My new ride
As I talked about earlier, I am now the proud owner of a 2006 Hyundai Tucson, that I bought on a whim during my holidays in Miami. I had no idea I would come back with a car, the main reason we went look for one was so BF could replace his, but then I said why not and we came back with two cars!
When we arrived in Miami we started scouring the car dealerships, as he wanted a Nissan and I wanted a Toyota RAV4 with 3 doors. The problem is they don’t make RAV4s with 3 doors anymore, and haven’t since 2005. Buying a 9 year old car from a dealer in the US is almost impossible, as people replace their cars much sooner. We talked to the worst salesman I ever met at the Toyota dealership and gave up after 5 minutes as he tried to sell me a $18,000 5 door car.
Then a friend who is a car dealer said he would look for what we wanted at the car auction in Orlando. That is where dealers go shop for cars, so you usually get a great deal.
So we had a quick look online to see which day would be good to go, and spotted two cars on the next day. We packed an overnight bag, jumped in the rental car and drove four hours to Orlando. After spending the night at a hotel, we arrived at the auction.
The cars waiting to be auctioned
The auction field is like a supersized parking lot, with thousands of car waiting to be auctioned. It is impressive. Each car is given a lane to be auctioned, and there are 20 lanes with around 200 cars each just for a half day.
Auction site seen from the sky
Each car is either sold or discarded in a matter of minutes. A guy at each lane is screaming into a microphone in an ineligible way what I assume was something like “This car starts at $3,000, anyone at $3,000… $3,500 on my left, do I hear $4,000?…etc.. sold! For $5,200 to Bob!”. But you really don’t understand what they are saying, they speak so fast I wonder how they can last four hours straight. They speak like the guys on the radio telling you the terms and conditions of an ad, if they were on steroids. Thankfully, you have a screen to see how the bid is going.
Entering the auction lane
We went to see my car and it was in pretty good shape for the price, so I decided to give it a try. As we were walking around the parking lot, we saw my car getting in to be auctioned! We had to run after it and joined the auction at the last minute, to win!
Then BF won his car as well and we had to go draft a cashier´s check to pay the cars.
The auction only lasts a minute or two
With the cost of travel and a hotel night in Orlando, his fee, the car auction company’s fee, a brand new set of front disks and brake pads which according to the dealer were the only thing the car needed it came up to $5,190.
We drove the car back to Miami, with short term insurance like the one Insure Daily provides, and went to a place that ships cars all over Central America. It cost $750 to put the car on a boat to Guatemala and do the legal paperwork to ship it. Then I will have to pay import taxes once it gets to Guatemala, around $1,000, for a grand total of around $7,000.
Looking at online ads in Guatemala, similar cars sell for around $10,000. Due to heavy taxes, cars are more expensive here than in the US. And the bad thing is, because many cars come from the US after a bad accident and are pimped up cosmetically to look like they were never damaged, you can get a bad surprise if you buy a used car. In the US auction, what you see is what you get.
As a proof, here are the cars that are going to ship together with mine.
Then they come to Guatemala, spend a week at the mechanic’s, all the metal is straightened up and the car is put on the market like it never was in an accident.
Those cars were not even starting, so a guy was moving them around with a machine.
Loading the cars in the containers
They ship in fruit containers, as Guatemala ships bananas to the US, and the containers come back full with cars, no space gets lost! 🙂
Anyway, that little unexpected expense almost doubled the cost of our Miami holiday but I think it is a good car that will be great here. My old Suzuki Samurai is really hard on the back and has no AC, and if I want to start offering tours to the tourists renting my little house, I need something better.
Let’s just hope customs won’t be too greedy and the import will be uneventful…
I’ve never been to a car auction but it looks like fun! Definitely would love to go to one someday. That’s pretty cool how they ship them and definitely probably gave you way more options by purchasing here versus Guatemala.
That’s for sure, some car models don’t even exist in Guatemala.
I have a friend who flips auction cars all the time (he has his dealer’s license so he can go to the good auctions). I have been to the police auction here and it is funny to see the people who know what to look for and the people who don’t.
Also under $2K to ship a car and pay taxes? Not as bad as I would have thought it would be.
That was pretty reasonable, the boat is only $550 but you have to legalize paperwork and then the import taxes are the same as if you go by land, but you would have to put 3,000 more miles on a car you don’t know, that may be risky. Shipping allows me to make an oil change and have the parts checked here for a fraction of the price.
Everything you get up to seems to be a new business opportunity just waiting for you to pounce.
