Driving and buying a car in Brazil/South America?

Question

We are looking to buy a car in Brazil in February and driving it around South America.

Does anybody know if this is possible legally and how easy it would be. Also is it mandatory that the car be sold in Brazil again or could we sell it in Venezuela?

Answer 1

It is possible, but to be quite frank, it can be difficult to impossible to register a car without a national ID card. This is a constant issue for foreigners who own property in Brazil and live there part time on tourist status. The regulations on this are not clear and not uniformly enforced. That being said I did it several times before getting BR ID. It is best to make the sale conditional on your registering the car. If the car is from in state and with paper and record in order you should be able to get new paper work in hand in 24hrs....Then for god's sake drive very very carefully, not like a Brazilian...

Answer 2

As the previous one put, first confront the (dis)advantages of the sell/ rent options.

Brand new car is far more expensive here than in US.

How much do you expect/ want to pay (at max) to a new car?

how big would it (need to)be?

Which is your planned port of entry in Brasil?

if Rio, you should consider the roads (mainly if  Federal ones)  going further north gets worse and worse. Petrol station and maintainance (emergency repairment) is also more difficult as far as you aproach the way to Venezuela. Of course the just mentioned detail applies both in rent/ buy cases. But if you are not covered by a good insurance company, which by renting you can have easierly as(if all of you are in a condition of) a foreigner, you can wonder how deep you may go in troubles;

To cash, once here, there will be lot of taxes and the limit is observed by your banks once in a tourist condition.

with a few dozen of dollars (which you must claim at the customs if wanted to bring from home) you can buy cars in a easy way directly -like pay and road- at the used, second hand retail shop ones. Still a few of them would accept credit cards.

And your car documents will be sort of illegal if you not transfer it in your name, which is a bit beaurocratic and I guess as tourists you would not be able to do it, since it requires lots of documents; or at least, will demand more time than expected to put all in regular status, spoiling your schedules. you can have the car in other people's name but will be difficult to prove the one is yours if having some issue with the police patrol.

major State capital cities have Avis, Budget, Hertz and other multinational companies alike.

Find some Brazilian nut who wanna join your trip will make all way smooth. Remember: everything may have the Brazilian way if you have money, so the wax, either the law once you wanna skip it.

Answer 3

I don't see problem to do it, since the documentation be ok...Go ahead.

Answer 4

well, I live in Brasil and I "think" this is possible but it wouldn't be better if you rent a car? About the sell, I think it's easier if you sell it in Brasil because the documentation is from Brasil.

Answer 5

It's possible to buy a car in Brazil, you have to get a Tax registration number (CPF) and a telephone bill that proves your address in Brazil (It doesn't need to be in your name). But this is quite time-consuming.

If you buy a used car, it's possible to leave to documents in the old owners name if he/she agrees. But be careful about used cars, they may be in a bad condition and not ready to travel.

I think it's not possible to sell a car legally in Venezuela. You may sell it on the black market, but you will get only very little money for it. Many people do it to get money from the insurance companies.