Buying a car in Costa Rica... Whew! It's over with!

After a few years of fixing and cleaning the trusty old '95 4 Runner it had become aparrent that we were in need of something a little newer for our family to safely and comfortably travel from Nosara to other parts of Costa Rica that we frequent when going on in country vacations and trips to San Jose.

So we set out on the daunting task of buying a car in Costa Rica...

As with everything, we started with ideas and conversations on what we were going to buy. We decided on a few different models.  The chosen being a Toyota FJ Cruiser, a Land Rover Defender and the last being a Toyota Prado.

The FJ was going to be purchased in the states and brought down using a very trusted shipper that I have used multiple times in the past with great results.

The option of buying a car in the states is a decent one as long as you choose a model that is readily available in Costa Rica so that you can hunt down parts easily when you need to. I have a great contact of a shipper that will handle everything from getting your car to CR, bringing it to San Jose, getting it through customs and doing all of the papework to give you a fully registered car on your end in San Jose. This is how I brought over my 4Runner and it all went really well. I will use this option again someday. However, with the cost of an FJ States side added with the import taxes (about 50% of the US value), although it would have still been much cheaper than buying an FJ here in CR, it was going to put me a little over budget ... so I went with the next option.

My next desire was to fulfill my lifelong dream of having a Land Rover Defender... arguably the most rough and tough street legal vehicle on the planet. My stoke factor was high with this one as we took on the task of price shopping and then taking some test drives. The Defender is an amazing truck, ready to crawl over any mountain and cross any river... but it is just that, a truck. They are as rough and rugged on the inside as they are on the out and they are made for the offroad... not the onroad experience. So, after a few drives my wife and my two-year-old's baby seat nixed the idea of a Defender. Dreams crushed... for now.

So onto the next choice... the Toyota Prado. The Prado is a Land Cruiser model that Toyota makes in Europe and some other countries around the world. They do not have them in the US. However, the FJ Cruiser is said to be built on the Prado frame. Do your own research there.

The Prado is readily available in Costa Rica and is available in Diesel and Gasoline. The luxuries you can find on the Prados will rank up there with new Toyotas in the states... Leather Seats, Lumbar, Electric Windows, Electric Mirrors etc. The one we ended up choosing has a cooler in the center console... it's actually a mini-refrigerator big enough for a six pack... of sodas, of course.

The Prado began to look better and better as we realized how many of them were available and that we were going to be able to do some serious shopping around to find one we wanted. Of course, this is where things got a bit tricky...

We decided to make an offer on a Prado that we liked and thought was priced fairly. We soon found out that it was priced a little too fairly. Apparently something that happens from time to time here in Costa Rica is that cars that have been in a very bad car wreck in Panama are repaired as a salvaged vehicle and then shipped to Costa Rica because they do not carry the “Salvage” tag on the title anymore once they are shipped to and registered in Costa Rica. I believe that this first Prado was one of those as it was brought from Panama and all business halted with the car as soon as I told the seller it would have to go to a mechanic to be checked out. The lesson to take from this is to make sure you have any car you will purchase inspected by a reputable mechanic. I have a few that I can refer you to if you would like.

Prado #2, 3, 4 and 5 all ended up with a test drive and a decision to keep looking... After about a month of searching for a car we were beginning to get discouraged as we were taking random trips all the way from Nosara to San Jose just to look at cars... and although Brinko’s will entertain the two year old for a few hours, San Jose can get old quick.

Prado #6 was a really nice white one that was it... I knew it. The price was right, the color was right, the mileage was right... it was the one. We drove to San Jose to see the car and set an appointment for the next morning to see the car and most likely purchase it. That night as I was biting into a dragon roll at Samurai Sushi in Plaza Rohrmoser I got a call that the car had just been sold. Bummer. At least the dragon roll was good.

In my always practiced and sometimes not so well received “Its all good” attitude I put my head down and kept searching. And with a little help from the guy that sold #6 out from under me I got in contact with a really hard working car broker that I had a long conversation with about exactly what I wanted in a Prado. He said that I was borderline crazy for wanting what I wanted for the price I thought I was going to get it for. But he said to give him some time and he would see what he could do.

Over the next few weeks Eric the car broker called me a few times a week and sent me photos of Prados via email that were good, but not great. I wanted great and I knew that patience would get me there.

And it did.

Eric called me on a Tuesday morning and said that he had been to almost every car dealer, big and small, in San Jose. He had finally found one that fit my list of specifications and had negotiated a price for me that fit my budget. I was stoked!

Not only had this guy searched high and low for me, but he had negotiated the price down (on a car that I later realized I had already called about and gotten nowhere negotiating) a few thousand dollars.

The excitement was high as our almost two month long process of searching for a car was nearing an end... and we got what we wanted!

The next few days were your typical car buying situation anywhere... test driving the car, having a mechanic look it over, getting some small things fixed... the usual.

Within a week we were driving the new car home with a six pack (of soda... remember) in the fridge and a two-year-old in the back seat... mission accomplished.

If you are in the market for a car in Costa Rica take the story here and use it as advice. Don’t make the mistakes that a few do and end up with a lemon. Make sure you use people you trust to walk you through the situation. If you would like me to forward you contact information for any of the folks I know I would be happy to... just shoot me an email at brandon@surfingnosara.com and I will pass along the information.

Happy hunting!

-Brandon