How not to buy a car in grenada

It has been a very long time since I have posted, but i wanted to give everyone an update on our life here in grenada.  After my mother left, my life went back to its normal boring self.  I wake up, help the maid get started, call the plumber/lester/air conditioner people/electricians/handymen/carpenters for the day, then collect rent, look at the sky and curse how damn hot it is, and work until sean comes home at 5 and begs for dinner becasue he did not eat lunch.  How is it my fault he did not eat lunch? Anyways, this is what i do all day, everyday.
I have recently begun teaching another dog training class for the GSPCA on Tuesday and Thursday.   It is a great group of people who come, and i love getting out and meeting a large variety of people from the island.  Most of the people that come to classes are older women, who own local restaurants, shops, and tour services. 
So, onto my experiences with my car.  My boss told he his friend was selling a car, and it was a great deal.  I knew i could trust my boss, and we went and test drove the car.  I looked it over, it looked shiny, the mechanic told me it was ok, and so I decided to buy it.  $4000 later, I was the proud owner of a 1998 rav 4, in a foreign country, where all car owning laws I thought i knew are thrown out the window.  My first mistake was paying for the car before I got the title transferred over to me.  There is no title per say, nor is there a pink slip or anything like that.  There is just a piece of paper down at the government where both parties sign and the car transfers.  I just assumed when i bought the car this would all be in the glove box, but I should have known better, this is another TIG(This is grenada) moment.
LESSON number #1  make sure you transfer your title the day of purchase, or else you could get screwed.  You and the owner need to go down to the ministries and transfer the title at the ministries.  If you cannot get the owner to come down but have his signature on the transfer slip, tears will have to work ;).  I have heard horror stories of people buying a car without the title transfer, and the owner coming back and calling the car stolen.  I got lucky and finalized my transfer this morning, a month and a half after taking ownership of the car. Each transfer costs $10 ec. 
LESSON # 2  Make sure the inspection is in date.  Each car has a small sticker which says the year and month the car will expire.  I had no idea they even had inspections in grenada, so this is an important thing to look at before purchasing.  If the car is out of date, you might even want to put in a clause in contract that the car must pass inspection before fully purchased. 
LESSON # 3, Actually look at the car you are purchasing.  Are the tires bald?  If so, tires in grenada cost about $150 us each.  If you get pulled over with bald tires, the police will give you a $150 fine, so my first purchase was to buy tires.  The next little surprise I found out about was that my windshield washer fluid line does not lead anywhere.  Luckily my plumbers are amazing and are helping me fix this.  My doors also do not open with the key, and the trunk needs to be beat up a bit for it to open.  Did I mention that I need to keep my windows up becasue they get stuck down if i move them.
Anyways, I got really lucky comparatively, the car drives wonderfully, its adorable, and I have AC!, but hopefully someone in the future will look at these things before making the decision to purchase.  My plumbers have offered me way over my purchase price for it already, so hopefully i did not make a horrible buy. 
Alright, rant over, I will be impressed if anyone actually reads this.  After spending the last 2 months praying and hoping that my car would finally become mine, I have learned some very valuable lessons, and hopefully someone may learn from them!