Needing help with info on car insurance and lack of Tax identification number

There are 13 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 3,299 times. The latest Post () was by Rice.

1st Official Post

    Hi There..My name is Richard Davidson and i am from Scotland.

    I am coming to fish in Patagonia for 6 weeks in January and February 2020. Due to the very high car hire charge for that period i have looked at buying a car and then re selling it again at the end of my trip. I have found a used car dealer willing to deal with me but after researching car insurance etc i think the problems involved may be to vast .

    Can anyone shed any light on wether they think this is possible as i am coming over as a tourist .


    Regards


    Richard

    Hello Richard,

    I remember buying a motorbike here in Argentina long time before living here.

    Also all papers was completed, including insurance, only with my passport!

    So unless something have changed, I guess it should still be possible!

    Anyway knowing Argentina well, I don't wanna guess on how easy or not easy it might be!

    The insurance papers you can get quotes on via internet, just google "Seguro auto cotización"........you have search machines that gives you prices on all the larger insurance companies, since there is huge differences between the cheapest and most expensive.

    But all in all, for 6 weeks time I doubt it's worth the hassle!!!!

    • Official Post

    Hi Richard aka hairyscotsman ,


    welcome on the forum. I hear you! We didn't have a car for the first 4 years here, and we always thought 'we can rent one when we'll need it'. But we were wrong: it is terribly expensive and there aren't many car rentals, there is no hourly car sharing like in Europe!


    About your question: can you buy a car as a foreigner? I think it is possible, but for a 6-week stay I think it is not worth the hassle.

    I'll explain better: things here take a lot of time compared to abroad. You can probably sail across the bureaucracy, but not speaking the language and figuring out the right steps once you are here (where to go, do they receive by appointment only? when is the paperwork ready to pick up? when is the car dealership done with the paperwork, when can you actually pick up the car?) make it more time waste than anything else.


    I haven't found recent accounts of people doing so, but older pages in Spanish suggest you need to get a local Tax Number with your passport first. That said, I don't think it is something you can do in a day, especially if you are not fluent in Spanish and it is your first time here.


    I agree that renting a car here is extremely expensive by European standards - I went to Portugal a couple of years ago and I rented a car for less than €10 a day! Here, no way you can find those prices!

    Another thing: if you rent a car and plan to travel abroad (for example, if you are going fishing in Mendoza, you might be tempted to cross the Andes and visit Chile), be sure to know it beforehand because most rental car do not have the paperwork to cross the border. Unfortunately, being this country very prone to thefts and tricks, car rental is risky business and they charge accordingly and put limitations.


    My suggestion is to try to rent something online for the first week through a reputable online car rental (avis, hertz, etc.) and then try to get a better deal locally once you are here. You might be asked to pay cash in advance, and you should avoid withdrawing cash from ATMs because fees are exorbitant and the machine run out of bills anyway. Come with cash but don't tell anybody.


    If you are here with local company or with a fishing association, they should be able to help you finding a good deal and avoid getting ripped off.

    Hello from a fellow Scotsman. Only been fishing in Patagonia the once years ago. Luckily my wife's friends husband was able to get the use of a double cabin pick-up which came in useful as some of the roads would have been a bit challenging for a normal car. They lived in Neuquen at the time.

    I'm with serafina on this it would be just too much hassle buying and selling a car for such a short time.....especially given how things work here at the best of times for residents never mind tourists. I suspect you'd waste too much time buying and selling a car to make any saving made worth it to be honest.


    What your plans are while down there. Are you going to be based in the one place or moving around every few days? Sometimes a flight plus car package can work out less expensive than booking both separately.

    There's no easy answer I'm afraid unless you're prepared to pay for it.

    like said, the CDI and cuil should be easy to get also from abroad......that was how I got mine back in time.....


    But another issue: when you wanna sell it again, you will need to wait until it's 100% transferred, to avoid trouble!!!!

    (The new owner keep on driving on your papers, taxes, fines etc.....all in your name!!!!!). It happens often here!!!!

    • Official Post
    Quote from JAN

    like said, the CDI and cuil should be easy to get also from abroad......that was how I got mine back in time.....


    But another issue: when you wanna sell it again, you will need to wait until it's 100% transferred, to avoid trouble!!!!

    (The new owner keep on driving on your papers, taxes, fines etc.....all in your name!!!!!). It happens often here!!!!

    And then having to convert all those bloody pesos in USD and being able to bring them back with you abroad or paying bank fees to have them sent internationally.


    It really doesn't sound worth the hassle.

    Thanks for all the replies guys its much appreciated.

    I have a couple of guys from the local fishing club that have been very helpful and have said they would help with the paperwork etc..

    I am meeting a spanish speaking friend for 8 days in BA before i fly down so she could have helped..

    I knew going to torres del paine etc would be a pain in the ass in a rental or any car withouth speaking the language so decided against that..

    I am starting to think although it goes against my principles that i might just be better forking out the money for hire and once i am down there figure out for the next time as im looking to make it a yearly trip .

    • Official Post

    I think that money-wise, you can get a nice deal if you can pay weekly. Recently not so much, but in the past the exchange rate varied appreciably even in a short timespan as 6 weeks.

    Because if you buy today for 10k USD, you are not getting 10kUSD when you sell the car 6 weeks later.


    You have to convert 10k USD to pesos TODAY, sell the car urgently 6 weeks later (how well would it sell when you are pressed to get rid of it, cash the money and go back home?), convert the pesos THEN with a worse exchange rate.

    You'd lose even more money than planned.


    Definitely hire: it may sound as expensive now, but you'll have a car from start to finish, with no wasted time in government offices navigating bureaucracy and dealing with car dealers!

    Quote from Rice

    This sound like good advice, Richard. When you are on your fishing trip, post photos of your best catch?

    Yes do keep in touch Richard and let us know how you get on. One thing which surprised me about fishing down there was how conservation minded they are when it comes to trout stocks. IIRC you have to use barbless hooks as they encourage catch and release. I only caught the one and happily put it back. The trout are very healthy and have beautiful markings.

    Must try and dig out the pictures.