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[quote=”rfalves”][quote=”Disabled Veteran”]I am in the first stage of considering purchasing a convertible second car for my wife in Costa Rica. Anyone have any insights or suggestions?[/quote]
Just my opinion, I would not buy a Toyota anywhere. Why, well in the best 3 or 4 years at least in the USA they have had millions of cars recalled. To me that is not a sign of a company that cares about quality of the car. Ron USCG Ret[/quote]Name me one major brand that has NOT had a recall.
Toyota is still the best.Imported a CRV Honda from Florida and love it. If you have to deal with 4×4 condition then no. But around the central valley yes. AWD always around 20 MPG, great ride, fast, eats front tires though. Roomy and super quality well built auto. Reminda me of the quality of the older mercedes, Super solid. That is if you import the USA version with steel rails in the doors. If you open the door of a CR version and then open the door of a US version you will want the US version. It a huge noticable difference.
A huge factor for me is the saftey, The US version has front and side air bags (as the CR version does) but the big difference is that the US version has an airbag curtain that cover all the side windows. The frame is similar to a dune buggy frame in that it is tubeular so you are riding in a steel tube cage.
The reason I picked the CRV was that there is no safer car made and legendary Honda Qualty. Its almost as tough as toyota, classy, comfortable and pretty fuel efficent for an SUV. Solid solid solid.
If I lived in the sticks on dirt roads I would have went with the 4 runner turbo diesel 4WD 5 SPD.
Not as elegant and not a nimble or fast but great ride and super sturdy.
Here’s thinking of you David reading the following:
When It Comes to Cars, Korea Is the New Japan
“Hyundai and Kia have sold more vehicles to Americans than all European automakers combined through the first seven months of 2011, and they’re growing faster than any other automaker.”
[ http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/08/when-it-comes-to-cars-korea-is-the-new-japan/ ]
Thought I’d post an update about the 1984 Toyota Landcruiser that we shipped (see first entries on this thread). It has just been AWESOME!! We drove it for several months before we left the States and had some good maintenance work done by our mechanic before it shipped. Once here, there was something to do (catalytic converter) before we passed our first inspection, but at a low cost thru the shipper Barry.
Since arriving we have had our great local mechanic address a couple of small things that were more “comfort” issues…again at a very low cost. Also, the old girl looked a little tatty with some worn paint and a little roof rust. At a nearby shop the workers touched up every little spot on the entire body, repainted the roof white (for a more “vintage” look) and then completely buffed out the entire body AND the original windows and headlamps. The ‘Cruiser now looks like a competition vehicle…all for $270 US. Whew!
Of course, the gas mileage is not great but we knew that going in. The car was comparatively so cheap to begin with that we figure it would take about ten years of extra gas cost to even out the purchase/shipping cost disparity.
Plus, we look SUPER COOL in our vintage CostaRicamobile. AND, all of the local hombres just love our ‘Cruiser. We were amazed to find that similar vehicles sell for between $9,000 and $10,000.
I don’t know if this is coincidence, but several of our friends who have purchased much newer SUV’s of various makes here in Costa Rica have had some hair-raising mechanical expenses on their vehicles.
All-in-all we are pretty happy with this decision!
[quote=”sueandchris”]As always – go to this forum for the BEST input. I am looking at a 1984 Toyota Landcruiser with pretty low miles for the year (160K – it was garaged for seven years). The upside is that this thing is a BEAST – will go anywhere…the downside is the gas mileage @ 15MPG and it doesn’t go very fast. They have a tendency to do about 70-75 mph without too much difficulty. Is this top speed an issue on the autopista???? It is in excellent condition and I can pick it up really cheap. Any thoughts on this specific model?????
[/quote]Jump on it if ya can,I have restored 2 1984 LC’s and wish I still owned them,they are bulletproof and will climb trees in 4 lo. Like ya said tho,mpg is 11-15 ,there is a weber carb kit for aftermarket install that will help with mileage and horsepower.If its mint it could be worth $7k.
