Leaving Argentina with *your* car

[fred mertz]

What about car insurance? Do you have an Argentina driver's license? Would the warrantee of a car purchased in Chile be honored in any coutry other than Chile?
Yes, almost all Latins are amongst the most honest and reputuable people on the globe. Boy, will get a "warm welcome" when you walk into a car dealer in Argentina, Chile or Brasil . This sounds like an accident waiting to happen. Did I really say that??

 

[SaraSara]

Yes, almost all Latins are amongst the most honest and reputuable people on the globe. Boy, will get a "warm welcome" when you walk into a car dealer in Argentina, Chile or Brasil . This sounds like an accident waiting to happen. Did I really say that??

I've recently bought cars in Argentina and Uruguay, and it proved to be amazingly easy. In both countries car prices are set by the manufacturers, and not the dealers. So prices are cast in stone, and there's none of that awful haggling I had to go through when buying a car in the States. So, no need to check out Consumer's Report to find dealer's price, invoice price, list price, etc., etc.

Cars are offered in two or three different trims at set prices, and that's it - take it or leave it. There are no "options" or "upgrades", and no pressure to buy the extras so beloved by US dealers because here there are no extras available.

In short, same car, same price for all the dealers in the whole country.

 

[FAS]

I've recently bought cars in Argentina and Uruguay, and it proved to be amazingly easy. In both countries car prices are set by the manufacturers, and not the dealers. So prices are cast in stone, and there's none of that awful haggling I had to go through when buying a car in the States. So, no need to check out Consumer's Report to find dealer's price, invoice price, list price, etc., etc.

Cars are offered in two or three different trims at set prices, and that's it - take it or leave it. There are no "options" or "upgrades", and no pressure to buy the extras beloved by US dealers because here there are no extras to sell.

In short, same car, same price for all the dealers in the whole country.

Sara, Thanks again for the info. If you buy and register a car in Uruguay, can you freely take it in and out of Argentina and other south American countries? In other words, could I head over to your nek of the woods, buy the car, then drive back here through Entre Rios without getting taxed or otherwise harassed?

In other news, reading the Chilean expat forum, it appears that they how have strict export restrictions as well. Hard to say for sure because of the ubiquity of misinformation on that forum as well. But maybe Chile is not the nirvana I had hoped for...

 

[SaraSara]

Frankly, I don't know - never had to take the pickup out of the country.

However, keep in mind that cars in Uruguay are at least 1/3 more expensive than in Argentina.

 

[cbphoto]

SaraSara...sorry, but just a little too much on the everything is super duper peachy in Argentina..
that it's somehow better than the US because you have no choices, prices are set (110% of US price)..and that you don't have to deal with any of the headaches of options?... and of course...you cant take the car that belongs to you...across the border...
please...lets try to be a bit more realistic?

 

[SaraSara]

SaraSara...sorry, but just a little too much on the everything is super duper peachy in Argentina..
that it's somehow better than the US because you have no choices, prices are set (110% of US price)..and that you don't have to deal with any of the headaches of options?... and of course...you cant take the car that belongs to you...across the border...
please...lets try to be a bit more realistic?

Read my post again. I did not say it was better, I said it was easier. And it is easier simply because there are NO choices. Just as it was easier to pick out a car when the Model T cars came out and Henry Ford said customers could have any color they liked as long as it was black.

Another reason why it is easy to buy a car in Argentina is that salesmen here are on a salary and therefore are not as ruthlessly "motivated" as they are in the States. In fact, they are so laid back they don't even return calls, and you actually have to chase them to get them to sell you a car. But there's no haggling, and no pressure. I prefer that to having to fend off a whole dealership's sales team, with the manager as backup.

The downside is that here you have to take whatever they deign sell you, which means you can't get the car you really want, with the engine you really want, in the color you want, or when you want it. Right now there's a six-month waiting list for the Chevy Meriva, which is made in Brazil.

Buying and selling homes, on the other hand, is a breeze in the US and a nightmare in Argentina or Uruguay.

Addtionally, car prices here are not just "110% of US price" but FAR higher. A plain Honda CR-V is twenty-four thousand dollars in the States, thirty-seven here, and fifty-one in Uruguay. You do the math - I prefer to look the other way, as we have no choice but to pay local prices.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Any restriction to freedom is protected by habeas corpus. As soon as extranjeros have the righ to buy a car, to leave and entry the country, you can go through it. Regards

 

[elhombresinnombre]

Any restriction to freedom is protected by habeas corpus. As soon as extranjeros have the righ to buy a car, to leave and entry the country, you can go through it. Regards

That seems to be stretching logic to remarkable lengths. I don't drive anymore so I don't care either way but I'd be interested to read your comments if you'd care to develop your reasoning - with attributions of course.

 

[cbphoto]

SaraSara... meant to say more than double... 100% more plus 10%..me bad?
Seems my lawyer friend could not find any information to get around the Argentine bureaucracy either...
Maybe someone has an answer as to why this law exists? Their is usually some "reasoning" behind them.... albeit completely irrational or lining the pockets of the government most of the time.. No?

 

[French jurist]

Maybe someone has an answer as to why this law exists? Their is usually some "reasoning" behind them.... albeit completely irrational or lining the pockets of the government most of the time.. No?

Maybe the law (or this practice) started to be implemented when vehicles were cheaper in Argentina than in neighboring countries (avoid some kind of dumping) ?

But still, there's no logic.

Another explanation, a criminal one, would be that in the past foreigners came here, bought & insured a car, went out of the country and declared their vehicle as stolen as to get money from the insurance ? In this case, a foreigner is less "tracable" by the Arg authorities, and the Arg vehicle moved abroad is not tracable at all anymore ?
In this hypothesis, there would be a logic