selling foreign motorbike in Columbia or Ecuador

[Matias]

Does anyone have any experience of selling a motorbike in either Columbia or Ecuador?
I bought the bike in Bolivia and want to sell it when I finish my trip around May time in Columbia or possibly Ecuador. the bike is registered in Bolivia and I have no idea how complicated it will be to sell it or if i will have to pay alot of tax on it.
If anyone has any real experience of this I would be really greatful to hear about it.
Thanks

[Bush Pilot]

Put and add up in the travel bike for sale forum.
Punta Arenas is free port, you can legally sell your bike quite a few travelers have done that.

The rest of Chile and Argentina you'd have to find someone who wanted the bike for parts and scrap it. Probably the way to get the most for it.

Paraguay is another spot where you can sell the bike. There are a number of used dealers there who buy/sell bikes. I've heard they don't give ya much as there is some import duty involved. I'm trying to find details myself to get rid of by bike too.

[ffathead]

Piece of cake in Colombia if you can sell to another traveller, I've done it a couple of times now.
Difficult to sell local.

PM me if you want details. What bike?

[checkerdd]

Just for emphasis. You don't get to sell a foreign bike anywhere that I know of in SA except for the two free trade zones in Chile Irequeqe and Punta Arenas. As to whether you want to make an illegal sale and possibly get clobbered by customs on the flight out, figure it out. Dave

[Matias]

thanks for your reply ffathead. i would definatly like more details. (i cant pm you as im new to this site and it wont let me pm yet!)
my bike is a honda XR650L

[ffathead]

No worries, have PM'd you my email, assuming they will let you read them of course...

Process is quite simple here, as long as the bike stays on it's temporary import document, i.e. is being sold to a foreigner, or will leave the country again, you just need to write up a letter confirming the sale, and then get it notarized. Process takes a couple of hours, and is perfectly legal.
It's difficult to sell to a local simply because the import taxes are prohibitively high.

[Matias]

thanks I will try again to PM you (should have enough posts on this site now to be allowed :-)
do you know how much the tax is likely to be if you sell to a local? and how easy is it to find a foreigner to sell to?
Matias

[cucubaa]

ffathead
I PM'd you few questions about selling a bike here in Colombia. Just don't know if the PM's really work or not.
I'm trying to sell my DR here and would like some more details how it is done. Is the letter of sales enough to travel to other countries from colombia? And what about changing the name on TIP?
cheers

[Forestwiz]

Originally Posted by ffathead

No worries, have PM'd you my email, assuming they will let you read them of course...

Process is quite simple here, as long as the bike stays on it's temporary import document, i.e. is being sold to a foreigner, or will leave the country again, you just need to write up a letter confirming the sale, and then get it notarized. Process takes a couple of hours, and is perfectly legal.
It's difficult to sell to a local simply because the import taxes are prohibitively high.

hi ffathead, why not to share the info with everyone here?that is what this forum is for .cheers

[pcrasenberg]

Hi,
I found a bike for sale in Columbia that was registered in Ontario, Canada which I have now purchased. I was able to get registration sent to Canada and transferred into my name and have arrived in Medellin with Canadian plates and registration. I tried to get SOAT for the bike but I wasn't able to do so as the bike is not registered in Columbia (I didn't get a temporary permit from the previous owner).
Not sure what I can do now, is it possible to get other insurance other than SOAT?

Appreciate the advise, Peter

[NewbRider]

Originally Posted by pcrasenberg

Hi,
I found a bike for sale in Columbia that was registered in Ontario, Canada which I have now purchased. I was able to get registration sent to Canada and transferred into my name and have arrived in Medellin with Canadian plates and registration. I tried to get SOAT for the bike but I wasn't able to do so as the bike is not registered in Columbia (I didn't get a temporary permit from the previous owner).
Not sure what I can do now, is it possible to get other insurance other than SOAT?

Appreciate the advise, Peter

Mate, hate to break it to you but if you don't have the temporary import permit there's no point in getting insurance. The bikes not legally in the country without it. I'd get that permit asap, and hope it's not expired. Then you'll need to either do a border run to change the plates or get insurance on the original plates until you've crossed borders (you know that you need to change the plates between borders...)

I'd say don't ride it around until you've got the permit and the SOAT and definitley don't stick the new plates on.

[markharf]

Don’t ride the bike, per the above. If all else fails, try shipping it elsewhere—at least as far as a border.

I’m thinking you really want to find out whether it entered the country legally in the first place. If not, you could ship it to wherever the Stahlratte docks these days and import it with the next load of bikes they deliver. If the bike is listed as already temporarily imported but never exported, this might get the bike confiscated (or worse).

If there’s an open TIP, you want to get your hands on it, whatever that takes. And if there’s any chance the bike was stolen—i.e., not registered to the person you bought it from—you might as well learn that without putting yourself at risk. Think things through before acting.

First time I rode in Colombia I didn’t buy insurance. At roadblocks I’d show my policy from North America, which hadn’t expired yet. That seemed to work just fine, although it’s not recommended. Second time, I was required to purchase at the border, which was also fine. YMMV.

Last idea is to figure out what a local would do in this situation. There are usually workarounds to almost any situation in Colombia, but you need to find someone who knows the system and how to get things done. I’d ask Mike at Motolombia, but there are others who post here or on ADVrider.com.

Oh, and in the future try to be a bit less credulous. A person trying to sell you something is not always on your side.

Hope that’s helpful.

[jfman]

Without a TIP, you can ride it out of Colombia to Ecuador without checking the bike out. You arrive at the border, leave gear witht the bike, stand in line to stamp out(passport only) of Colombia then ride to Ecuadorian side and ask of an Ecuadorian TIP as you stamp in.

Altought not legal, I know a few who have done this successfuly.

Be aware that if you do get pulled over without a TIP that will be the end of your ride.

Also ask the seller to hand you the TIP if its still valid. Get a poder to authorize you to ride "his" bike in Colombia. That way yopu can leagally ride it in Colombia.