Chile Forum

Ok, so today I went to register my car for the next year, got my insurance earlier from a booth, and lined up, was 12th in line (woo hoo), had all my papers in order, way way way too easy right? I figured, it should be this easy, this is my third year here, I speak spanish now, no problem. After it is all done, and I paid a king's ransom for the pleasure, I got a warm fuzzy feeling going to the guy from Disabled Athletics to get my little piece of paper laminated (note to new gringos: If people are offering laminating, it probably means this particular piece of paper is pretty important, like the 50 others you have already collected in your foray into chilean bureacracy). Anyway I am walking away and start reading my newly laminated permiso de circulacion, and notice something that I have not seen before - number of seats... They have my car (a toyota prado) listed as a 5 seater. oh. yeah. knew it was too easy.

So I get another number, go to the security guard and explain it, he tells me to get back in line just at the counter for the modulo where I got my registration completed, so that I see the same guy. After a brief wait he deals with the guy in his modulo and then sees me waiting and asks what I need. I explain that I have an 8 seater car and he has just written on my certificate that it has 5 seats.

Don't you just know that when they start an explanation with "lo que pasa es" or "sabes que" that they are just making it up??? I am a total cynic, so maybe it's just me - but here is the explanation I got:

The number of seats does not pertain to the number of passengers you are LEGALLY allowed to carry (lets not get into the whole number of passengers versus actual space for people in the car - that's a whole other story), but the number of PHYSICAL SEATS. ie, in my car, there are 2 seats in the front, 1 in the middle (that can hold 3 people) and 2 in the back that fold down to hold 3 people. So only five seats, apparently... although that one in the middle splits in two to get people in and out of the back row - so maybe some one else would count that as 2 seats, not 1???

The man assured me that I was not going to get booked for carrying 7 passengers in what is now registered as a 5-seat car, and I am somewhat comforted by the fact that this detail was not on either of my previous registrations for the same vehicle, not to mention the afore-mentioned notion that one person per seat seems to be optional here anyway.

So anyone want to give me an idea if I have been fed a line to save the guy from having to redo the paperwork etc - does the number of seats refer to the physical installations regardless of how many passengers they can legally hold?

Thanks!

Based on nothing more than a best guess.. chile is trying to prevent overcrowding in cars (you see it all the time)... but as usuall, they have screwed it up and it will be 5 years until they start enforcing the law!

I think I would have run out the door if the guy had put TWO seats on the form.
Any cop who will stop you will see it's a screwup. Fix it next time.
Get out of the system ASAP, they waste your life.