Buying a Car in Argentina

First, our experience in purchasing a car may be different from others, however anyone who plans on traveling to Argentina and purchasing a vehicle should use this blog entry as a guide.
Depending upon your situation you will choose to buy new or used. Keep in mind that we have been told by many people to purchase new because there is less paperwork and most cars here in Argentina that have been previously owned are in questionable condition. In addition, there may be liens/tickets on the vehicle that you may not find out about until after the purchase of the vehicle. From what I'm told record keeping/tracking is not very proficient in Argentina. Something to keep in mind, used cars in Argentina retain their value compared to the USA. Therefore, you may only pay a couple thousand less for a used car versus something new!

HERE ARE SOME GUIDELINES FOR BUYING A VEHICLE:

1) Plan on PAYING CASH for you vehicle and bringing that cash into Argentina in hand. Be careful with this! Legally when leaving or entering the US you are supposed to declare more than 10000 USD. Not to mention the fact that if a customs agent in Argentina finds the money, he may call one of his friends before you leave the airport.

2) Argentina has many laws, most of which I do not know, however we encountered a few in terms of money. Here are some of the laws that we learned about:
A) As a tourist you may not wire more than 5000 USD per person in a month (30 days) to a personal/business checking/savings account within Argentina. THIS IS FOR CARS ONLY, THERE ARE OTHER LAWS FOR WIRING MONEY TO PURCHASE REAL ESTATE THAT ARE NOT APPLICABLE TO PURCHASING VEHICLES.
B) As a tourist you may not exchange USD in excess of $5000 per month. In order to exchange USD you must give the exchange office your passport number and the government will track your exchanges.
C) You are unable to pay by credit card at the dealership for the purchase of a vehicle since the dealerships are only allowed (legally) to accept nominal monies. They cannot accept anything over $1000 pesos, which is what is given as a down payment to reserve the vehicle. The rest of the money is to be directly deposited into the dealership's corporate bank account.

3) What do you do if the vehicle you want to purchase is more than you are legally able to bring into Argentina or exchange in one month. A couple of options...
A) If you're a solo traveler and the vehicle is more than 5000 USD then you may bring in 5000 USD and bring in Argentian pesos (USD exchanged for pesos prior to entering Argentina) for the remaining amount of purchase. Be careful here, depending on the exchange rate and the spread in the US you really could lose hundreds if not thousands of dollars exchanging money in the US prior to coming to Argentina.
B) If there are multiple travelers in your group then you're in luck! Each person is able to exchange 5000 USD each month. If you're a couple, that's 10000 USD. Anything more than that you would have to buy Argentian pesos prior to coming into Argentina.
D) What about cash advances from a major credit card? We were told by a banker from Banco Frances and an employee from a Casa de Cambio (Exchange house) that Argentina does not allow cash advances. We haven't verified this information with Visa, however, feel free.
E) There are other many other options if you don't feel comfortable bringing large amounts of money into Argentina; ie. taking maximum withdrawls from an ATM daily until you have enough money, but this is time consuming and watch out for the fees. I assume if you are able to speak Spanish fairly well that may indeed benefit you as well. For instance, I was informed of an individual who would exchange US dollars (with no documentation) into Pesos for a 2% fee. However, you have to trust the person you are dealing with. In addition, you may find a small (we went to large dealership) dealership/used car dealer who really wants your money and may take USD or credit card for payment. Once again, you need time on your side!

4) Obtain an Internatinal Driving License from AAA in the U.S. before coming to Argentina. Make sure the AAA representative puts a date on the Internatinal Driving License. It's good for one year. When you arrive in Argentina it is a good idea to go to ACA (Automovil Club Argentina, AAA equivalent) to have your International Driving License validated. ACA is also a great resource for obtaining accurate maps and a wide variety of tourist related information.

5) Once you arrive at your destination within Argentina one of the first things you will want to do after your jet lag subsides is to start working on obtaining your clave de identificacion (CDI), equivalent to a social security number. You get your CDI from your local AFIP office (Argentina's version of the IRS).
A) If you have read my previous post on obtaining your CDI this will be a little redudant. I purchased Laura Zurro's ebook "Moving to and Living in Buenos Aires,Argentina." This book is basicily your guide book to all questions involved in moving to or living in Buenos Aires, however, it also has tremendous amounts of information related to purchasing real estate and obtaining your CDI, to name a few. The following information is an excerpt from Laura Zurro's ebook, pages 44 &45:
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Excerpt from Laura Zurro's ebook: "Moving to and Living in Buenos Aires,Argentina."

