Chile Forum

I need to nip this in the bud, before I get a pile of email from people insisting they are going to import their used piece of junk when they move to Chile because they read half a discussion the forum about importing cars.

YOU CAN NOT IMPORT YOUR USED CAR TO CHILE!!!!!!!

HERE, THERE, ANYWHERE

People, you can not import even to the zona franca, unless you are a resident of the zona franca (with permanent residency in Chile). Forget about the Zona Franca. If you are asking, chances are you don't understand all of the bureaucracy involved in making use of it anyway. If you did, you would not be asking.

Even if you were by chance qualified resident of the zone franca, it is ungodly expensive, time consuming, and error prone to import just one car to Chile. There is almost no circumstances in which it is cost effective to import a used car to the country, even if you could do it.

So take your clunkers to the junk yard, and buy a car in Chile with $50 they gave you to turn it in to a pop can.

admin wrote:I need to nip this in the bud, before I get a pile of email from people insisting they are going to import their used piece of junk when they move to Chile because they read half a discussion the forum about importing cars.

YOU CAN NOT IMPORT YOUR USED CAR TO CHILE!!!!!!!

HERE, THERE, ANYWHERE

People, you can not import even to the zona franca, unless you are a resident of the zona franca (with permanent residency in Chile). Forget about the Zona Franca. If you are asking, chances are you don't understand all of the bureaucracy involved in making use of it anyway. If you did, you would not be asking.

Even if you were by chance qualified resident of the zone franca, it is ungodly expensive, time consuming, and error prone to import just one car to Chile. There is almost no circumstances in which it is cost effective to import a used car to the country, even if you could do it.

Every once in a while we have to have admin sit down and explain to him how things work in the XII Region.

Para los que conocen la ley y los derechos y privilegios otorgados a los benemeritos, fieles, e heróicos lugareños de la duodécima región, vease el Artículo 35º de la Ley 13.039

The key distinction here is that we are not dealing with new residents bringing vehicles with them, but rather local residents "importing" used vehicles once they are here. Legal residents of the XII region habitually import used vehicles for personal use. It's a thriving business and one of the few advantages of living down here. I can send you a list of the vehicles I have personally stuck into containers in the US that have ended up down here. People here with even temporary residency have imported vehicles for personal use, through a qualified usuario, though formally this is not permitted under the present law. My mechanic occasionally buys a used motorcycle from a visiting foreigner who has had enough of the ripio and needs to go home.

The XII region resident can import vehicles through the Punta Arenas Zona Franca, after first having the vehicle "leave the country" by entering internment in the Muelle Maradones, which Aduana considers to be a foreign location.

Aduana determines a value from their database and not from the compraventa.

Aduana holds a vehicle until its legal status re liens et cetera can be determined.

The tramites involve contracting with a legal "usuario" of the ZF to handle the steps.

Typical usuario, internment, and related costs are around US$1500-2000 for an average vehicle.

A local legal resident of XII region is obligated to keep the thus imported vehicle for three years, during which time he/she can't sell it, rent it, or otherwise use it in business. The three years begins when the vehicle was initially imported into Chile.

That said, if you are not already a permanent resident of the XII region, with a provable residency on the ground here via Certificado de Residencia from Carabineros, then don't bother admin and the rest of us with cockamamie notions of bringing something with you.

On the other hand, let me freely, openly, and unambiguously contradict admin's apparent perception that we permanent residents of the XII region don't frequently, economically, and readily import used vehicles down here through the ZF process. Because we do it all the time.

// Px
Curmudgeonly importer

images of previous importation via container shipment

Think my rather critical point was lost, but you did in fact repeated it.

RESIDENTS of a zone franca can import used cars.

Not some random tourist or people planning to move to Santiago can do that. You must be a resident (temporary on the way to permanent residents sometimes works, and have a home in the Zona Franca, certified by the local police, and so on).

Point being, the zona franca is not some back door foreigners can used to sneak a used car in to Santiago or other places. I have gotten endless emails from people that think tax free zone = free to do whatever you want with no customs or paperwork involved. It is really strange.

admin wrote:Think my rather critical point was lost, but you did in fact repeated it.

RESIDENTS of a zone franca can import used cars.

Not some random tourist or people planning to move to Santiago can do that. You must be a resident (temporary on the way to permanent residents sometimes works, and have a home in the Zona Franca, certified by the local police, and so on).

Point being, the zona franca is not some back door foreigners can used to sneak a used car in to Santiago or other places. I have gotten endless emails from people that think tax free zone = free to do whatever you want with no customs or paperwork involved. It is really strange.

Admin, I think you're still missing the point.
I'm a tourist and have no intention of importing my car into Chile.
What I want to do is sell my car in Chile.

I'll find a buyer in Chile that is willing to deal with the paperwork and expense, then drive it into the special area that is considered outside the country buy customs, thus releasing me from the car and I can leave the country with some money (probably a low amount, but hey, at least the thing is sold).
From there, the buyer (probably a resident, I don't care) is responsible for importing and the nightmare that comes with it.

So as you see, importing it has nothing at all to do with me, a lowly tourist.

-Dan

Dan, if you wish to sell the car in Chile, importing has everything to do with it: the buyer must import it, a fact that doubtless will be salient in any potential buyer's calculation in dealing with you.

Chilean law, a codification indirectly based upon old Roman law, is markedly different from the Anglo-American law, with its comparative freedom of the marketplace, that you and I are accustomed to: for us in common-law systems, what is not forbidden is allowed; for those in "code countries" such as Chile, what is not allowed is forbidden. The systemic difference affects mentality and your circumstance, too.

RWS wrote:Dan, if you wish to sell the car in Chile, importing has everything to do with it:

Not necessarily.

If a Chilean resident wishes to buy it, then yes exporting+importing is typically what is done. The exporting is a bit artificial and involves a location determined by Aduana to be outside Chile, though in fact it is within Chile. It is not necessarily messy or expensive. Typically costs the resident buyer about US$2000 or so, sometimes less.

For another, nonresident tourist person, a transfer can be done through a notarised compraventa, though the vehicle remains outside the Chilean registration system and subject to removal from Chile every 90 days. There are probably people on this forum who have purchased a foreign vehicle that has been sold from one foreigner to another, and the original registration from Canada or wherever is long out of date. I personally don't recommend that, though some have done it successfully.