KevinHi Sue,
Couldn’t you install a LP (liquid propane) system to save on gas? How much total did you spend on the car, plus shipping and the work you mentioned you had done? Also could you provide the contact info. for the shop that did your paint work? $270 sounds incredibly cheap for the work you had done, I wonder about the quality of paint and how it primed and dried.. I have a older Toyota Hilux that I want to have repainted/restored so Im interested in contacting this body shop for a quote.. Thanks
Hi:
Let me start with the paint shop question….we didn’t bother to have the whole car painted, only the top which had rust. The gentleman then really thoroughly touched up each and every little spot, repainted the little things that were originally black and after a couple of days, hi-buffed the whole thing to shiny perfection. They also detailed the interior a bit and buffed all the years of crud off the original windows. So the $270 was for the above work. Also, they had the car a week so that the touch-up paint could dry thoroughly before the buff. This is a little barn behind somebody’s house but if you contact me by private message I can see if I can get a phone contact…Spanish only. AND the place is in Atenas.
As to the purchase/shipping questions: We bought the ‘Cruiser for $4K in excellent condition in the states and put maybe $1,00 in there. The additional charge to ship was $2350 which was for the tax but that tax amount also included all of our household goods charges, so don’t know the actual amount. Please remember the older the car, the less the tax. We were already shipping a container and the difference between the 20′ and the 40’ is probably less than $1,000. Also, we had to pay for a catalytic converter before it would pass Riteve which I believe was about $350. In Atenas, I have seen two ‘Cruisers of similar vintage go for upwards of $9K, so we feel that we made a good financial decision. Our ‘Cruiser will gain value as the years pass BECAUSE it is vintage. Here might be a fly in the ointment: we have heard that they might be getting ready to restrict the importation of older vehicles…check with Arden @ ShipCostaRica who was our miracle worker for all things shipping!!
Very importantly, this car was (for the bulk of its life) an Arizona vehicle. These cars have NO big rust issues, etc.
Since we have arrived, we have a few little things done which have not been very expensive, but more “wear-and-tear” issues which we would be doing on any vehicle. As stated by other posts, this vehicle is stupidly reliable and pretty powerful. 70-75 MPH may be the top speed, but when can you ever go FASTER in Costa Rica??
No, we aren’t considering a propane conversion as we considered the extra cost of gas in our initial purchase decision. Our experience is that we go somewhat often in Costa Rica, but never far….everything is so close together….just the roads that makes each trip seem far!
We have so many friends who have had NIGHTMARES with the cars they purchased here (of later model). And I mean just pouring money down ratholes! Our mechanic told us something interesting: the tropics just EAT electronics on cars….in the engine and auxilliary equipment. The ‘Cruiser has virtually no electronics…yep we have to crank the windows by HAND…OMG!!!
Hope this answers more questions! Sue
Great topic….We have a Nissan 2004 Frontier small truck with 6cyl bought recently for $11,500 (less than KBB). Of our 3 cars it is the only one I’d consider shipping. It is a crew cab for 4 passengers. The truck bed is a small 4’6″ but comes in real handy when you need to haul something. The obvious disadvantage would be leaving stuff in the bed while shopping,
but most stuff could be locked up on the rear seats. I’ve read about the Nissan service down there. I understand CR has it’s own way of valuing imported vehicles, but I don’t know the details. Anyone know their valuing and how this works?The post about Korean vehicles in the US was spot on. All KIA SUV’s are made right here in my hometown in Georgia. I have friends that work in the plant. They are very popular here and seem to be displacing Toyotas. Since the Japan quake it has been hard to get a new Toyota and that still exists.
Also any idea of what shipping costs are? We could get a larger container and ship it with our other stuff. Any info on import taxes and shipping costs would be appreciated. If I’m off topic please PM me. Thanks 😯
The only good way to get an idea of what the costs of importing your Nissan pickup will be is to contact one of the full service importers who can give you an all-inclusive cost.
I’d contact Arden Brink (arden@shipcostarica.com). She can give you a very firm number for both the vehicle and the container of household goods.
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