Tips on buying a motorcycle in Chile.

This page is not really part of the rest of the blog of our Chile bike trip.  This is just so that others who may be considering buying a bike in Chile can find doing so a little bit easier.

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)

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 registered
20 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.