There are a bunch of steps to buying a bike in Chile, but in reality it is quite easy. We ran into no issues whatsoever. We did all of this in the first week of 2014.
STEP 1 - Get your Chilean Tax ID
You need to get an RUT Number. To get this, you need to go to the Chilean Tax office (Servicio de Impuestos Internos). There is no cost involved in this, and we found the office in the Providencia region of Santiago to be hassle free. We used the address of our hotel for this. They give you a temporary number immediately, which then allows you to buy a bike.about 20 minutes to complete
STEP 2 - Buy a Motorcycle
Find the dealer and bike you want and buy it. Make sure the dealer has 2 things to give you right away with the bike. The Factura (invoice) which you need 3 copies of, and the Homologacion Certificate (roadworthy certificate). As long as the dealer provides you with this, you can drive away with just these things, and wont need to return to the dealer. Try to ensure the dealer has both of these available for you right away. Some dealers might make you wait 3-4 days for the Homologacion, which can delay you greatly.You have 5 days now to complete the rest of the paperwork, but you can do this at any other town in Chile. We ended up 500 miles away when we did the rest, so the paperwork aspect of our trip never really slowed us down at all.
We bought Honda CG150's. Handled the roads well, but top speed is about 90kph.
Paid $1925.00 from Pro-Circuit in Vitacurra (ask for Juan, speaks English and Helpful)
Paid $1925.00 from Pro-Circuit in Vitacurra (ask for Juan, speaks English and Helpful)
STEP 3 - Register the bike
This is done at a Registro Civil office. Best to get there at 8:30 when they open. You will take a number and once called, they will fill out a bunch of paperwork, fingerprint you and charge you about $80. This will give you your Primera Inscripcion and your license plate. You can now go and insure the bike.about 30 minutes waiting and 20 minutes to complete
STEP 4 - insurance
Insurance can be bought online. We bought ours from some street insurance vendors from right outside the municipal building. Insurance is about $80 for a year for a motorcycle.10 minutes to complete
STEP 5 - Circulation Permit
Take what you have so far and go to the municipality office. Here you get your circulation permit ($12) and are now fully registered20 minutes to complete
You now have done everything you need to ride the bike longer than 5 days.
STEP 6 - Get your Certificado de Inscripción
From the Registro Civil. This costs about $1 and any office in Chile will print it out for you. It takes about a week to be available. Once you have this, you can do anything with the bike.We entered Argentina without this. We had heard that it was required, but it didn't
seem to be at all. We also sold one bike of our 3 without this, and the new owner was going to go in and pick it up. So, it really isn't all that required it seems, but not a bad idea to get it anyways.
To sell a bike in Chile -
bring all of your paperwork to a notary and they will take care of all of it for you. Then hand over ALL of your paperwork to the new owner. In Chile the insurance, plates and everything else transfer with the bike.We sold our bikes to a bike shop in Chillan, and sold them for $1100.00 each. We probably could have sold them for a fair bit more, but wanted everything to take place on a specific day and without any hassle. In the end, it cost us $825.00 for 3 weeks and 5000 kms of use. Plus, since the bikes we bought had been brand new, reliability never came into question.
I did all these things in the town of Valparaiso and bought a bike. This article describes my experience exactly. A very nice summary. (August 2014, Australian Passport, Tourist Visa on arrival)
ReplyDeleteHope you had as awesome a time in chile as we did! Would love to hear of your itinerary and about any must visit places we missed (i am planning on going back and doing it again).
ReplyDeleteThis sounds great, thanks for the help. Is it nessecary to have a motorbime lisence or will an international car one do? Do the police pose many problems? Thanks!
ReplyDeletepolice in Chile pose no problems at all. They are a very respectable group. You don't need a motorcycle licence to buy and register, but keep in mind, if anything happens you might not be covered legally. Also, as of this year, you now need a Chilean citizen to sponsor you when you get your RUT. We are doing this all again in November so we will update on any new policies or obstacles.
DeleteMany thanks, all the best for your trip!
DeleteI can confirm that a sponsor is required to obtain a rut. The process is still fairly straightforward. You first need to obtain a form from the servicios impuestos internos. Your sponsor who must be either a Chilean citizen or resident must accompany you to a notaria, where they fill out a form and give a copy of their passport. For this step we Enlisted the help of a service called Suzi Santiago (http://www.suzisantiago.com/contact-). They were very helpful in this process and accompany dressed to the servicios impuestos internos as well and made sure the process was smooth and easy. The fee was about $90 US, and you provided support for the rest of the process.
DeleteWe purchased our motorcycles through a dealer in Las Condes called Colvin y Colvin. They took care of most of the rest of the papers for us including La Primera Inscripción, the license plate, Permitso de Circulación, Seguros (Insurance), and of course the Factura and Certificado de Homologación. The fee for all of this was approximately $140 US.
We were informed that we would need additional insurance as we are planning on leaving the country. It is known as Seguros de Viajes. We were able to purchase this very easily at Falabella, a department store. There is a location in Las Condes and one in Los Leones, and probably others. They offer insurance for periods as few as 10 days and as many as 6 months. We purchased a 30 day policy for about $45 US. I believe the 6 month policy costs about $160 US. We were also informed that on the road in Los Andes there exist stands that will sell insurance for even cheaper. The only piece of paper that we need is the Certificado de Inscripción, which will be mailed to the folks at Suzi Santiago and held there until we return to Chile. We haven't crossed to Argentina yet but will update if there is any issue with the crossing.
Great description of the steps involved in purchasing a bike in Chile. I'm looking forward to your updated on new rule for having a sponsor. I plan on going to Chile in December and it seems a lot easier and cheaper to buy a bike there than to ship it from elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteGood luck in November!
Great description of the steps involved in purchasing a bike in Chile. I'm looking forward to your updated on new rule for having a sponsor. I plan on going to Chile in December and it seems a lot easier and cheaper to buy a bike there than to ship it from elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteGood luck in November!
This will be very helpful for me next year! Thank you so much for writing this. Do you (or anyone else) know if it would be possible to buy in Chile and travel through Argentina, Bolivia and finally Sell the bike in Peru?
ReplyDeleteselling a bike in a country other than the one you bought it in is virtually impossible, especially in Peru. We are about to do all of this again and we have a couple of guys who will go into Peru, but then back into the far north part of Chile so they can sell their bikes. You might be able to abandon the bikes (give them to a farmer) in some countries, but you would have to make sure your temporary import permit isn't stamped into your passport or you wouldn't be allowed to leave.
DeleteUpdate all went well until I went to register the bike with in 5 days to get license plate. They now require you to have a Chile drivers license! Which to get you need a visa, which is a lot more paper work and time. Weeks to months as of date.
ReplyDeleteNow what I was told is to have a friend register the bike who is Chilean to get plates. Then have them give me a inscription which can be done in registry de civil. It’s gotten complicated.....
Thanks for your 2019 update, very helpfull
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if this process has changed since? I've just arrived in Santiago and plan to buy a motorbike here then ride up to Colombia in the next six months. If the process takes a few weeks that's no problem but if it's a few months, that changes things! Also, I'm not sure how to sell the bike in Colombia if a temporary import permit is stamped into my passport. Can I legally import it to sell it?
ReplyDeleteno, nothing from what I have heard has changed. You will need a sponsor for your RUT, but otherwise the same steps remain. You will NOT be able to legally sell the bike in Colombia or import it legally. You will only be able to sell the bike on a "poder" which is a power of attorney, and it needs to be to someone who is leaving the country. Best bet is to sell to someone who is going towards Chile.
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