I'm living on a small island in the Caribbean going to medical school and just bought a car, a 2007 suzuki swift 1.2 liter imported from Japan.

I don't have my tools here and parts are often hard to come by, so my options are pretty limited, but I can get things from the US and the UK pretty easily. I also have never lived within 500 miles of the ocean so this is a different climate than I'm used to. I figured I'd keep a close eye on the air filter (lots of sand here) and change the oil when it's due. Other than that is there anything about being in a marine environment that affects maintenance?

I'm kind of thinking about sticking a K&N filter in it, but I'm on the fence since I'm only going to own the car for a year or so, and I doubt whoever I sell it to will care about what's under the hood (they tend to focus more on the stereo and the wheels than the mechanicals of the car here)

Any advice is appreciated

 

Stay away from the K&N. If you don't believe me just take a look at a K&N filter and compare it to a conventional filter then tell me which one does a better job of filtering out the sand you are concerned about.

 

Sounds like a tough situation...


The salt in the air will cause rust but it's not as aggressive as the rot from the road salt in the states. I would just run a paper filter, it'll get the job done on an otherwise stock car. The only thing I'd watch would be the mechanical bits, suspension, and undercarriage for the aforementioned corrosion from the salty, humid air.


It's going to be in the 20s (F) tonight where I live, I'll keep the rest of my comments to myself. Enjoy island living while it lasts!

 

Haha, I'm a mountain person, so this actually does suck for me, but I'm trying to make the best of it. Thanks for the advice. Do you think there's any harm in running a K&N? it's often hard to get parts on the island and it seems like a serviceable filter could be nice.

 

Mountains are good too, where it's warm. You might grow to enjoy the island lifestyle, I know I would.

If getting a K&N filter once is easier and more cost effective than getting an ownership worth of paper filters, I'd probably do the same thing. My only suggestion would be to buy a filter cleaning kit when you buy the filter since it's a challenge to get things shipped to you. You will end up blowing out and lubricating the filter more often in the sandy environment so it will be important to have those supplies.

As for whether it will filter the sandy environment more effectively than a paper filter... Maybe, maybe not. Are you going to be taking the car with you when you leave the island? Do you think you'll own this vehicle for a long time? If not, then it doesn't matter.

 

Have you looked at the cost of having someone stateside buy these items and ship them to you versus buying them yourself? Just a random thought.

 

I would figure out what is the most common car on the island and buy one of those, for the obvious reasons that it is going to have the best parts availability and most likely to have people experienced in fixing anything that breaks (that you don't want to or can't deal with yourself.) Often the locals are very ingenious at keeping things running. Those little Suzukis seem to be popular in the Caribbean so you may already have the right car.

Regarding maintenance, the salt environment will tend to affect the car more from the top down than bottom up as it would in a snowy location. Constant sun and heat will make the tires and the interior rot faster. I think that the most important thing you could do maintenance-wise is find a shady place to park and give it a freshwater rinse every now and then. The good news is you probably won't be putting a lot of miles on it.

 

I was bored after school today, I was checking out the small(er) islands in the Caribbean. You aren't kidding, I drive 15 miles each way to work and I would cross some islands twice or more in that drive!

 

I grew up in the Caribbean - road conditions are generally nowhere near as good as the US, so keep an eye on that. The rules of the road are laughable - be cautious.

You're a foreigner, so if you're ever involved in ANY traffic collision, expect to be automatically considered to be at fault, even if you're not. And even though you may see other drivers drinking and driving (including the police at times), don't even think of driving if you have a drop of alcohol in your system. One thing I learned is that in many of the islands, they love nothing more than to arrest an American for things which locals wouldn't even get a second glance over.

As far as car ownership goes, make sure your car is one that you can get parts for. I can't even remember the number of times when I'd travel to nearby islands where parts were hard to get, and you'd see the same car on the side of the road for weeks on end, because they couldn't get an alternator, or even a tire in the correct size.

To explain this simply: When I lived in Puerto Rico, where cars are all US spec, and almost all brands are represented there, I drove VW's, since there were two dealers half hour away, plus several euro car parts stores, as well as ebay, ecs tuning, and various other online outlets from the states. But when I lived in the BVI's, where most brands are not represented, and cars are a mishmash of EU-spec LHD, US-Spec, ROW LHD, and second hand JDM imports - I drove a Mazda B-series pickup at first, because it was reliable, and parts were easily acquired on the island; and a Ford escape later, because I could get parts from the neighboring US Virgin Islands fairly easily.

 

mkt3000, where in the BVIs?

 

I lived in Tortola on and off for two years (M-F in Tortola, weekends at home in Puerto Rico). Now I live in Miami.

 

I have done several sailing trips through the USVIs and BVIs, Tortola, Jost Van Dyke, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, etc. It has been a few years, need to go back! I always wondered what it would be like to live there full time.

Are MINI parts available?

 

in the BVI's, due to lack of a dealer on the island, MINI parts couldn't be purchased locally. I would assume parts came in the way most everything did that wasn't available on the island: ordered online, shipped to a PO Box in St. Thomas, and you pick it up every few days via ferry.

In my case, if it was something urgent, I'd have my family in PR pick up items I needed in San Juan, and stick them in priority mail flat rate boxes, and I'd get them the next day. However, that wasn't always necessary, since I'd go back to PR every weekend, and could just get items there.

Regarding MINIs, there were a few. I believe that they were all US spec cars that were exported, due to the various random US/PR dealer stickers/license plate frames they still had.

 

One thing though, if you want to go to an island with a LOT of Minis, go to Puerto Rico. I wouldn't be surprised if PR had the most MINIs on the planet per-capita.

The large percentage of them with some modifications as well, including mod ideas that I've never seen in the states.

 

I'm not even going to go there...