Importing car parts

[FrankPintor]

I would like to ask the forum for some advice: I need to import some car parts (one of the brakes on my car underwent rapid unscheduled disassembly recently), and the parts are difficult to source here.

Quotes here range from USD 1600 to 2000 to have the parts brought in. I’ve sourced them in Ireland (the parts are brought in from the UK which I guess is the nearest convenient distribution centre) and would cost about USD 1200, plus shipping of course. It seems like it would be considerably faster than dealing with a local importer or the Volvo dealership who estimate 30-45 days.

My reading on the interwebs:

Importar autopartes con aranceles reducidos

Si importás autopartes, podés hacerlo con aranceles reducidos del 2% y 8%.

www.argentina.gob.ar

El Gobierno liberó la importación de autopartes: cuántas podés traer y cada cuánto

Ahora se incluyen en el régimen de “Pequeños Envíos” para compras online en el exterior.

tn.com.ar

Leads me to believe that there is little or no tax payable for importing these parts as a private person.

My question is, would anyone here have experience doing anything similar? Any recommendations based on recent experience? Thank you in advance!

 

[Tilda]

Unless there has been a change you can’t buy break parts from abroad without having them certified in Argentina. We had a shipment rejected because it contained break pads. Everything else was fine but since we didn’t want to pay for the certification the whole thing got sent back to the UK.

 

[Rich One]

Unless there has been a change you can’t buy break parts from abroad without having them certified in Argentina. We had a shipment rejected because it contained break pads. Everything else was fine but since we didn’t want to pay for the certification the whole thing got sent back to the UK.

Did you import via customs broker. or direct import ?

 

[Tilda]

It was a direct import with DHL I think. Since the parts went back to the seller in the UK we got that money back at least. We just lost the shipping part. A broker would probably have told us not to do it…

 

[FrankPintor]

Unless there has been a change you can’t buy break parts from abroad without having them certified in Argentina. We had a shipment rejected because it contained break pads. Everything else was fine but since we didn’t want to pay for the certification the whole thing got sent back to the UK.

Thank you @Tilda for replying.

Google's AI is telling me: "Sí, se pueden importar autopartes para uso personal a través del Régimen de Pequeños Envíos (compras puerta a puerta por correo o courier) y no requieren el certificado CHAS (Certificado de Homologación de Autopartes de Seguridad)".

The CHAS is what sunk your shipment? When was this?

 

[Ries]

I would definitely check with whoever the shipper is, IN ARGENTINA, before completing the purchase.
I had something shipped DHL, prepaid by the seller.
And DHL in argentina told me they were going to charge me another thousand US, for their customs brokerage fees, for IVA, and for handling charges.
I ended up using a customs broker instead, and they were significantly cheaper than if I had used DHL direct to me.

 

[Tilda]

This was two years ago.
I think that’s what the problem was, because break pads are a security feature of the car. They were certified in Europe but that didn’t change anything.