I'm currently living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and will be doing so for 6 months. To make it easier and cheaper to travel around the city, I'm interested in getting a car. However, as I'm leaving the country in September, I need to get rid of the car before that. I have considered buying and renting/leasing a car. What are the various pros and cons of these options? Is there other options I'm missing?
1 Answer
In the end, me and my girlfriend made a deal with a cab driver to drive us to work in the morning and back home in the evening.
Reasons
- First and foremost, the traffic is quite different from what I'm used to, and it seems that the risk of accidents and personal injury is high. The Swedish Embassy in Addis Ababa states that (my translation) "the aftermath of an accident can lead to long-term imprisonment for the driver".
- It took a colleague 3-4 months to buy a car and sort everything out with registration, before it could be used. Assuming it takes a similar amount of time to sell a car, we wouldn't have time to use the car before we'd have to sell it. Remaining in Ethiopia until the car is sold is not an option.
- Given the short time we're here, and the fact that we currently don't use transportation for much else than getting to work and back, this way we don't have to consider car insurance, blown tires, refilling gas, etc.