What does it cost to ship a car to Costa Rica?

In October of 2009, we found a used Geo Tracker for sale in Tonto Basin. We wereleaving in a few days for Costa Rica but knew this was the car we would eventually want down here. So, we bought it anyway and let it sit in the barn in Arizona till we returned.

Finally this Fall I began in ernest to find the best way to get the car to Costa Rica. I contacted 4 different companies who specialize in shipping vehicles worldwide who provided me with a wealth of information. And, a quote, of course. I found out that the safest way to ship your car is in a container. Depending upon your needs you can have a full container or part of one. This also allows you to ship additional items, preferably "used" as the container and its contents will go through customs and be taxed accordingly. This is also the more expensive option. There is also a "ro-ro" option which I think means "ride-on ride-off." Using this method, your car will be driven onto a ship and driven off at the port of entry. This is for the car only - you can not have additional items in you car using this method. If there is anything left in the car there is very little chance it will still be there when you see your car again.

We really had nothing else of value to ship so we opted for the ro-ro method. All of the quotes we received included transportation from Arizona to Florida. They ran ran between $1,000 and $1,200 for that segment. Well, I had never seen East Texas, New Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama or the Gulf Coast of Florida and couldn't see why I should pay to have my car see it before me. We chose to drive the car to the port in Tampa, FL ourselves.

Cost for driving from Arizona to Florida including gas, food and hotels for 8 nights came to about $800. Plus we had a great road trip.

The shipping agent we selected was Ship Your Car Now and our agent was Rich Lawson(www.shipyourcarnow.com, 1-888-532-8805). The cost to ship the car from Tampa to Limon, Costa Rica, was $875. This did not include the $20 for 2 "safety vests" we were required to buy at the port in order to drive our car down to the dock. They are beautiful and I am sure we will wear them often!

The actual shipping company was Sea Central Shipping (www.seacentral.net, 888-538-3545). We were contacted by them and they recommended a bilingual customs agent in Limon that we could work with.

Our customs agent in Limon was extremely helpful. Fabio Madrigal (8813 85 85 (cell) or office 2758 48 40) took our car through customs, brought the car to the required inspection (Retivie), secured the insurance (Marchamo), provided an attorney for submitting the title and registration into the National Registry and handled all of the paper work for us. Fabio also showed us the web sites where you could check in advance to see what your import duty would be on a car. This is something I had been trying to find out on my own for some time. The site at http://www.hacienda.go.cr/autohacienda/Autovalor.aspx

Import duities for our 1995 Geo Tracker, 2x4 manual transmission, with the inspection, insurance (for the year), legal fees, Fabio fees, etc. came to about $2,060.

Would we ship another car. Absolutely. As you can see from the photo, our little red car loves the beaches already!

Why would you want to ship a car to Costa Rica?

Cost, Condition and Convenience were our major considerations in deciding to
ship our car to Costa Rica.

COST. There are no cars manufactured in Costa Rica, they are all imported and the import tax is fairly heafty. This is also reflected in the cost of used cars. For example, a car like ours, 1995 Geo Tracker, 2x4, used, will cost you in the neighborhood of $5,000 USD locally. It is also expensive to ship a vehicle and you must still pay import duties on it when it gets here. So, depending upon the vehicle, the cost may come out very close.

CONDITION. Cars must undergo a strict inspection each year (Retivie). Because of this (and, of course, the initial investment), Ticos do take very good care of their cars. However, if you are buying a used car you are not always certain of the origin and history of that vehicle. For me, it was very eye-opening to see all the smashed cars at the port in Florida waiting to be shipped overseas. Hmmm.

CONVENIENCE. Depending upon where you live in the country, just getting around to see various cars for sale can be a problem. Most people live in the Central Valley - San Jose area. Most car ads, new or used, seem to also originate from that area. If you live in a rural area, like us, and you don't already have a car, going to see an advertised one could be an all day trip. And, there's the language barrier. Although my Spanish continues to improve, I am far from being comfortable making a major purchase in Spanish.

Tomorrow I will post the details and contact information for our actual shipment. I had difficulty finding some of this information and hope that in posting it here it may help someone else who is interested in shipping their vehicle to Costa Rica.

The photo shows our little red Geo at home in Arizona the day before we left in
January. And yes, that is snow on the mountains in the background.