Do NOT buy used cars in Paraguay

0POSTS

12 years ago

If you are thinking about buying a car or truck in Paraguay, STOP. The short advice is that don聮t do it. At least don聮t buy anything used. Spending years in Latin America has thought me that don聮t trust a soul when it comes to any vehicle and that includes bicycles.

Mechanics here are absolutely worthless, they don聮t a have a slightest clue how anything works and their favorite tool is a hammer. I聮m an engineer and I can聮t tell you of the horrors I聮ve seen in this country.

A lot of cars are imported from Chile which are originally Japanese with right hand steering. They chop the cars and change the steering to the left and sell them down here. Every Steering change I聮ve seen is ungodly unsafe, horribly done, and an accident waiting to happen.

Then there are cars that were sold here originally which they have a part from every manufacturer known to man. Don聮t be surprised to buy a Chevy with Toyota motor in it, Mitsubishi alternator, ford seats, and Nissan bumpers.

People don聮t care about their cars here; they just want them to work, no matter what, and as inexpensively as possible. Cutting corners is the attitude here. When things go wrong and it need to be fixed properly (properly means actually spending money), they put a Band-Aid on it and they put it up for sale. 90% of used cars for sale here are absolute garbage.

If you look on Clasipar, you聮ll see that every ad says 聯Impecable聰. Either Paraguayans don聮t know what Impecable means, or blown head gasket, seven accidents, crap tires, and smoking to high heavens means the same as Impecable in Spanish.

And don聮t even think about taking a mechanic with you to checkout your car. That聮s like taking a wolf to choose his prey. A while ago, I was in market for buying a Turbo Diesel truck here. 9 out of 10 trucks I looked at had a blown Turbo and the owner always said on the phone that the turbo worked perfectly! One of them was a mechanic and I had to explain to him what Turbo actually does.

The bottom line is, either buy a brand new car here or import one from the US. The shipping and Aduana fees are worth it. Even you buy a $1000 car in United States sight unseen, I promise you it will be in a better shape than a used car here.

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cheshire New member

8POSTS

12 years ago

Yep, this was similar to our experience...cars in PY seem to be about 4 times more expensive than the equivalent in the UK. We bought a small toyota 12 years old which cost us 拢3,000!!....we looked at a lot of complete garbage which in the ads said impeccable etc....eventually we had to buy something to start work.
Ran ok for a month and then the problems started.....after 2 months and 4 mechanics who couldn't fix it, eventually found one last week who seems to have done the repair properly,( lets see).

Each mechanic contradicts the others, so if your'e not mechanically minded you don't know what to believe.

I read somewhere that import restrictions are being relaxed, increasing the volume of imported cars and hopefully bringing the prices down. Again, lets see.

But the advice don't trust ANYONE is sadly correct.

1 member reacted to this post

Lonnie M Active member

56POSTS

12 years ago

There's a lot of Money laundering behind used cars here as well however you need to make friends and know the right people that will guide you to a good buy if you want to buy something used. I bought a used car to get around the first year then once I settled in - we bought a brand new car from one of Toyotoshi's investment companies that only cost 8.5k USD with all the luxuries and FULL 3 year warranty - I absolutely love the car so far.

There are too many cars here and the prices keep going up and it doesn't make any sense (obvious there is something running in the background that props up these small dealerships)

I Agree - Don't buy used unless you have to - and if you do network and friend a mechanic that knows what he is talking about at least has some solid credentials etc...(Asado and beers gets you into the friends circle here LOL)

Cheers,

Lonnie

1 member reacted to this post

the_pit Contributor

159POSTS

12 years ago

I agree with the comments above , just wanted to let you know I live in the UK and I provide a service for anyone wanting to adquire a vehicle from here. I can send it to Paraguay, I have local contacts in Customs to make the process smooth.
autosbritanicos.com

You pay the actual cost of the car that you can check in Autotrader or similar, I just charge a fee for my service.

Thanks

andyRandy Member

1POSTS

12 years ago

I had a look on that website "Paraguay+" and as pasted here below:

Cuando sea que encuentre su veh铆culo ideal, deber谩 transferir el dinero necesario para la compra del veh铆culo y gastos de flete + fee de nuestro servicio.
Esto es totalmente transparente y presentamos los comprobantes de las operaciones para que Usted no pague ni un solo centavo de m谩s. Estar谩 comprando el veh铆culo al precio de mercado en UK.

looks like you are offering a service to buy a car oversea, so you are not selling the car itself.
Then, if I correctly understood, the buyer should send the money to buy a car, without having a look of a try of the car?
Have you already find clients ready to do so?
I would never pay in advance for a car imported in that way!

