#691 – The Expat Files: Vintage Cars, Hurricanes, and Capitalism in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border, down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now I wonder Hello there all you expat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here So let's get started a couple of shows ago. I was talking about buying vintage cars down here. You see them all the time Unfortunately, so many of them have been terribly damaged or ruined by the Sun do remember the Sun here in Latin America is fierce That means if you pick up a cool old muscle car something from the 50s or 60s

[00:49] No matter how nice it looks from 50 or 100 feet away as you get closer You'll start seeing that all the rubber and plastic parts are shot and for sure the upholstery Oh by the way, speaking of upholstery, they have some fantastic upholstery shops down here So whether you're talking about car seats chairs, sofas, whatever There are little hole-in-the-wall upholstery shops down here in every neighborhood that can do wonders cloth leather You name it by the way They got some of the best leather down here, too And of course unless you're smack on the gringo tourist trail You'll be paying half or less than what you'd pay for the same thing up in the States So don't be afraid to rummage around by used furniture that might look completely shot if it's Structurally sound and well-made it doesn't matter if the upholstery is ripped to shreds or embedded with cat pee or dog doodoo

[01:34] These upholstery guys down here can do wonders I've seen it by the way The material almost always seems to cost a lot more than the labor down here a good upholstery gets around 20 to 25 bucks A day not an hour, of course I've seen some real crap upholstery jobs, too But that's what you get in any field right the good the bad the ugly and the great you just have to know the difference When this I have to mention when you buy a new car down here If you really like the car and you want to buy it Tell the guy you will if he throws in the leather upholstery for free Leather always adds a little comfort luxury and elegance to a car doesn't it yeah I know what you're thinking if you're from Cleveland or Chicago you jump in the car in the morning And you freeze your cajones off well You're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy the average temperature down here is between 60 and 85 degrees now get this up in the states

[02:22] If you choose the leather seat option for a new car, it's at least 1,500 to 2,500 bucks as an option we're talking about factory options now here in Latin America You can buy a brand new car and get your leather seats two different ways one as a factory option That means it's been shipped from the factory with leather seats almost always on the deluxe models However, if you're looking at a much cheaper basic model with cloth seats, and you've just said to the dealer I'll take it provided you throw in leather seats He'll probably do it, but you're not gonna get the factory option leather seats You'll get aftermarket leather seats, but they will be excellent because you see all new car dealerships down here Anyway have a deal with a local upholstery shop They'll rip out the cloth seats replace them with leather and it's done so well

[03:09] You just can't tell it didn't come from the factory How do you think they can throw an option like that in for nothing? So you've got factory leather seats and the seats the local upholstery guy installs So what's the difference even side by side? Yeah, really can't tell that's how good these upholsterers are But we're talking about scooping up vintage cars down here, right? Now the odd thing is there are vintage car clubs all over the place here in Latin America Even oddly enough non-vintage car clubs for Latin aficionados of cars That really aren't anything special at all and never were like Honda Civics Nissan Centras and Volkswagen jettas And the owners trick them all out go figure huh to us. It's pretty ridiculous, but the Latins who won cars like that It's a pretty serious thing

[03:55] So when you're driving along or in a parking lot and you see one of these tricked out 1500 CC pieces of mediocre nothing try not to laugh at least not in their faces anyway Yep, I'm serious. They'll do that on a Honda Civic and it's totally ridiculous But for the locals just to have a halfway decent car is something special That's why Latin owners will form clubs around cars that most gringle parents would pawn off on their kids when they first turn 16 You know the drill you give them the car you consider expendable Oh and Latin guys also form clubs around crappy motorcycle brands, too Which gives a lot of credence to what expat Eddie always says about the macho society and Latin men No matter what chronological age they are their brain is kind of stuck at 17

[04:42] That said every once in a while you'll see in a local newspaper an ad for a car show or Pulling up to a big mall you might see a car show going on in the parking lot that stuff interests me I grew up in the muscle car era even though I couldn't afford one I always got stuck with Ramblers Pinto's and Ford Fairlanes So when I see one of those shows I always stop in and check it out Sometimes it's the laughable Honda Civic Club and sometimes it's a show with very nice vintage cars though As mentioned in a previous show as you get closer you see the defects in fact I don't think I've ever seen a classic or vintage car here That's a fully restored pristine 10-pointer or what you might call cherry Yeah, cherry. That was kind of like the 1970s Motorhead equivalent of the word awesome. Nope. Nothing gender-neutral about that. Therefore totally on PC, right?

