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Hi,
Me and my two friends are coming from The UK in December and were wondering about the best place to buy a pick-up in Chile. Our plan is to go from Patagonia all the way up to New York so we need something reliable!!
If anyone has any advice on what sort of price to expect or best way/place to buy that would be great.
Many thanks.
Welcome to the RTA Forum!
First of all, you can't drive the whole way, as there are no roads from Columbia to Panama, so that is one issue.
Trying to buy a car as a non-resident is very difficult in the US, and I have no idea how tough it would be in Chile. I can only imagine that it would also be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to sell a chilean car in the US.
Honestly, I'd say your best bet really could be shipping your car from the UK to South America. I'm sure that will be quite expensive, but then, you can't expect a trip like this to be anything else!
Although it took place +25 years ago, I'd suggest a complete read-through of Tim Cahill's "Road Fever". His run from southernmost Chile to Prudhoe Bay, AK featured a professionally-prepared diesel pickup truck shipped from Canada to Argentina to then be driven south for the start, a professional primary driver, very large-scale corporate sponsorship (to the tune of many 10s of thousands of US dollars), and placing the truck in a shipping container for transport across the Darien Gap in Panama/Columbia.
To duplicate this on a more casual or private basis seems practically impossible, even today.
Foy
Hello there! I'm Chilean and I'm currently living in California. We are planning to do the same but the other way around. We are leaving California and making it to Santiago where we will be relocating.
I asked my car-friend in Chile about the details but I think it'd be very easy to buy a car there. And definetly much cheaper than get it shipped.
How much planning do you have? We are just starting, looking at maps and thinking of routes. From Panama to Colombia, or from Colombia to Panama in your case, you just need to get on the ferry in/to Cartagena o Barranquilla.
Maybe we can exchange info!