buying a California registered moto in Paraguay
 

I am a US citizen in the process of buying this motorcycle:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...pped-32k-77286

I want to immediately ride it to Colombia via Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. It is the seller's opinion that all I will need is a bill of sale notorized in Paraguay and my name inserted on the title. My concern is that the California registration and license will still be in his name. Please help with any experience that you might have.

Ultimately I will ride the motorcycle back to the US, but I was planning on leaving the Motorcycle in Colombia while I got the license and title transferred into my name.

thanks
Pat

One suggestion is to pay half the purchase price now and the other half once you have crossed a couple of borders. Seems to me to be better guarantee than just relying on the opinion of an owner whose main motivation is to offload a vehicle that is of no further use.

Recent reports of problems - only a handful admittedly, but a couple resulting in confiscation of the vehicle - have occurred in Argentina and seemed to result from continuing to cross borders using a Poder rather than arranging full and legal transfer of registration ASAP back in the country of origin.

Thanks for the suggestion Tony. The seller stated that the license number is on the California title, so I am in the process of verifying. If it is true, my name will be on the title before I leave Paraguay and from that point forward I wasn't planning on showing the registration or POD, just the title and my license and passport. Hopefully, getting insurance won't be a problem.

Haven't needed to "escape" from Uruguay, but one thing that is common to many countries is they issue a TVIP - Temporary Vehicle Import Permit - which has details of the vehicle and the driver who drove it in. When you drive it out, they may actually check that the details match. In that case, since all the paperwork may not match, a Poder might be required to satisfy the officer that the vehicle isn't stolen and that you have permission to drive it.. However, seems that in most cases they barely glance at the TVIP so there is no problem.

One thing to check is that if by "having your name on the title" you mean that the seller is going to enter info in all the fields needed to get the sale ratified back in the states, this of course means that the title shows clear proof that the sale has been made in Uruguay and that may not be accepted. Just extrapolating from the situation in Argentina so may be irrelevant for Uruguay - but long-time member here Xfiltrate maintains that it is not possible to transfer a foreign vehicle between foreigners in Argentina. Obviously it does happen - over and over - but legally he is right so some caution is advised.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...rgentina-77989 might be of interest.