driving your car instead of buying

[ihelpit]

Hi,
Does it make financial sense to drive your car instead of buying one ?
( we are 4, so we will be saving about 2800$ – plane tickets)

[Andrew]

You mean drive your own car from whichever country you’re in now (I’m assuming the US) all the way to Costa Rica?

[ihelpit]

yes … I mean buy a car in Canada/US where there are cheaper, drive it 5000Km then pay taxes/register it in Costa Rica.
The financial “catch” is saving money from not buying plane tickets for 4 people and from buying the car cheaper
The question is how much headache is to register a car and how much will the taxes be

Thanks
Steven

[Andrew]

Please use the ‘search’ facility inside the Discussion Forum and search for driving to Costa Rica and you’ll find lots of useful information.

Please note that import taxes on cars are HIGH so you do need to establish what sort of taxes you will be liable for should you drive it here and that’s not always easy.

Some of the matching Discussion Forum threads you’ll find are:

Driving to Costa Rica from Canada (entered by BettyM on 02/16/10 07:23 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (entered by jreilly on 11/02/09 12:52 PM)
DRIVING TO COSTA RICA (entered by KarlP on 11/02/09 12:52 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica (entered by jaguar58 on 11/02/09 12:52 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica (entered by Beverley16 on 11/02/09 12:51 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica (entered by rkreder on 11/02/09 12:51 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica and customs (entered by MarilynSunshine on 11/02/09 12:51 PM)

Matching messages:
RE: Driving to Costa Rica (posted by DavidCMurray 09/17/10 07:00 PM)
RE: Driving to Costa Rica (posted by sstarkey 09/17/10 04:43 PM)
RE: Driving to Costa Rica (posted by maryfrix 09/15/10 12:46 PM)
RE: Driving to Costa Rica (posted by ticorealtor 09/14/10 09:40 PM)
RE: Driving to Costa Rica (posted by noel2560 09/08/10 03:45 PM)
RE: Anyone interested in driving to CR around the end of July? (posted by Scott 07/14/10 07:03 PM)
RE: Driving to Costa Rica from Canada (posted by maravilla 02/16/10 07:34 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica from Canada (posted by BettyM 02/16/10 07:23 PM)
Long drive (posted by ltchida 11/13/09 11:58 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by AlbertoB 04/23/08 02:40 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by soflodoug 04/20/08 08:53 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by davidcmurray 04/16/08 12:17 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by jamesgoshen4 04/16/08 06:49 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by jreilly 04/15/08 02:05 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by fredo 04/15/08 09:43 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by tomtwoshoe 04/15/08 09:37 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by fredo 04/15/08 09:22 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by sammysdream 04/15/08 09:04 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by fredo 04/15/08 08:47 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by sammysdream 04/15/08 08:36 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by fredo 04/15/08 08:30 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica from upstate New York (posted by jreilly 04/15/08 08:16 AM)
We made it driving from Illinois to Costa Rica (posted by eehorobec 04/06/08 10:56 AM)
Leaving a car in Costa Rica (posted by sammysdream 08/09/07 12:49 PM)
DRIVING TO COSTA RICA (posted by davidcmurray 08/05/07 07:19 AM)
DRIVING TO COSTA RICA (posted by jmhardy 08/05/07 05:12 AM)
DRIVING TO COSTA RICA (posted by KarlP 08/04/07 10:12 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by jaguar58 04/01/07 07:49 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by Beverley16 07/28/06 11:48 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by rocky425 07/28/06 10:18 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by Gr1ng0T1c0 07/10/06 08:04 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by diablo 06/25/06 12:11 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by guru 06/20/06 11:24 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by aalvarado 06/20/06 09:46 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by jerry 06/19/06 10:28 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by dkt2u 06/19/06 07:07 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by Scott 06/19/06 07:02 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by mediatica 06/19/06 04:44 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by Beverley16 06/19/06 12:54 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by jerry 04/19/06 02:37 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by kevcosta 04/19/06 01:54 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by Peg 04/17/06 04:38 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica (posted by rkreder 04/17/06 12:32 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica and customs (posted by Scott 04/04/06 04:56 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica and customs (posted by Re 04/04/06 04:28 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica and customs (posted by davidcmurray 04/04/06 01:48 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica and customs (posted by MarilynSunshine 04/04/06 09:35 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica and customs (posted by Siamcat 04/04/06 09:24 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica and customs (posted by davidcmurray 04/04/06 07:07 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica and customs (posted by MarilynSunshine 04/03/06 07:18 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica and customs (posted by Scott 04/03/06 07:16 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica and customs (posted by MarilynSunshine 04/03/06 06:02 AM)
Driving to Costa Rica and customs (posted by Scott 04/02/06 08:53 PM)
Driving to Costa Rica and customs (posted by MarilynSunshine 04/02/06 08:14 PM)

You might also want to see: Costa Rica Cars – To bring or not to bring. The inside scoop on whether to ship your car to Costa Rica, or buy one when you get here. [ https://www.welovecostarica.com/public/1535.cfm ]

And …

Shipping To Costa Rica – How do you get your car here? [ https://www.welovecostarica.com/public/1826.cfm ]

And …

How Do Import Taxes Work in Costa Rica? [ https://www.welovecostarica.com/public/421.cfm ]

Scott

[costaricafinca]

You will still be required to pay a lot of duty, but more importantly have you considered on how dangerous this drive could be with the problems in Mexico right now?
You will also have to pay for accommodations along the way, and pay off the border guards….

[DavidCMurray]

The cost of import duty and other fees to make any car legal to drive in Costa Rica will be the same regardless of how it arrives here. So that’s a wash.

Buying a car in Canada or the U.S. gives you the chance to shop for a bargain, to shop for the make/model/year that you really want, and to be confident of the vehicle’s history. You will also have a vehicle that meets the latest safety standards.

Driving that vehicle from North America to Costa Rica, however, is another matter. When the costs of gas, tolls, accommodations and food, maybe bribes, repairs, etc are factored in, the likelihood of saving very much money is slim, and the success of the mission is not assured.

The smart money, in my opinion, is to buy a good two- or three-year old vehicle, get it in perfect mechanical condition, and have it shipped to Costa Rica.

[waggoner41]

[quote=”ihelpit”]Hi,
Does it make financial sense to drive your car instead of buying one ?
( we are 4, so we will be saving about 2800$ – plane tickets)[/quote]

You don’t tell us if you are coming to visit or are going to be permanent.

If you are just vacationing it makes more sense to fly down here and rent a car.

If you are moving down here it makes more sense to ship the car along with your household goods which is what I did with my pickup.

Under any circumstances do not expect the registration process to go smoothly.

In my instance customs merely looked at the pickup, noted the year on the documentation and assumed it was a diesel because only diesels of that year, make and model were imported in Costa Rica and filled out the documents as such. It took me three months with competent help to get the vehicle registered correctly as gasoline powered. 😕

Shipping and import duties cost me less than 40% of what I would have had to pay for the same vehicle here.

[costaricafinca]

Just read [url=http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2011/04/04/17871796.html]this item about Mexico this morning.[/url] Makes one really think about what one is likely to encounter.

[DavidCMurray]

So let’s see . . . Eight men armed with assault rifles and high on heaven knows what or $2,800 for airfare. What’s the question again?

[Author]

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