1 member reacted to this post

the_pit Contributor

159POSTS

12 years ago

andyRandy wrote:
I had a look on that website "Paraguay+" and as pasted here below:

Cuando sea que encuentre su veh铆culo ideal, deber谩 transferir el dinero necesario para la compra del veh铆culo y gastos de flete + fee de nuestro servicio.
Esto es totalmente transparente y presentamos los comprobantes de las operaciones para que Usted no pague ni un solo centavo de m谩s. Estar谩 comprando el veh铆culo al precio de mercado en UK.

looks like you are offering a service to buy a car oversea, so you are not selling the car itself.
Then, if I correctly understood, the buyer should send the money to buy a car, without having a look of a try of the car?
Have you already find clients ready to do so?
I would never pay in advance for a car imported in that way!

I wanted to offer something different, where you pay the price listed on the websites and you know I am not buying a very cheap car and making a profit selling at twice the price.

Yes, I am offering just a service to buy the car on your behalf and send it to you, for a fixed fee. It's just like saving you to come here to pick up the car yourself

You will see the car, I send pictures, I record video, and I can even stream a live feed when I am going to see the car, where you can ask questions to the seller on real-time. It's like you are here choosing the car.

I know people is not willing to send money upfront, but I can't afford to pay for the car, transport, etc.. and then maybe the buyer dissapear.

I am willing to demonstrate to anyone that I am trustable person, we can sign whatever you want, I can send documents, contracts, agreements.

We have been selling stuff online for a long time with our other ventures ParaguayPlus.com and lindascositas.com and we trust people, be send goods only charging 20% upfront. But for a car, that's quite different as the money involved is a lot more.

As per your last question, I started recently and I am not putting much effort on marketing at the moment, so I just sent some vehicles for people that know me (family and friends), but not yet to any other customer.

Maybe it will never work I know, but, just wanted to try to implement the service that "I" would like to use if I had to buy a car overseas from Paraguay. It just can't be any better than this

Thanks for your feedback! It's very important to know what people feel when they read the site.

Kind Regards

caja Member

24POSTS

12 years ago

On average the information previously placed on this thread is probably accurate. It is possible to get a good used vehicle if you know the seller or have a friend, better a family member who is either in the car business or that rare honest 'taller' or mechanic. Over the last five years, I've bought two used cars; a 2002 Nissan and a 2010 Suzuki. Both have been far better than what has been described here as a likely outcome.

So in essence, the purchase of a used vehicle is in the "let the buyer beware" category. Bottom line, take great care and use extreme caution. Prices in Asuncion are inflated and it may very well worth the high tax to go ahead and buy one new or a late model in the states and ship it or buy a new one in Asuncion.

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MobileRover Member

24POSTS

11 years ago

Yep, totally agree. It may be expensive to ship your own car in, but that's exactly why it's worth it if you can do your own repairs (and find parts!). If anyone is considering vehicle shipping, I can't recommend enough--especially if you're shipping from the U.S. They have a really good understanding of international delivery routes, taxes, laws and all the legal issues that come with moving a聽 vehicle between countries.

august6578 Member

3POSTS

11 years ago

that hurts my feeling's.

. why do you say such stuff? Im from Paraguay its not a piece of crap we had a car in Paraguay once, actually it was a truck. it worked really perfect for like 20 years until we came to Canada.

1 member reacted to this post

august6578 Member

3POSTS

11 years ago

#10

Hi Engineer.聽

I agree totally with you.聽 I got ripped of by paraguayen a lot!!!!聽 And not just Paraguayen native rather by believers too!!

聽聽聽聽聽聽 I am just waiting for gods final judgement,that's all I can do,my friend.

planetsupernova Active member

35POSTS

10 years ago

#11

奥辞辞飞听

ElGringoDerrick New member

9POSTS

10 years ago

#12

I was thinking of selling my car... its not in bad shape or anything. Has 80,000 miles but in good mechanical order.
Being a technician myself I always did the work since I know what I did and knew that every bolt was going to go back on.
How much would it cost to properly get your car transported over to Paraguay? 2000 USD?

