2) On buying a car in Chile
Traveling on a
very tight budget with 550 lbs of gear is not an easy task. We decided that our
best chance was to buy a car in Santiago and head down to Punta Arenas on our
own. This fancy move would save us money on overweight luggage fees in buses
and planes and will allow us to adventure in the Chilean and Argentinian roads
both before and after the PER.
For four days
we were ping-ponged from agency to agency.
Almost every place we visited told us first hand that the process was
impossible. We had to cite the internet,
pretend that we know what we were talking about to have a supervisor sent to us
with some willing hands.
Click for part 1
Santiago
February 1st
- 5th
 |
| Jorge with the long To-Do List |
The information
we found on the internet was straight forward:
- Get a RUT # (Tax payer ID #)
- Find a car
- Buy a car
They said the
process should take one or two days. Very fast and easy!
What they
failed to mentions is that none of the public employees are aware of the
process of selling a car to a foreigner. And due to this lack of knowledge are
unwilling to search for a solution. Ohhh and most public offices only work
Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 2:00 pm! So, our Friday arrival to Santiago
was unfortunate.
 |
| Sam signing and 'digitizing' the purchase |
As I said, our
budget and time frame was very limited so we bought the best car we found, for the
price that we could afford, which wasn't much! Our new ride was a 1985
Suzuki Carry that we found advertised on the internet in Melipilla, 1hr away
from Santiago. Our salesman ensure us that it will make the trip to Punta
Arenas and back -no problem! We were very excited to find a car that would fit
the three of us and all our gear.
 |
| Our sweet new ride! |
Buying the car
was a long and tedious process. We had
to:
- Have both buyer (we) and seller present at the moment of transaction
- Have both RUTs
- Have the Circulation Permit and the Mechanical Revision Paper for the Car
- Pay the Contract
- Pay the Car Transfer plus 1.5% in Taxes in a Bank
- Have an Official Estimated Car Value (equivalent to the Blue Book in the states)
- Receive the Padron (proof of ownership). This should be given immediately if done in the Public Registry. If not, it takes between 15 to 20 days.
It took us a
day of walking from office to office to buy the car. The public sector would
not help us buy it so we had to do it through a notary office. The notary group
was very helpful and understanding of our needs. They helped us expedite
the process and even get a travel authorization form.
 |
| Fenix Power for All! |
The thing is
that to go to Punta Arenas (Chile) by car you have to travel through Argentina.
To do so, the car must be on your name (you need the Padron) or you will need a
travel authorization from the owner. The last of our bureaucratic transactions
was that. Finally we can head to Punta Arenas!
Car paid, with
temporary RUT and temporary acquisition papers we were ready to head out to
Santiago. In our first short ride we realized neither the windshield
wipers nor the blinkers worked. We bargained with our salesman to lowered the established
priced or to fix it. He took us to a mechanic whom after seeing the car for a
few minutes said it was not possible in a rush. That was a bad omen. Yet, we
were determined to go on.
At 11:00 pm,
from Maipú, we said good bye to Jorge and Catalina and with our new car
featuring Fenix headlamps and Nite Ize turn signals, we started our trip down to
Punta Arenas.
Click for part 2
Click for part 3
Click for part 4
I assumed buying a car anywhere was a simple process. I had no idea that in Chile, the process was so involved. I’ll never look at sitting at the local car dealer the same way after reading that laundry list of things you need to do in order for a car ownership to pass hands from seller to buyer.
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