Travelling along the Pan-American Highway or exploring Patagonia with a car, bike or camper van has become a popular overlanding adventure. Chile is known as the best country for foreigners to buy a vehicle in South America. However the process of obtaining the necessary documents and finding a vehicle can be very time consuming and stressful. We have experienced this nerve-racking process first hand.
Luckily there is a service that helps travelers get ready for the South American road. The all inclusive service from Suzi Santiago is the easiest, fastest way to get a vehicle in Chile.
Suzi Santiago is a company based in Las Condes, Santiago in Chile with the main purpose to help travellers with everything they need to start driving around in South America. The company is run by the two brothers - Daniel and Noam. Together they went through the car buying process more than 400 times and have more than 1000 garage inspections under their belt. You can be sure that they know which car models are reliable and suitable for traveling in South America.
How much does it costs and what is included?
The complete service from Suzi Santiago costs 210’000 CLP (approx. 350 US$ or 280€), however their service can be broken down into just getting a RUT number for 90’000 CLP (approx 150 US$ or 120€) or only finding a car for you, this part of their service costs 120’000 CLP (approx. 200 US$ or 160€). They only handle Chilean registered vehicles - no foreign registered cars.
The complete service includes:
- Getting a Chilean RUT number
- Finding a good, reliable vehicle according to needs and budget
- Vehicle title transfer at the Chile notary
- Getting local and international insurance
- Toll route solutions (such as electronical tags)
- Help crossing borders (due to their network you will get real time updates about certain borders)
- Sending you spare parts for your vehicle (if needed)
In addition Suzi Santiago provides you with support throughout trip. Not only does this come in handy in the planning but you might also need help talking to a mechanic, calling a tow truck or negotiating with one of those corrupt police officers you might encounter. Just think of Suzi Santiago as your guardian angel during your trip.
So how does it work?
It takes about 3 to 10 days until you have a vehicle and you can start traveling. The brothers from Suzi Santiago will get to know your needs and send you 3-4 four vehicle options on a daily basis - if you like the vehicle then they will contact the seller and check the vehicles papers.The car report shows the service and owner history, milage, any outstanding fines or debts. Suzi Santiago has access to to all technical inspections since 2011 - so it's impossible to double-cross them with manipulated offers.
If all is legit - Suzi Santiago will schedule a garage inspection, where the client can look at the car and decide if he want to proceed. Then a technical inspection is undertaken, you are informed about the state of the car and the prices of any needed repairs. Moreover you are provided with repair quotes from other mechanics, so you have the possibility to compare prices. All this time the guys from Suzi Santiago are at your side to support you with their expertise and experience.
If you want to buy the car - the guys will negotiate the price for you and schedule an appointment with a notary to transfer the title. They will accompany you to the notary and make sure the contracts are in order and you receive a "declaration jurada" for the border crossing.
Once you are the happy owner of a Chilean vehicle you will benefit from all the other services from them - such as trip planning, toll road solutions and any modifications you need on your vehicle.
Make your dream camper van
Of course the vehicle you bought doesn't always fit your needs, so maybe you need to make some changes. In this case the guys from Suzi Santiago can also help you out. They have a workshop and a carpenter that can build a bed or kitchen into your 4x4 car or van for an additional cost. Furthermore their shop sells roof top tents, solar energy kits or water pumps. Check out the prices on their website.
Selling your vehicle in Chile
Even more time consuming than getting a camper van is selling a camper van. Once your trip ends, you want to go back home and don't want to waste time sitting around waiting for somebody to buy your vehicle. If your lucky you can sell it right away at a good price - but more often travelers will sell it at a throwaway price or are stuck in Chile for weeks and weeks. We met overlanders that were desperate to sell their van.
And again Suzi Santiago has the perfect care-free service. You just give them a poder (authorization from the vehicle owner) that they can sell the vehicle in your name, park the car in their garage and then you're free to go. Its that simple! Their fee is 5% of the sale price and the vehicle should meet some mechanical requirements. You can't ask them to sell your crappy, rusty broken-down car. 🙂
If you are interested in any of the services that Suzi Santiago offers then contact them over [email protected] or WhatsApp +56952429634 and tell them we - Layback Travel - sent you. 🙂 🙂
This article was sponsored by Suzi Santiago. All information has been provided by Suzi Santiago and Layback Travel is not responsible for any inaccuracy. Layback Travel only writes articles about topics, that we believe will help/benefit other travelers.