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Buying a foreign registered vehicle in Argentina Buying a foreign registered vehicle in Argentina
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Photo by Ellen Delis,
Lagunas Ojos del Campo,
Antofalla, Catamarca



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Old 9 Oct 2013
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Location: NSW Australia - but never there
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Buying a foreign registered vehicle in Argentina
and getting it out of the country.

Worked for me. May not work for you even following the same procedure.

Obviously not even 100% legal or honest but ...

Van came into Argentina several months ago and after getting only 3 month TIP at "notoriously" stingy Paso de jama, got an 8-month TIP at another border post. At my request - insistence - owner went to a lawyer and got a Power of Attorney drawn up giving me permission to drive the vehicle anywhere in Argentina and neighbouring countries. This was a three-page document, the last two pages being just the official stamps and serial numbers and bonafides of the lawyer. Cost me 800 pesos.

Owner left Argentina and arranged formal transfer of the vehicle registration (official keeper) in the UK and re-SORN-ed it in my name and sent me the paperwork in Australia.

I came to Argentina with liability insurance arranged in my name and drove (slowly) to Paso de Sico in NW Argentina where there is a nice new border post manned to the hilt to deal with all of a handful of crossings per day. They were very official and all details had to be exactly correct.

Short story was we were allowed to cross using the nearly-expired former owner's TIP, the PoA and a copy of the previous british registration papers - and of course had no problems entering Chile using just my official ownership papers.

Below is part of the email I sent to the original owners

Quote:
so we got to the Argentinian border post - brand new installation staffed by a heap of people from at least two government branches and given we saw only a couple of vehicles on the road the day before, bugger-all to do. Anyway, none of this immigratione and aduana separately stuff - one bloke - the first to change out of pyjamas into uniform given that even at 10am, the front door was held shut by two big boulders which I had great difficulty in pushing aside to get in - gestured for passports and then wanted the TIP and then the fun started.
Everyone got involved in the discussions right up to the senior staff on station - couple of ladies. Inside at the counter, in the hallway, and outside at the vehicle. Mini-conferences and consultations everywhere. Nobody there spoke a word of English - except the station mutt - nice dog - who managed woof-woof that I understood quite easily. Really nice dog given that Betty even allowed it to stand up on two legs and rest its head on her shoulder for ages until I pointed out that she was supposed to be allergic to dogs - and anyway, I was getting jealous.
All very polite and nice, but they had the key to the gate so ...
After half an hour the army guy - nice bloke, came out with a very gentle "disculpe senor, permissione por favour' and miming bits of paper and driving actions which in a flash of brilliance I finally pretended to understand and went out and got the power of attorney. Senior lady went through it word by word and page by page explaining it all to the junior staff and nodded and nodded. "¿problema?" I asked. No-no-no she said which was only slightly reassuring since they still had all the paperwork and the boom was still firmly down - and we were vastly outnumbered even though it appeared the dog was on our side - although the thought that he might have been a double agent had crossed my mind.

Then had to take in the laminated registration documents (of yours) and there were still problems because the vehicle type wasn't on it. Finally settled for casa rodante. They even went back through their ledger because they knew damn-well you had been through, but mustn't have got the date right, but I could see they came close - guessing they just wanted to get the details from that. A lot of the passport stuff that went into the ledger came off our USA long-term visas so goodness knows what they will make of some of the numbers and dates because they certainly won't match what is in the front page of the passports.
Anyway they had obviously gone right through your records and knew all of your movements and were only finally satisfied when I was able to give them a pretty close account (in mime and using just country and border post names) of your last three or four crossings.
Then came the return of our passports and the official barrier raising ceremony - at least half the staff - and the dog - out on the roadside to wave us goodbye - after the usual handshakes all-round. 90 minutes and we were the only customers. Guess they were all bored and needed an excuse to fire up the generator and warm up all their computers and communications gear which DID get a good workout.

So much for the easy-peasy 10 minutes and they won't even glance at the papers crap..

Stopped half way to San Pedro and stuck all the nationalistic identifyers - Aussie flag and kangaroo - stickers all over the vehicle to cover up all the faded paint where your stickers used to be.
Border at San Pedro and the inspection point at paso Sico (8 Chilean motorbikers and a support vehicle pulled up behind us) was no problem - immigration was just a matter of filling in the entry form and getting passports stamped and then bypassed the agricultural inspection because that had already been done at paso Sico, so Aduana lady just did her bit using my British registration papers and that was that.
Difficult to understand the reasoning behind the necessity to go through this dishonest process (which is obviously done every day) when it MUST be in the country's interest to set up a simple system where a traveller could register his intentions to sell the vehicle and the new owner could register his ownership and a note made in the computer file of the TIP. That way a fresh source of money comes into the country and starts spending it and everyone is better off. It would also allow a system to be implemented that would ensure the new owner does carry the proper insurances.

BTW the Aduana at San Pedro did NOT ask for proof of liability insurance which I see as just about criminal negligence on their part.
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Last edited by Tony LEE; 9 Oct 2013 at 20:25.
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