majbjb Contributor

158POSTS

10 years ago

#13

We shipped a car from Baltimore in a container to Paraguay a little less than 2 years ago for just under $3K.聽聽What hurts though is the customs fees and charges.聽 Rule of thumb, or maybe the actual "rule" is that it costs like 50% of a cars value in customs/brokers fee's.聽 But our 2007 Toyota 4Runner cost us just over $6K to get it out of the port.聽 Blue book on the car in the US was about $16 K at the time and it would of sold for well over $28K here at the time, so not sure how that works.聽 You just have to shop for a broker that is honest and can quote you a price up front, most shippers can recommend them.聽聽Still cheaper than buying one here for sure.聽 Keep in mind a car shipped here can be no more than 10 years old.聽聽And if it's not a Japanese, Korean or Euro car parts will be problematic.聽聽While GM builds cars in S. America (Brazil and maybe Argentina) they are not the same models as sold in the US so parts don't interchange.聽 For some reason Ford Explorers used to be the "hot" import car from the US, so I imagine there's parts available for them somehow here.聽聽Buying used cars here is a blood sport not for the timid or the mechanically challenged.聽 But if your up to it you can find decent bargains and come away happy.

rodster Member

20POSTS

8 years ago

#14

I found your post very exaggerated and somewhat untrue.聽

For starters, I lived in the US many years and purchased several new and used vehicles that had terrible technical issues as well and met many dealer mechanics that where not worth their price.聽 There is a reason why the term "lemon cars" is used in the US, including new cars that come out of factory with some problem or another.聽 Apart from that, thousands of vehicles in the US (and other countries) are recalled each year because of some problem with the vehicle that was not found initially.聽 As an engineer you should know this.聽 And for many years, carmakers in the US and other countries have been negligent in informing their customers on these problems until lawsuits have cost the companies too much money.聽 Used car salesmen in the US are not known to be exactly 100% trustworthy when it comes to telling the truth about the conditions of vehicles and the only thing used car buyers have to their advantage is CarFax.

For example, a few years ago I purchased a used car at a dealer in Miami, Florida.聽 The car only had 4000 miles on it and was 1 year old.聽 Looked like brand new.聽 After a few days driving it, I took it to Orlando, Florida and suddenly the low engine oil light came on.聽 I checked the oil dipper and was surprised to find I had NO oil in the engine.聽 I rapidly filled it up with oil and had it checked.聽 The mechanic said he found no problem with the car and so I drove back home to Miami.聽 By the time I got to Miami the low oil light turned back on.聽 Again, I found there was no oil in the engine.聽 The next day I took it back to the dealer and they had it there a few days with the mechanics to determine what was wrong.聽 They called me to tell me they found the issued and was fixed.聽 I drove the vehicle a few days and no problems but once I got back on the highway driving 60 mph the low oil light came back on and I was faced with the same issue.聽 I took it back to dealer and again they had it checked.聽 I called and called over and over the dealer to find out what was wrong with my car.聽 Finally they told me they had no clue what was wrong with the engine and why it was losing the oil.聽 They had the car in the shop for about 5 months and I was about to get my lawyer to sue the dealer for selling me a lemon.聽 After 5 months they called and said they fixed it but had to take apart the engine head.聽 I just sold the junk car for cents on the dollar.聽

I now live in Paraguay so I know about the cars that are brought from Chile with the right steering wheels that are switched over to the left.聽 As far as I know, not a single accident in Paraguay has been attributed to the switching of the steering wheels from the right to the left.聽 Not a single accident.聽 And I have several friends whom have bought these vehicles and they are very happy with them!!!聽聽And in my case, I have found many great mechanics here who do great work on Mercedes, BMW, Range Rovers, etc.聽 Although I'm sure there are terrible mechanics here too, this goes to be true in the US, Europe, or any other country as well just as I have shown with my own experience indicated above.

2 members reacted to this post

Mwilso27 Member

2POSTS

8 years ago

#15

Have I got the car for you!

AlanUK Active member

25POSTS

8 years ago

#16

I was a proud owner of one of the daid Chien switched imports. Ive even been聽 to a major work shop seeing how its down . I had a toyota which I paid a resonable but no cheap price. Yes a few niggles but in the world of used car sales nothing that vendor didnt put right which was a pleasant surprise.
Once again Im puzzled by the opinions about Paraguay who like myself are connected to the country for really their own gain but when it doesnt deliver just like good old home it gets bad press. Please just read the small print before becoming a tax exile.

AlanUK Active member

25POSTS

8 years ago

#17

I was a proud owner of one of the said Chilen switched imports. Ive even been聽 to a major work shop seeing how its down . I had a toyota which I paid a resonable but no cheap price. Yes a few niggles but in the world of used car sales nothing that vendor didnt put right which was a pleasant surprise.
Once again Im puzzled by the opinions about Paraguay who like myself are connected to the country for really their own gain but when it doesnt deliver just like good old home it gets bad press. Please just read the small print before becoming a tax exile.

