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Our Experience with Buying a 50cc Scooter in Croatia

The day we bought our scooter on the Island of Brac, Croatia

Ever since we decided we were moving to Europe, we dreamed of owning our own moped to cruise around on. We had visions of romantically and carelessly meandering the European country side, just like you see in the movies. So, once we had our digital nomad residency (check our post about being a digital nomad in Croatia) in Croatia approved, we began searching for the perfect one.

As is the case when looking for any used vehicle, it was a time-consuming process. (Check out our guide to buying & selling a used vehicle in Croatia as a foreigner to save yourself some time and a few headaches.) Add in the extra difficulty of not speaking Croatian and, long story short, it took us a little longer than we expected. But alas, one sunny spring day a photo of a bright green Peugeot X-Fight appeared on my Facebook Marketplace newsfeed. We instantly knew it was the one. A message was sent to the seller and a date was set for us to test drive our dream scooter.

However, the scooter was located on the Island of Brač, which is an hour on a ferry from Split, Croatia, where we live. Having been on the ferries many times before, this was not a deal-breaker for us. We love taking the ferries from Split to the surrounding islands! The ferry port on the Island of Brač is in the town of Supetar. The guy we were meeting was in the town of Sutivan, which is 7km away from the ferry port. Since we did not have a mode of transportation (yet) and it was a beautiful, sunny Saturday, we opted to walk from Supetar to Sutivan. The walk took us about 1 hour 45 minutes, but it was mostly along the beautiful Adriatic coastline. Plus, it was a beautiful sunny day, so we did not mind.

Sutivan, Croatia

Once we arrived in the charming town of Sutivan we found the guy we were supposed to meet. Andy took the green Peugeot for a test ride, while I waited with the seller and asked questions. He assured us that the scooter was in good working condition and that he had just recently put a new battery in it and made some other small fixes. Andy returned with the scooter and said it seemed to run well. He did, however, ask if the gas gauge was broken, because it was below the empty line. The seller replied that the gauge worked fine and that it was just really low on gas. He then proceeded to tell us that the nearest gas station was 7km away in Supetar. We figured worst case scenario, if we ran out of gas, we would just walk the rest of the way back.

Next we asked him if he had all of the proper paperwork for the scooter. This is where things began to get messy. He explained that the bike was not registered in his name and was registered to a man named “Tony” in the town of Omiš, Croatia. Omiš is a town about 45 minutes south of Split on mainland Croatia. He went on to explain that this was common in Croatia and that he only had possession of this scooter, because he had sold “Tony” a more expensive motorcycle and “Tony” had paid him with some cash and made up the difference by also giving him this scooter.

He indicated that the planned to sell it from the time he was given it and he did not want to pay the money to register it to himself, so he never changed the registration. Mind you, the registration and the insurance were both still valid, just not in his name. Andy and I stepped aside and talked amongst ourselves and decided to move forward with the purchase knowing that the registration and insurance were still valid and the seller’s story made sense. We negotiated the price, paid him in cash, and set on our way on our new (to us) scooter, hoping we would make it to the gas station before the tank ran dry. We cruised into the station on fumes just as the engine started to stall. We filled the tank, which cost around €10 (so cheap!)and decided to scoot around the island for a bit before boarding the ferry back to Split.

Andy looking at the scooter on the ferry back to Split

Before long we noticed that there was a fluid leak near the rear tire. Everything else seemed to be working fine, so we ignored it and tried to enjoy our island adventure day. But it was not long after that we both started wondering if we had made a mistake in buying a scooter from someone that was not the registered owner. We decided to go back to Split, sleep on it, and make a decision by the following morning. In the meantime we messaged the seller on Facebook and asked if he had the phone number for “Tony.” He indicated that he did not, but that it was likely that “Tony’s” address was still valid, since the registration was only about 2 months old. We also called a Croatian friend, who explained that the situation sounded legitimate and that we could just forge “Tony’s” signature on the sales contract. He said that people do it all the time. We both agreed that this is not something that we would do.

Omis, Croatia

The following morning Andy and I decided we would try to track down “Tony” to verify what the seller had told us. So, with only his address on the registration and Google Maps handy, we set off on our new green Peugeot towards Omiš. I should mention that Omiš is one of our favorite places in Croatia and the road to get there is along the Adriatic Coast with stunning scenery the whole way there, so going to Omiš on our scooter was not necessarily the worst way to spend a Sunday, even if we could not find “Tony.”

45 minutes later we found ourselves staring at the outside of a large apartment building. In Croatia, the apartments are not necessarily numbered like they are in the United States, so although the paperwork said we were at the right address, we had no way of knowing which apartment belonged to “Tony.”

Luckily, after waiting only a few moments, a man exited the building. We asked him f he spoke English, which he did not. We then used Google Translate to ask him if he knew “Tony” or which apartment belonged to “Tony.” He looked at us confused and pointed to himself and told us he was Tony. We could not believe it and were immediately skeptical at our luck or whether he understood us. We verified his ID to be sure. We called the seller of the scooter so that he could explain to Tony in Croatian who we were and why we were there.

After we hung up the phone we asked Tony to sign the sales contract, which he did without hesitation. We thanked him and, relieved, walked back to our new scooter. We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in the beautiful coastal town before heading back to Split feeling accomplished that we were able to get things done the right (and legal) way, even though it was not easy.

Over the course of the next two months we discovered that our beloved scooter had a lot of issues we were not made aware of at the time we purchased it. Another thing we learned is that unfortunately finding a mechanic who will work on Peugeot scooters is very difficult.

After a lot of trial and error we finally located a mechanic in Split, named Joke (pronounced YO-KAY), who offered to fix the issues we had. We felt like we were always at Joke’s shop having one thing or another fixed. After several months, several hundred Euros spent, and a lot of time, we finally fixed everything on our scooter that needed fixing.

Our scooter, which we named Jerry, went on many adventures with us. We took him to more islands (check out some of our adventures with our scooter here!), the Makarska Riviera, Trogir, and on beautiful Croatian mountain roads. We looked forward to taking Jerry out on the weekends and during the weeks he would take us to the beach for morning swims, on quick trips to the grocery store, or just on a cruise through town. We made the difficult decision to sell Jerry when we thought we were moving away from Croatia. The buyer was a teenager purchasing his first scooter and he has continued to text us to let us know how much he enjoys it.

Although we look back on this crazy situation now and laugh, when we were in the midst of it, it was extremely stressful. The moral of this story is to ask a lot of questions, know ahead of time exactly what questions to ask, and don’t be afraid to say no if something doesn’t feel right. Always trust your gut. In our situation, it ended up working out alright and for that we are grateful.

Emily

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