The process is relatively simple but does take a bit of work to get. If your address is in the Buenos Aires province, you might want to use an address in the Capital because it is much easier to get the CDI in the city.
These are the steps that must be undertaken.
1. Police Station: You need to get a Certificado de Domicilio (Address Certificate) from the local Federal Police station that governs the neighborhood where you are staying which could be a hotel, short term rental, or even a friends residence. The cost for this in the Capital is usually ten pesos. Within 24-48 hours they will visit your residence to have you sign the certificate and give it to you. You will need to be at the residence to sign for the certification. To find the local police station you can ask the concierge of your hotel or if you’re staying in an apartment, then check with the owner or the agent. If that fails then visit the Police Comisarias list. Their website is:
www.policiafederal.gov.ar/esp/salc/comisarias/index.html. Click on servicios de la comunidad and then on comisarias which will bring up a mapa de barrios. Click on the mapa de barrios section that corresponds with the area you’re living in, i.e. Recoleta is #28.
2. AFIP: Once you have your certificado de domicilio, you must go to the AFIP office that corresponds to your area. To find the correct office visit the AFIP Website at www.afip.gov.ar/servicios_y_consultas/consultas_en_linea/datos_de_dependencias/
agencias/agencias_main.asp and in the calle/localidad box enter the name of the street where you are staying. (Tip: If you do not find it, write the four or five first letters of the street), press
confirmar. A new page will pop up with the agency listings. Click on the agency that corresponds to your address and another window will open with the street address.
You’ll need the following documents to take to AFIP:
- Two photocopies of the first pages of your passport
- Original passport
- Formulario CDI - 2 copies (can be obtained at AFIP)
- Certificado de Domicilio

3. Get to the office as early as possible. Some offices are so busy that people wait in line
outside waiting for the office to open. As soon as the doors open or as soon as you go inside
take a number from the mesa de entradas. While you’re waiting for your number to be called, fill out the Formulario CDI forms. Listen carefully for your number. Once your number is called, proceed to the desk, hand the forms and passport copies to the representative, as well as your original passport. If everything goes smoothly and you have all documentation, plus a correctly filled out form, then you should receive your CDI number at that time. They will write your CDI number on one form, stamp it, and then return it to you to keep; they will keep the other copy for their records.
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If your Spanish is a little rusty, or if you barely speak Spanish like us, then I recommend that you either go to an AFIP office and obtain Formulario # 663 or visit the following link http://i.afip.gov.ar/formularios/pdf/f663.pdf to review and translate the questions on the form before going to the office to obtain your CDI.

Once you have your CDI and your money in hand, start looking for vehicles. After much debate we chose the Renault Kangoo. We chose this because it is Argentian made, it is economical, it is roomy and with plenty of storage for the three of us and most of all it is fairly inexpensive.

Now back to our original story that we ended with on our last blog entry. What did we end up doing to get the money? Well, let's first say that our money wire from our U.S. bank did not go through. The Renault corporate office actually received the money, but they returned it because of the $5000 USD limit. We now were under a time restraint since we had already extended the lease on our apartment once and we are READY to leave BA. We checked into a cash advance on our credit card and found out that we couldn't do that in Argentina, according to a Banco France employee and the Case de Cambio. The next step was to be more dramatic. I flew to Miami, Florida and withdrew the money from our bank account and flew back to Argentina with the money in hand. I was gone only 36 hours.

We took the money to the bank to deposit it and were again halted with another road block. We were told that we could only exchange/deposit $5000 USD per person into the account. We accepted that and made the $10,000 USD deposit. We then went to the Renault dealership and begged and pleaded for some help. We still needed more money to be deposited into Renault's account. Our marvelous salesman, Juan Harrington, who has been awesome through this whole car buying experience, he made the sale complete! Juan has been patient, respectful and loyal to us throughout this ordeal. He speaks four different languages, english being one of them. He speaks enough english that we were able to communicate with our spanglish back and forth and get everything taken care of.

WE WANT TO GIVE A HUGE THANKS TO JUAN FOR MAKING THIS ALL HAPPEN! For a while we thought that our trip may be cut short. Now, that is not the case. I guess anything is possible if you want it bad enough and are determined!

We get our car tomorrow, February 26th at 1:00 pm. We plan to be heading out of BA by late afternoon! YEH!!!