait about an hour before it was willing to move again.  

Took it back to the guy in Phnom Penh who took the starter apart again and made it work better… when it was cold but still had no effect at all on hot starting: I got stuck again on my next trip to Kampot. I did my usual sugar-cane-juice stop at the half way point on the run when it refused to get moving again. This time my passenger noticed smoke coming from the engine. It seems the insulation on the battery ground cable was melting. After a futile 20 minutes trying to get it started the lady at the juice stand suggested she bring by a mechanic who came, jigggled a wire or two and it fired right up. Cost all of 10,000 Riel for his road call.

Well it was holiday time so no work could be done in Kampot, but it almost didn’t make it back to Phnom Penh. By the time I got near the city it was lurching really bad, barely running at times. It stopped dead on Norodom a couple kms from home, but magically started (cosmic intervention) and got me within a 5 minute walk from home where it refused to budge another inch. I parked it there and picked it up later.

Next time at the garage the fuel pump was replaced, battery cables added to ensure a good ground and a loose wire reconnected. Now it starts instantly under all conditions – phew. However it still lurches a bit and idles a little crazy at times – one of those 20 year old sensors getting a little loopy – but at least I doubt if I’ll get stuck. One more little challenge and we’ll be in tip-top shape – and what a relief.