[05:35] I don't care But where were we? Oh, yeah We were saying the closer you get to one of these vintage vehicles in a car show the ratty or they look in fact most Gringles, I know who were into the car thing up in the states would be Embarrassed to put a car that was less than perfect in a show details details, huh? Come on the idea of putting your vehicle in a car show is to have it so nicely restored that it beats the competition Right and even though down here these guys are extremely proud of their cars and think they're restored man They're living in fantasy land They just have no idea except and this makes sense when they have the upholstery redone Since there are so many excellent upholsterers down here. They really have got the seats covered. Ooh

[06:22] Just like with bars and discos in dim lighting not in broad daylight So anyway a couple shows ago was talking about buying antique Classic and vintage cars down here and bottom line if that's what you're into its buyer beware So I got a slew of emails after that I'll get to one of my favorite ones in a minute But first something very important so pay attention You also heard me mention on that show about cars that it's a buyer's market down here There's a flood of used cars, especially in Central America Not so much in South America. Why because once they're driven to Panama, they can't go any farther south There's no road. So why are the cars piling up in Central America? Well turns out all those big online car auction houses up in the states are easy access for people in Central America

[07:09] They buy them online have them shipped down get the body work done for a song and they look good as new But are they really well that brings us back to buyer beware and why I'm bringing this up right now Here's the important part and it's a warning in the next couple of months and for who knows how long there'll be a steady flow Of cars coming from those auction houses up in the states that were junked or scrapped due to the severe water damage from guess what? Hurricane Harvey and the others Where'd you think all those tens of thousands of water damaged cars would go after everything kind of calmed down? Yep, it'll be exactly like what happened during Hurricane Katrina a little over ten years ago Tens of thousands of waterlogged cars got scrapped and sold for salvage They went to the big auction houses got bought up for basically scrap value shipped down to Central America

[07:58] Were nicely restored cosmetically anyway, they even got that nasty moldy smell out of most of them However, think about all the wiring harnesses and connectors that were underwater salt water, too That's the problem. Everything could work perfectly fine today and poop out tomorrow So how will you know if the car has been flooded out and restored? Well, you won't it definitely won't say that on the paperwork or the title because you know when you buy a car down here It'll be a brand new title in Spanish for whatever country you bought it in though Admittedly if you get the VIN number down there are ways to check out the history of that car But there's no guarantee So my advice is if you're in the market for a used car down here buy one that was originally bought at a Latin dealership You remember how to determine that right not so hard

[08:46] just sit down at the wheel and have a look at the speedometer and odometer if they're in kilometers instead of miles per hour the Car was initially but new at a Latin dealership Because everything sold new at dealerships is in the metric system if it's in miles or miles per hour It was shipped down from the states most probably as a wreck and then restored But you'll never know how much of a wreck it was now I know some odometers and such have both miles an hour and kilometers per hour to a dual system in that case How can you tell if it was bought new at a dealer or shipped down as a wreck? Well have a look at the owner's manual if there is one it'll be in the glove box if it's totally in Spanish You're in luck if it's in English Well, it's from the states if it's in both Spanish and English

[09:31] Then you've got no clue again and do look at the numbers that are clicking over on the odometer not the speedometer which tells you how fast you're going the odometer tells you how many miles travel or Kilometers even though these days many cars will be in both kilometers and miles per hour The odometer will be in one or the other either miles traveled or kilometers traveled then you know Oh and don't forget to look at the back of the car right on the bumper or near the trunk If the car originally came from the state still often be a sticker a chrome decal or icon Indicating the US car dealership. It was originally purchased from for instance Ned locks Ford Highland Park or Izzy's Hummers Evanston oddly enough people who ship those cars down rarely take off the stickers and logos don't ask me why but they just don't a

[10:18] Sure sign the car was brought down from the states and possibly a total wreck and restored now Traditionally when you bought a used car down here in Latin America, and it was not from a Latin dealership You were buying a pig in a poke, but it was always cheaper Sometimes quite a bit cheaper. That's what keeps the business going. Oh and one more thing Did you know that cars coming from the US have heavy pollution and control equipment on them and cars that originate from a dealership here in Latin America don't why is that well remember down here? No big brother. No EPA So again, if you're buying a car that came from the states, you're buying a pig in a poke Hmm. I'm sorry I can't help it But every time I hear someone say that I'd think of Oprah Winfrey and Michael Moore mud wrestling you But I digress bottom line. I'd say starting probably in October

