Economy Best way to pay for a car

[JeffJerson]

I'm planning to buy a new car soon and am trying to figure out the best way to pay for it.
All my money is in Florida.
Its not a problem for me to pay the total amount or to take a loan.
I expect to own the car for 2-3 years.
I'd like to pay for the car in whichever way will give me the lowest cost of ownership for those years.
So far I seem to have these options:
1. The dealer offered me 5.8:1, all I have to do is transfer the dollars to his bank in the US. I expect that, in view of this weeks decline in the value of a peso, he'd offer me a better rate now.
2. I can take out a 2 year loan and bring USD here for the monthly payments. With this option I will incur interest charges but I expect that each month I will need less and less dollars to make the payment. With this option I'd have to find a reliable source to buy pesos each month.

I'd appreciate any ideas, suggestions or insights to this problem.
Thanks

 

[SteveSleuth]

Transferring money to his US account is a pretty good deal, especially if he ups the rate. I'd take that in a second. Remember, cars here have very high resale values.

The one thing to think about is that you will need to notify AFIP as to the source of the funds when you buy a new car. Not sure if an ou of country transfer will cause any issues.

 

[CarliNeces]

Is there a long term lease for Cars in BA similar to US?

 

[earlyretirement]

Why not just wire the funds from your account in the USA to Buenos Aires? Right now there is NO fee to do that. Then just take the cash and exchange at the true blue rate which is much higher than 5.8.

I've never financed a car in Buenos Aires. The last car I bought was cash. But I imagine the interest rates are quite a bit. It still may be worth it to get the loan simply for the documentation, as long as there is no pre-payment penalty to pay it off when you want to pay it off.

You can legally bring up to $10,000 US each trip to Argentina so just see how many passport stamps you have in your passport and just claim you brought the money in then.

 

[JeffJerson]

When I take the money from the bank in BA, wont it already have been converted to pesos at 4.5?

 

[earlyretirement]

When I take the money from the bank in BA, wont it already have been converted to pesos at 4.5?

NO, because you wouldn't be sending the funds in with any bank here in Argentina. You'd use an account at one of the cuevas. Before, they charged a small percentage fee to wire in funds but with the imbalance, they aren't charging any commission at all to wire funds in and they will give you the full amount you wire in.

Your biggest problem is probably getting accepted as a client if you don't know anyone personally that will vouch for you. I never vouch for anyone off public message boards but I've read a few posts on here from several that can probably help you.

 

[NigjeFs]

Transferring money to his US account is a pretty good deal, especially if he ups the rate. I'd take that in a second. Remember, cars here have very high resale values.

The one thing to think about is that you will need to notify AFIP as to the source of the funds when you buy a new car. Not sure if an ou of country transfer will cause any issues.

It will cause issues. For the transaction to be legal he will have to declare his US bank account to AFIP and he will be fine.

 

[earlyretirement]

It will cause issues. For the transaction to be legal he will have to declare his US bank account to AFIP and he will be fine.

Another thing I always recommend if you're doing ANY transaction where you are wiring funds and need to declare it to AFIP is open up a new account and just put enough in the account for the transaction.

You never know later if you will get a DNI or whatever other reason. It's always best to not let AFIP know about your other accounts outside of Argentina. Probably not much they can do if you don't apply for a DNI later but it's better to be safe than sorry.

So you can just open up a new account even at the same bank and just transfer enough in it to make the wire. Then later if you ever had to show statements, the funds wouldn't be intermingled with other funds you might have.