For Sale Buying a car with dollars

[JeffJerson]

I am planning to buy a car in the near future. Either a new car from a dealer or a used car from a private party.
I will pay for it with dollars that are in my bank account in the US.
Is there a way for me to maximize the purchasing power of my dollars by getting the 5:1 or 6:1 exchange rate that has been discussed recently?

 

[PanaMio]

ts a simple calculation:
Nowadays there is around 30% difference between offial dollar rate and the blue rate.
For a car that cost 20.000 USD, thats 6000 USD difference more or less!
So, look up what a flight ticket to US cost, then you you see that you can make in difference net of costs. Other otion is ATM in Uruguay, like many people mention here in the forum. Personally I would go for a car on credit....you can buy it in 60 installments, in peso! (You need DNI for that I think). That way you are profiting from the peso devaluation and slide. My choice!

 

[JeffJerson]

Thanks @PanaMio

I understand the calculation but not the mechanics.
The dealer tells me that even if I walk in with dollars he can only give me credit for about 4.5 for each dollar.
So lets say that I am able to get $14,000US here, how do I use the dollars?
Besides flying back to the US for dollars, is my only choice to purchase pesos on the street at a better rate and give them to the dealer?
Or I could try to take $14,000 out of atms in Uraguay.
I've seen discussion of Xoom and Western Union but they dont seem to transfer dollars anymore.

Thanks;
Jeff

 

[NigjeFs]

You have negotiation power nowadays if you have the bills in Arg, physically. There you either ask for a 25% discount or convert to pesos at the unofficial rate and pay in pesos what they ask for ( you made the difference at the time of exchanging ).

 

[Mart]

Dealers have to follow the official exchange rate. Private sellers may/may not - when I bought my car, I offered dollars but the seller needed the pesos for buying his new car and needed to provide the provenance of the money . So I exchanged them with at the unofficial rate and paid him his asking price in pesos and saved myself a few thousand dollars in the process.

Best bet, change the dollars here and get the blue market rate and then buy the cars in pesos.

I assume you realize the cost of buying, maintaining and insuring a car here right? I was shocked and not in a good way after buying my car which in itself was ridiculously expensive. My insurance on a 3 YO car is 5000 pesos a year. The routine check every 15,000 kilometers (with no repairs) 1200 pesos. 300+ pesos to fill up the car every time. I don't even want to calculate what I'm spending a year on it.

 

[JeffJerson]

You say "So I exchanged them with at the unofficial rate ".
It seems like there is a word missing, who did you exchange the dollars with.

The costs you cite for owning a car are mind-boggling, as are the costs here.

I can't imagine how working class people buy gas, food, computers for their kids and all the other things they need.

J

 

[earlyretirement]

I bought a new car several years ago. The process was fairly simple but I was buying an import car so it took 3 months to get! They said it would take less than 2 months and it was a hassle waiting so long for a new car.

I had to pay a deposit of around 2,000 pesos and the rest was paid once the car came in.

Funny showing up at the dealership with a bag full of pesos..... Total cost of the car was around $40,000 US or so.

Buying at a dealership is fairly idiot proof and very simple. And when I sold it several years later, I got a really good price and the car didn't depreciate too much even after almost 4 years when you consider the amount I paid in pesos. I sold the car in dollars and it was an import car with low mileage. I sold it in only a few days. The best part was I didn't even have to be in Argentina when I sold it. You just fill out a form and leave it with the dealership selling it. I think I paid around 2% commission to sell it. Very surprisingly simple.

 

[TechNow]

Yes, buying a new car is pretty easy. Where they normally screw you is on the "patentamiento". They will say it is included and then you have to pay it later. They will say just the service was included, but not the taxes.

So I always negotiate a low price on the car (I tell them since I will do the patentimiento they can lower the price of the car further) and then I do this process myself at the registro automotor.

 

[NigjeFs]

I bought a new car several years ago. The process was fairly simple but I was buying an import car so it took 3 months to get! They said it would take less than 2 months and it was a hassle waiting so long for a new car.

I had to pay a deposit of around 2,000 pesos and the rest was paid once the car came in.

Funny showing up at the dealership with a bag full of pesos..... Total cost of the car was around $40,000 US or so.

Buying at a dealership is fairly idiot proof and very simple. And when I sold it several years later, I got a really good price and the car didn't depreciate too much even after almost 4 years when you consider the amount I paid in pesos. I sold the car in dollars and it was an import car with low mileage. I sold it in only a few days. The best part was I didn't even have to be in Argentina when I sold it. You just fill out a form and leave it with the dealership selling it. I think I paid around 2% commission to sell it. Very surprisingly simple.

He does need the idiot proof place indeed.

 

[earlyretirement]

He does need the idiot proof place indeed.

Huh? I'm not sure I understood this part of your post? Just to clarify, I didn't sell the car with the same dealership that I bought it from.

I sold it with the father of one of my close friends. His dad has an exotic car dealership and had some wealthy buyers so I agreed to give it to him. But this place was pretty idiot proof as well as it only took me going into some government office to get the paperwork signed as well as well as pay some old fines that I had but never knew about. But after that it was simple.

It really helps having close local friends that are trustworthy living in Buenos Aires. Without them, long-term it's much more difficult to live in Argentina for many years. After they got the cash (US dollars) they arranged to wire it to me to my account in the USA. So from start to finish I had my funds in about 2.5 weeks from the time I wanted to sell it.