[11:06] I would not even think about buying a car that was brought down from the states. Why test fade, huh? Oh, and I have to talk about Hurricane Harvey for a second You know all of us ex-pats and gringles down here Latin America are interested in the hurricane damage up in the states because we all have friends and relatives who live directly in the path so just the other day I was flicking through a US cable TV channels checking out the weather and all and the first station I Landed on was a Houston CBS station and there the weather lady was going down a checklist of the things You should stock up on to be safe be prepared the usual suspects food water blankets lanterns batteries Though it struck me funny what she said next don't forget to have a nice stash of cash in small Denominations in case the banks are closed and the ATMs are down, huh?

[11:54] Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Haven't we been hearing for months at a time that the US is moving towards a cashless society In fact, I just read that Norway and Switzerland will be the next to face out cash completely. What's going on here? Somebody better clue me and and all those people giving hurricane and disaster survival advice on TV on the one hand They're telling you to have cash on hand in small denominations And on the other hand, they're saying soon enough cash will be eliminated. By the way Eventually, I saw that advice given on three different US TV stations Something's really wrong with that picture And you know I hate the funny money fiat currency system as we know it but the truth is hoarding cash for an emergency situation is a great Idea, of course gold silver Bitcoin batteries baseball bats and bullets will be great negotiable

[12:42] Bartering items when the big reset button is hit. Hmm. Did I say baseball bats? Well, maybe but there was no way any of that stuff will be convertible instantly They'll just be way too much chaos at first and that's when you'll need a nice stack of sad-looking presidents Of course after a while when things level out then you can pull out the gold silver Bitcoins bullets baseball bats and whatever cash you might have left to be used as toilet paper But the bottom line is you really have to have a nice reserve of cash on hand when the next crisis hits But again, I don't get it first world big brother countries are really trying to remove cash from society Yet with these hurricanes are seeing proof right now a nice wake-up call that cash will be Necessary at least in the first stages of a calamity. By the way, speaking of calamities

[13:30] I got a few emails lately asking me Johnny do hurricanes hit Latin America very often and the answer is about as frequently as they hit The states though. They only really do their damage up and down the Atlantic coast of Latin America They usually start out in the Mid-Atlantic and then they sweep through the Caribbean from there if they don't die off They're just as likely to hit the US or the Gulf of Mexico as they are to hit the eastern coast of Central America It's good to know that it's very rare that hurricanes hit south of Columbia So South America is pretty much hurricane free In fact, South America has only had one big hurricane hit in the last 60 years So the Atlantic or Caribbean side of Central America does get its share of hurricanes and the Pacific coastal areas

[14:20] Not so much at all again They're not that destructive and nothing compared to the ones that come through the Caribbean and whip up through the Gulf of Mexico Like Katrina or Harvey and here's good news If you're living in the Latin American altiplano You never get hit by the full brunt of a hurricane when a hurricane hits coastal lands That's what it does all the damage But altiplano areas are high up in elevation and there's nothing that takes the wind out of a hurricane Faster than when it butts up against a mountain or plateau So for example even quite a while back when one of the biggest hurricanes hit the Atlantic coast of Central America That would have been Mitch remember Mitch the altiplano regions nearby had a hell of a lot of rain But very very minimal wind damage, but the coastal areas they got walloped

[15:05] So chuck up another few points for the altiplano All right, speaking of natural disasters and events that just might trigger a worldwide reset button Correct me if I'm wrong, but most all of you listeners happen to be living in the most litigation prone Lawyered-up country that's ever existed you live side by side with big brother He's always looking over your shoulder Where asset confiscation and frivolous lawsuits are the norm am I right so far so whether you know it or not There's a giant bullseye painted on your house and your bank account So then why in the world would you want to hold a hundred percent of your assets income and capital in a country where you? Could quickly be relieved of all that and without due process am I right so far most Americans these days admit They're afraid of the cops the IRS lawyers and their own government

[15:54] So let me get this straight most of you listeners are living in a country where the government by its own Reports admits that it's broke and every state bankrupt to worse than broke it admits It'll never be able to pay back its debts Even if they text everyone at a hundred percent now I left the states more than 27 years ago, and I tell you if I live there right now I wouldn't be able to sleep at night And if I could I'd be in denial like 90 percent of everyone else is up there Certainly on Prozac or some other psychotropic medicines So what are you taking you must be on something right by the way? I asked my 50-something brother that when he came down a couple weeks ago And he said that he was taking a half dozen very expensive prescription medicine Then he said with a sneaky gleam in his eye