Yesterday I though you should write a how to book on blogging, last month I thought you should be the general contractor for your subdivision and today I think you could start your own car importing business. If you brought in better cars instead of junkers and offered Carfax or whatever car history report the Americans use as proof that the car was never in an accident you could build a great reputation and sell a lot of cars.
Why can’t I come I come up with any sweet sideline ideas for myself?
haha, selling things and supervising people sadly are two things I suck at, that would need to be a freelance alone business but thanks for the suggestion!
Wow, it sounds like you might be able to make a decent amount of money importing cars. You get up to a lot of very interesting things, Ms. Pauline!
A friend of mine’s Dad earns his living importing cars from the US to Canada. There’s just so many more in the US, so it’s easier to find the good deals. Then he knows how to do all of the paperwork and importing, and sells them up here.
I imagine the process is much smoother to import into Canada. Those US cars are really cheap, it is impressive but I guess part of their credit/want a new car mentality that there are so many used cars in good condition on the market.
sounds like you got a great deal. We recently purchased a small SUV as well- we ended up going for a Honda CR-V. We love it.
I would have prefered a better brand like Honda or Toyota but they were pretty expensive, and Honda doesn’t have much of a representation in my little town so it would be hard to get spares. Hopefully for Hyunday not too much.
Wow, that sounds like quite the process. IT’s actually not too steep to ship the vehicle overseas – I thought it would be more expensive. I used to work at an auction company and it was fascinating. You can get some great deals.
You do need to have the eye for a bargain, otherwise you can easily get caught up and overbid, like on Ebay.
Oh man no A/C in that climate would be brutal! I don’t blame you there…and yes tourists probably want a more comfortable ride. How shady that practice of cosmetically mending cars in accidents! That could be dangerous. I love how they have reports like car fax now. That was really helpful when I was looking at cars.
That is dangerous, and why there are so many accidents down here. They also ship old school buses to serve as public buses when no school in the US would take them anymore.
Looks like you got a fairly good deal there Pauline. I’ve never been to a car auction, but have a few good friends who have and have said the exact same thing. Hopefully the import will be uneventful. 🙂
Well it was, I paid a guy handsomely to buy my peace and have him do all the paperwork. Also paid my first bribe ever which I’m still fuming about but that is part of the peace buying package I guess.
So that’s where all those unwanted cars end up? That is terrible on how expensive they end up reselling them in Guatemala and other Latin American countries. I heard from a friend that the climate in Guatemala is very nice, sort of like spring weather year round. Do you use AC much?
Yes the climate is perfect in the lower half of the country, it is spring all year long. In the North where I live it is more tropical so wet and humid but we only really need the AC a few weeks per year. That is because my house is made of stone so it stays pretty cool most of the time even though it is hot outside. AC on the car would be used a bit more though.
That bit about the bananas going one way and cars going the other is awesome. I love that efficiency, and it’s a great little piece of information.
Good on you for buying your cars at auctions. I think people are overly worried about the unknowns with buying in that format. For what it’s worth, I’m not particularly worried about cars that have been in minor accidents, either.
There is very little waste around here, so empty containers would never stay empty for long. You should see how they fix the cars with a bit of rubber and a little glue they can do wonders, which is really cool as otherwise the parts would have to ship and take weeks to arrive to my town.
Seems like you got a great deal on the RAV4. If I may ask, how many miles were on it for $5,190 total cost?
It has around 145K miles at the moment, pretty high although it was in FL where there are no mountains and not many dirt roads.
I would love to see a car auction. I’ve only been to livestock ones and still couldn’t understand anything they said. My Grandpa used to buy cows that way and apparently knew the lingo. I’d probably be trying to make up my mind and the whole thing would be over.
Me too, thankfully we could see the cars online before going and set a maximum price still with a clear head. Once you get caught up in the auction it is hard to think straight.
Nice! I wondered how you would get the car into Guatemala! $750 doesn’t sound bad at all, especially since you saved so much. Good job on your lifestyle inflation (kidding)
Suitable for little kids and big kids (like Dad), check out this guide to suit whoever you are buying for.
Lastly at the end of the run for the “D”,
for 1957, inspired by a private conversion, the factory made a few road-equipped cars with proper screen and hood called the
XK-SS. Of course, there are tons of Mickey and friend pages for all of
us who love the absolute originals.
Great story Pauline!
Sounds like you had a good vacation and picked up a cool souvenir. 🙂 Oh, yes I do agree about the import taxes in some countries. I’ve heard sometimes it can cost as much as the car itself! How crazy is that!?!?
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Hi,
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Thank You!