Unfortunately, used goods in Chile tend to hold their value much better than in most other countries. So shopping for a used car on a limited budget can be quite the shocking experience. I would estimate that on average a used car that would cost around $1000 at home goes for close to $3000 here!

     Oh well, the situation isn't the end of the world...we will have to spend more, but then we'll be able to sell it for more when we leave.

     So, for the past month or so I have been browsing the classified ads and looking through the internet hoping to find a special deal, a diamond in the rough, maybe someone was having trouble offloading an old Cadillac with Pinochet's likeness spray painted on the hood...and I was sure that I'd found it.

     Someone was selling a '90 Chevette for $900, and the ad said that it ran fine but had been in an accident and had superficial damage. He added that for $400 it could be just like new. Sweet, this is the one. I know that just under a grand doesn't seem like a steal for a '90 Chevette, but down here it really is.

     So I e-mailed him to ask a few questions concerning whether it would be a problem to bring the car to Santiago. (He lived in Valparaiso and there is a slew of paperwork that you need to have on you in order to drive in Santiago.) He replied that it wouldn't be any trouble at all.

    I had also asked him to send me a photo as I didn't want to take a bus to Valparaiso just to find out that his idea of superficial damage was different from mine.

    Well, it was a good thing that I did.......

      Apparently when he flew through the windshield he must have suffered sort of acute brain damage that interrupts one's ability to remember vocabulary definitions. It was an honest mistake, but clearly he had confused the meanings of these two phrases:

superficial damage ------- and ------- completely smashed to all hell

     His estimates on getting the body work done must have been quoted in Argentine pesos or something, because I am sure that 400 bucks wouldn't get you much more than new headlights, straightening out of the license plate, and re-bolting the driver's side seat down! And how he could claim that the car was still drivable is beyond me, who knows, maybe it still goes in reverse.

     I e-mailed him back and politely declined to purchase the vehicle on the grounds that my ignorance and lack of education had led me to have an entirely inaccurate grasp on the meaning of superficial. I am just curious what this guy would classify serious damage as!