How many days does it take to buy a car?

In our case it was twenty.

Thanks to a great Facebook page called "For Sale and Wanted in Crete", we learned about several cars for sale but after seeing the well cared for gleaming Skoda Fabia on Marie’s drive we decided not to view any others.  We couldn’t believe it was so easy...

 Imagine the jokes a few years ago if you bought a Skoda!  Now a very reputable brand.

To buy the car we needed a resident permit and this entailed two visits to the police station, a copy of our passport and x 3 photos – all much easier than expected.

To sell the car Marie needed all the documents you would expect including proof of final payment from the dealer she bought the car from.  It was this document that caused the delay and considerable stress for Marie who is about to leave the country – we were OK enjoying bus travel.

Eventually the elusive document arrived by courier so we all set off to Heraklion to the office dealing with the change of car ownership.

Alan was not daft saying the car should be in my name – this meant he could sit in bewilderment and watch the two hour pantomime.  Marie speaks perfect Greek and said everyone was very helpful during each step of the process and we both knew we were in for a long haul so we chatted and laughed as we went from one queue to the next at the various different “windows” and stages:

• Found out we need to queue for window 11 but just before our turn a helpful lady explains to Maria the her slim pile of documents will not be enough
• Go to man in kiosk for guidance
• Go to buy photo copies of every conceivable document, passport etc
• Go to automatic machine to pay the transfer charge
• Go back to window 11 for form check
• Go to window 3 for senior person to check
• Go back to window 11 to receive slip of paper to take to window 12
• Go back to window 11 where the file for the car has miraculously appeared.  
• Watch as the man carefully puts the papers in order and applies the staple gun. Then, the best sound in a Greek office, the satisfying “Kerunch” as the bureaucrat pushes down hard with their official stamp before applying their squiggly signature.

I finally received a temporary form of ownership with instructions to return to window 11 in one week to pick up document...  All completed without a single computer.

Out into the delightful fresh air and off to Hersonissos to sort out insurance – a delightful computerised office, printed out policy there and then.  We will keep in touch by email and can transfer next year’s payment electronically if we are not in Crete – FAB U LOUS!!

Now all we needed was a receipt acceptable to the accountant for next year’s tax return.  They have an office in each town similar to CAB in the UK so in we went.  We each completed a form for our “oath” that we sold/bought the car and passed them to the man behind the glass who applied four different stamps, so it must be VERY official.

Now, where shall we go today?