We were in
the final stages of packing, selling, and leaving Jacksonville. Things were
progressing well but one problem, we still had two cars in our garage: a Jeep
and a Subaru. We needed to sell at least
one of the cars and prepare to ship the other to Costa Rica. Or sell both and buy another in Costa Rica.
We would
have preferred to take the Jeep, even though it was not a 4x4 it was newer with
lower mileage than my beloved Subaru.
The Jeep had 60,000 miles, the Subaru 225,000! But the way car importing works in Costa Rica,
an incoming vehicle is subject to HUGE import fees (depending on the model,
age, mileage, and the attitude of the Customs official.) Taxes on the Jeep might be 40 – 50% of the
assessed value of the vehicle. I guessed
we might be assessed $15,000 or more (much more). Fees on the Subaru would be more than the
sales price but much lower than the Jeep and I was very familiar with the car
and felt okay driving a car with so many miles.
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| Shipping agent arranges for pickup in Jacksonville |
I was not interested in buying a car once we arrived. I was warned that many used cars on the international market were hurricane cars—survivors of storms in the States and elsewhere that had been overseas to be “refurbished” by shady dealers. The import fees would be built into the cost of whatever we bought, wherever we bought it. So, I lobbied the family (really just Dallas) to ship the Subaru to Costa Rica and take our chances. So we did.
Everything I
read before we left told us that cars are an expensive luxury and if you can
live on the public transportation system that is the smart decision. But we are not public transit people and we
wanted the freedom to travel and experience the country. We wanted to see the sights. The smart money said that car parts were expensive,
but labor and insurance were cheap. They
said that Ticos can fix anything, that Japanese or Korean cars were ubiquitous
and stick with one or those. So, we
did. We brought our AWD Outback with
225,000 and have kept our fingers crossed.
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| Subaru heads to Miami for the voyage to its new life in Costa Rica |
We contracted with a shipper who arranged for our car to be transported to Miami where it would be containerized and shipped to Costa Rica The shipper would take care of nationalizing the car and deliver it to us.
This seemed
like a good plan. Then along came
COVID-19. The car was picked up in Jacksonville on January 16th. We picked it up in San Jose on May 24th!
Total cost to
bring our car to Costa Rica in a container, inspections, licensing, import taxes,
title transfer, insurance, and mechanical work was approximately $10,800
USD.
Honestly,
this was about what I expected except the delay in arrival meant we needed a
rental car to a much longer time in Costa Rica, and since we containerized the
car for shipping, we packed the back with tools, household goods, books, a TV,
golf clubs, and other miscellaneous items we didn’t want to check or ship
separately. Our shipper told us they
would have to clear customs in Costa Rica and there would be import fees. They
also could not insure these things but they had never had a problem doing
this.
Until this time. When the car arrived at our home in Puriscal and we started to unpack we noticed things were amiss. We were missing the TV, a box of power tools, and other small items including things that were in my glove box in the car. The shipper reminded me that the items were not insured, they had never had anything like this happen, and he would "look into it.”
If you are
looking for recommendations for shipping agents, drop me an email. I would be more than happy to share his
information and our experience.