[16:39] But I'm not paying for it insurances, and I'm thinking that's the reaction you get from Millions of Americans these days as long as someone else is paying for this stuff bring it on Speaking of denial now that a big section of the US gets to see and feel the damage done by a big hurricane Those who have been in denial about Self-responsibility that it is people who want the government to be their savior have just had their big wake-up call So the question is when the next disaster hits and the big reset button is pushed You'll be sitting pretty right you'll have food water power guns bullets. You'll get through it. You're ready correct You've got a bug out bag and a safe secure bug out location right by the way how you set up for an EMP You got generators gas diesel solar a Faraday cage have you even heard of a Faraday cage?

[17:32] I know I know you're all set you won't come up short when the next disaster strikes now Not to rub it in but no matter what happens up in the first world in most places here in Latin America Especially off the gringo tourist trail life will go on as usual maybe with a couple of hiccups But it will go on and no doubt about it. We will worry not so much about us down here We'll be alright, but about you our friends and family up in the States Take my lifestyle for example when that big reset button finally gets pushed I'll be watching from a nice safe distance and just for the record I'm no prepper not in the alternative media slash biblical doomsday sense of the word for example I've got a 700 cubic foot cistern under my garage slab

[18:18] Probably cost me around 300 bucks to have it done fills up with rain water off my roof and even in the dry season If there's no rain it'll last a family for two months easily and during that six month rainy season It's filled to the brim because well there's way too much water now There's a nice problem to have way too much water not to mention I've got at least 20 different avocado and fruit trees and they also produce way too much So I'm always giving that stuff away and my stove and dry run on propane gas I've got 200 pound tanks and less at least a year and to fill both those tanks around a hundred bucks Got a solar hot water heater on the roof to a small gas powered electric generator in case the power goes out And it does once in a while in a storm, but never if more in a couple hours you get the picture

[19:05] I'm not a traditional prepper by any means don't need to be when you have four growing seasons and the temperature is such that you Don't need heating or air conditioning. By the way here in Latin America We are not in any way shape or form connected to your first world power grid Most all Latin countries have their own freestanding power grids and power plants and such which reminds me No nuclear power plants in Central America at all a few in South America though, Argentina and Brazil Those idiots and Mexico's toying with it too, but you know Mexico is not part of Central America It's part of North America. You knew that right? Anyway, as it turns out whatever Latin American country picked to live work planned or hang out You'll find there's nothing strategic when first world countries start lobbing missiles at each other

[19:54] Except Panama. It's got that big old canal half of all the Chinese container ships pass through that place Bottom line if you think the big resets gonna be about world war then you might want to scratch Panama off your list There's a lot of international saber rattling going on right now, you know, however I'm betting it's gonna be a funny money monetary economic reset But who knows my crystal balls on the blink and I'll tell you there's one thing you definitely need to do right now That is get the right kind of boots on the ground here in Latin America and get moving on your plan B It's the best insurance policy you could have So whether you have a full-time or part-time plan B It doesn't matter your best bet to get rolling on either one is to come down to my January 2018 expat insider seminar

[20:41] Yep, the info the itinerary and the sign-up sheet are linked up and ready to go Just go to www dot the new expat calm Oh, and if you sign up now you get a $500 early bird discount Not to mention when you sign up you automatically qualify for a one-on-one phone or Skype consultation with me However, if you just can't make it down to the cemetery and get boots on the ground yourself The very next best thing is to sign up for my 9-hour expat essentials course Just go to expat plan B calm. That's where you'll get my free introductory video that explains it all Now about working through the various steps in your own plan B Some people work through it quite easily and others hit a few roadblocks along the way That's why I'm available for one-on-one phone consultations to get started with that you first download my phone

[21:31] Questionnaire form also at the new expat comm go ahead download it people who have done So say it gives them a lot of good ideas and it's free now after last week's show Where I was talking about vintage and classic cars. I got my usual mess of emails This one comes from Randy. He says Johnny. I think you like this one for your show He sent me an article and a nice picture of a Corvette starts out a man named Tom Nicholson posted on his Facebook account a Sports car that he had just bought and how a man approached him and told him that the money used to buy this car could have fed thousands of less fortunate people So Tom Nicholson's response to this man made him kind of famous on the internet. This is what was posted on Facebook

