UPDATE: Since posting this blog post yesterday, we have reached our goal! Praise God! Now pray with us that our car sells quickly and for a fair price so that we can buy our new car.
Do they still run these Visa commercials in the States?
New Basic Ford Fusion in Brazil: $47,167
New Basic Ford Fusion in the U.S.: $19,695
New Basic Toyota Corolla in Brazil: $33,939
New Basic Toyota Corolla in the U.S.: $15,450
New Chevy Zafira Elite (full-size car that taxi drivers prefer) in Brazil: $38,328
Used 2005 Zafira Elite in Brazil: $16,667
Legal and safe transportation for the Reutter family in Brazil: priceless.
And I’m not making up these prices. Welcome to Brazil, where most things run at least twice as expensive as they do in the States. But thanks to your generosity, as of June 9 we have raised $6,100 towards our car and are much closer to being able to purchase a vehicle that we need. The owner of the car we would like to buy has lowered his price from R$35,000 to R$30,000 (or $16,667 at the current exchange rate of R$1.8 per dollar)! He is giving us to Monday before sending it to a used car lot, where the price will once again go back up. If we are able to sell our current car for $8,300, it leaves us just $2,300 more we need to raise by Monday! There are already some buyers interested. Praise the Lord!
A quick recap for those tuning in now: Brazil recently announced that starting June 9, they would enforce the child-seat safety laws that says each child under 7 years old needs to be in a car seat. This would make us illegal, because we drive a compact car around that only one car seat fits into (Ruth holds the other girl in her lap behind me, the driver). We immediately sent out an email to begin raising money — something we had planned on doing over our furlough, but due to the new law we had to start right away.
So many have already given, but if you haven’t yet, there’s still time to bless us and help us reach our goa by Mondayl! The success of our mission depends on our ability to get to the different places we minister.
CLICK HERE TO GIVE
Now, for some other interesting cost of living in Brazil facts:
Power
Energy in Brazil: $.27 per kWh (kilowatt hour)
U.S. (2009 yearly Illinois average LINK): $.03 per kWh
This one is tough! We Americans are used to air conditioning everything, but when you’re paying so much per kilowatt hour, it makes you think more than twice about turning on the air, even when it’s just a window unit.
Gas
$5.91 per gallon
Whoa! Next time you see $3.00 at the pump, thank the Lord that you don’t have to pay Brazil prices!
Other Odds & Ends
Pringles chips: $6.67
iPhone 3G: $1,200
Basic Netbook: $667
2 replies on “Car Update: Visa Commercials in Brazil”
Nate, how much would a mocha be there? A large one here in the US is $4.25.
Nice car, btw. Gloris
Here in Santarém — no mocha. No large. Have to import. Many, many $$.