Buying or Renting a Car in Chile

[birdman]

Hi, Two friends and i are going on a two month road trip around southern argentina and chile starting / finishing in santiago. We are currently trying to decide whether to buy and sell a car or just rent one...

It seems rent is around $3000 US for 7 weeks, maybe a bit cheaper on the ground.

Does anyone know of any cheap rental agencies in santiago or have any to recommend, Or does anyone know of a way to buy a good car without shellin out heaps of cash up front.. Hire purchase etc..

Or any other advice or info on the subject from you wise people.

Thanks so much

Al

[editor]

Chile has some very strick laws on the age of cars. If you are going to buy, best to try Argentina.

Overall it would likly be better to rent a car. There are a couple good ones that Cover southern Chile. Budget rent a car is here, so is First rent a car.

Be aware that the thing that will kill you is the gas, and the toll roads. The entire highway system in Chile is based on paid toll roads. They are nice, but can be expensive. You can in theory bounce around the side road and stay off the freeway, but at some point you will likly need the freeways if you want to make any real time going north to Santiago.
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All Southern Chile Travel and Real Estate
Instituto de Ingles EES Chile
Fly Fishing Chile

[Ginirover]

The main tollroads are in and around Santiago - we didn't come across any further north in the Iquique and Antofagasta-area. You do have to pay to go to eg Valparaiso, but is was just a couple of Chilean pesos - we didn't think it was expensive (well, for us Europeans at least, for the Chileans it's probably not very cheap....)

[editor]

The toll roads on the northern part of Chile have not been built yet. Not enough traffic for profitable projects. They are mostly private investments. Southern Chile on the other hand, has toll roads as far south as Puerto Montt.
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All Southern Chile Travel and Real Estate
Instituto de Ingles EES Chile
Fly Fishing Chile

[aqbluegreen]

Hi there,
there are 2 good websites with alot of cars for sale in Chile. Check chileautos.cl or deremate.cl. These are mostly used cars for sale in an ebay sort of way from private individuals. They are in Spanish however (deremate also has vehicles in Argentina). Alot of decent vehicles can be bought in the Santiago area. If you want to get an even better deal fly or bus up to Iquique and buy a Japanese import. There is a huge industry in Iquique of right hand drive vehicles shipped over from Japan. They switch the steering wheel to left hand drive and assorted switches and wiring and sell them at good prices. You do need to be careful that the conversion was well done of course. Before you cross the border(with your new wheels!) make sure you buy international insurance. This new law now applies to every vehicle crossing the border, however the Argentines tend to check much more often than the Chilean officials. Its cheap (about $30 usd) and good for a year. If you rent make sure you have this insurance as well. Tell the agency you are renting from that you are crossing the border. If you are serious about buying and you end up back in Santiago let me know and I might buy the car back from you. I am planning on buying a 4x4 soon so we might be able to work something out.It would have to be a chilean registered vehicle as I cannot buy one with Argentine plates.
Good luck!
Aq
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www.bluegreenadventures.com