[22:17] It starts out a guy looked at my Corvette the other day and said I wonder how many people could have been fed for the money That sports car cost I replied I'm not sure it fed a lot of families in bowling green Kentucky who built it it fed the people who made the tires it fed the people who made the components that went into it It fed the people in the copper mine who mined the copper for the wires it fed people in Decatur, Illinois That caterpillar who made the trucks that hauled the stuff it fed truck drivers and the people who loaded the trucks It fed the people who hauled the parts from plant to plant to dealer to dealer and fed the people working at the dealerships and their Families, too, then he says that's the difference between Capitalism and the welfare mentality when you buy something you put money in people's pockets and give them dignity for their skills

[23:07] When you give someone something for nothing you rob them of the dignity and self-worth Whereas capitalism is freely given your money exchange for something of value Socialism is taking your money against your will and shoving something down your throat that you never asked for Then he said I just can't be politically correct anymore inside I never was by the way this posting on Facebook with his answer made him famous on the internet receiving more than a half a million shares and More than eight hundred thousand reactions. All right, me Johnny again saying I hope you're listening out there Bernie Sanders I know you're not now. There's a guy who never had a real job in his life Why do guys like that always end up floating to the top of the pecking order in Washington?

[23:54] Just like big chunks in the toilet always do yep We're talking socialism now, you know, even when I was a teenager my uncle used to say it's every pseudo intellectual and public school teachers rationale for Picking your pocket. Yeah, it does work great until you run out of other people's money By the way have I told you that there are many many public universities in Latin America Every country's got what they call the Casa Matrice That would be the mothership located in the country's capital city along with many smaller university extensions and other towns By the way, they're virtually free compared to private universities The tuition is around a hundred to two hundred bucks a year but as you know Nothing's for nothing the money's got to come from somewhere and the object of these free Latin universities is to give the opportunity

[24:41] For all socio economic classes to get a college education. Sounds good, right? Except for the fact that these schools are absolute breeding grounds for Marxist thought and socialism They pump out huge numbers of students with absolutely worthless degrees like psychology sociology art journalism and political science and the stats show that up to 80% of the Graduates never ever get a job in their own chosen field now Where have I heard that before do note when you walk through these campuses? You always see very complimentary posters of guys like Che Guevara uncle Fidel and Hugo Chavez depicted as Revolutionary Latin American freedom fighters. Yep on those free public university campuses. Those guys are heroes

[25:28] In fact about a year ago. I was on a campus set one of those big public universities and you listeners know I like to check out bulletin boards and they're everywhere on university campuses, or is it camp. I know I think it's campuses well I saw these posters going up everywhere and when I looked at them closely I had to do a double take The posters set next Tuesday will be a day off a free day a holiday. This was a new one That's why I did a double take why because in the center of that poster was a tough-looking Military photo of uncle Fidel in his prime Sporting all the cliches the beret the cigar the camouflage pants Well, you probably guess that the day off was an honor of good old Fidel who just died By the way, when I get this show up on YouTube, you'll see a photo of one of those posters

[26:16] Yep, the number one Latin socialist icon had passed gone But not forgotten now in the private universities throughout Latin America the ones where you have to actually pay tuition No posters no memorial not even a mention why because in most private universities He was considered a ruthless petty strong-armed dictator So that's how it is here in Latin America. The universities are divided the private ones Well, they're for private enterprise capitalism all that public ones Socialist ideologues, that's why so many Latin governments have a socialist bent to them There is a strong connection. In fact a revolving door between maggotist bureaucrats in government and Teaching positions at the public universities. So what's that mean? Well, if you were to get a list of the faculty at a public university

[27:03] You'd find teachers and professors routinely rotating in and out of government Which is why Latin public university teacher salaries are two to three times higher than they are in the private sector That's why so many high-level government bureaucrats when they retire end up as vastly overpaid and totally under qualified professors So it's not hard to imagine why so many Latin governments are infected with socialist ideologies Oh, and when Hugo Chavez died many public universities got that day off, too This is the expat files living in Latin America If you want me to help you out with your own plan B Just schedule a one-on-one consult send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to learn how to move forward with your own plan B from right up there in the states

[27:50] Go to www.xpatplanb.com and check out my three videos. See ya nos vemos