1 member reacted to this post

pedroec1 Active member

44POSTS

8 years ago

#18

Buenos dias. I am probably about to shock some of you guys! I am buying an imported car in PY on Monday and I am not even going to be there until the end of the month!

I am trusting my son-in-law to buy it on my behalf. We correspondent via Whatsapp and thru photos on internet.

Of course I trust him (He is Paraguayo). I also have faith in people and dont believe that car dealers in PY can be any more or less honest than anywhere else in the world.

Call me naive if you like. We shall see. PS it is a Toyota Funcargo. Ciao Pedro

1 member reacted to this post

nurse jim New member

4POSTS

8 years ago

#19

Moderated by Priscilla 8 years ago
Reason : please post in the classifieds section
We invite you to read the forum code of conduct

pedroec1 Active member

44POSTS

8 years ago

#20

Latest news on my purchase-it is great with probs so far. Ciao

cankaj Member

1POSTS

4 years ago

#21

Good afternoon
I take the chance as you are well known with the paraguay import procedures I wanted to ask please.

I am British citizen am currently in Brazil with my british car and wanted to export it in Paraguay. And get Paraguayan documents and number plates.

Do i need to get a broker first? or can i just drive through the custom and do the process at the borders?

Its a used Range Rover 2012 Reg

Also how are the fees involved very high as in Brazil?

Many Thanks

Wyke New member

4POSTS

4 years ago

#22

@cankaj For a vehicle worth $5000-6000, in total you will pay maybe $6000-7000 in shipping, holding and import fees, never mind insurance.

For a right hand drive vehicle, you will probably pay another $1000 or more on having it changed to left-hand drive if you are from a right-hand drive country.

You are also subject to the whims of the customs officials and possible requests for coima (bribes) based on this or that "problem" in order to get your vehicle out of their custody.

In all, it's not worth it, and especially not if you are from a right-hand drive country.

OsageArcher Colombia Expert

1661POSTS

4 years ago

#23

Paraguay is a right-hand drive country as is most of South America and the rest of the world.聽 You will not have to change a right-hand drive vehicle to left-hand drive.

Wyke New member

4POSTS

4 years ago

#24

@OsageArcher

"I am British citizen am currently in Brazil with my british car"

British cars are RIGHT-hand drive. Paraguayan cars are LEFT-hand drive. This is NOT the same as right hand traffic vs left hand traffic - it is the OPPOSITE.

Driver side conversion will be required or one risks (a) damage against oncoming traffic and (b) being stopped by police officers on regular occasions, for not complying with local norms.

Johan Smal Active member

35POSTS

3 years ago

#25

@OsageArcher you unfortunately have it completely the wrong way round.

Johan Smal Active member

35POSTS

3 years ago

#26

@GuestPoster791 i've bought a few used cars in Paraguay. The first was in 1994. I've always received what I paid for. I'm not an engineer, but I have very good mechanical knowledge and operated a workshop here as well.聽 The conversions I have seen were all done very well, and except for some minor details you would not know that it was actually converted. Just as in any part of the world there are mechanics who are butchers. And just like anywhere in the world there are dishonest sales people. And if you come with an attiitude of being superior the average Paraguayan will probably go out of his way to prove your stupidity.

OsageArcher Colombia Expert

1661POSTS

3 years ago

#27

@OsageArcher you unfortunately have it completely the wrong way round.
-@Johan Smal

So you are saying that in Paraguay, they drive on the left side of the road like the British, with the steering wheel on the right side?

Perhaps you are confused and never did check the link I provided. Right-hand drive in this case means they drive on the right hand side of the road. From the link,

"Almost always, in countries where one drives on the right-hand side of the road, the cars are built so that the driver sits on the left-hand side of the car. Conversely, driving on the left-hand side of the road usually implies that the driver鈥檚 seat is on the right-hand side of the car. "

Paraguay like all all North and South American countries (with the exceptions of Guyana and Suriname) drives on the right-hand side of the road, with the steering wheel on the left side of the car. Please provide proof that that is not the case as you claim.

Johan Smal Active member

35POSTS

3 years ago

#28

@OsageArcher I'm not sure where you learned your version of English, but right hand drive means the driver is sitting on the right hand side of the vehicle.

OsageArcher Colombia Expert

1661POSTS

3 years ago

#29

@OsageArcher I'm not sure where you learned your version of English, but right hand drive means the driver is sitting on the right hand side of the vehicle.
-@Johan Smal

You never even bothered to look at the link, did you?