Bringing a classic car into Colombia, wow, lot of rules, laws

[mudd]

Well, been getting some info on importing a classic car into Colombia, and its hasn’t been easy.  Got so many different quotes, prices, info, laws, rules ECT that you would want to bury your head in the dirt.

Everybody seemed to have different rules, info and prices that had to finally get a  girl from a well off family that I know to call Bogotá, Medellin, the govt, car clubs, shipping companies ect to get the info straight.  There are a lot of rules and regulations that you have to follow.

In a nutshell, any car that is a “classic” that will be imported into Colombia, has to be approved by the Automobile Club of Colombia. (Who even knew they had one), and even if they reject it, you lose the $$$ for them to look at it.

The car has to be at least 80% original. If it passes, then you pay a 35% import tax …..And then another tax, based on the size of the motor, the bigger the motor, the more you pay.  In this case, 3000 6 cyl motor is another 35%.So a 70% tax has to be paid on the car.

  Now, here is the tricky part that took weeks to get the real truth. 1st, was told that they base the tax on the “sale price” of the car when you purchased it.   So if you bought a piece of krap that needed a lot of work for $ 20,000, you pay 70% of the $ 20,000, which isn’t too bad.  But, we later found out that, nooooo, they go by what the car is valued at when you bring it into the country, meaning if you dump in another $ 30,000 to restore it, the car is now worth $ 50,000 more or less, and now you have to pay 70% based on the $50,000 value.

So, it doesn’t pay to bring in a nice, restored classic car into Colombia, but a piece of krap. Seems the govt wants the “restoration work” to be done in Colombia, not in USA or some other country.

 I can just see the restoration work in Colombia” Hey Juan, this brake master cylinder belong to MG, no Jaguar,,,, it fit, si o no??”    “ oh si, no problema, it fit, we make it fit, you see”   

[michaelb]

Back in the 1970's when I was working at a VW dealer, I learned that the master cylinder of a Type 3 (fastback, squareback) is the same as that of a Porsche (forget which model). However it had four prices in the book...from lowest to highest:
Cost
Wholesale
Retail VW
Retail Porsche

You're probably right on the reason for the high taxes, give the local mechanics some business.

[mudd]

yep, some parts from manufactures cross match, had a friend who had a bayliner boat. after he forgot to put in the drain plug and halfway submerged his motor, the starter went out. was a 3 liter 4 cyl inboard. the replacement starter was $ 300,  but the guy at the counter said, go to pep boys and get a  starter for a Chevy 350, was exactly the same starter, but only $ 120. but, i have seen some hokie mechanic work done in Colombia, makes duct tape and bailing wire look high tech 

[ignorante]

What kind of classic car?  I have a 66 GTO, but I would not dream of bringing it to Colombia!

[Shadow_mas]

When looking at parts of cars, then remember that not many part amnufacturers will produce a one-car specific part, especially when dealing with the lower production of exclusive ones.
There for it always pays to check the actual part number and cross-reference it with parts of mass-produced cars. Finding a Ford or BMW part on something exclusive as a Ferrari is more regular as you may expect, the engineers who design it build in as many stock parts as they can without hurting the performance or optics they aim for.

[mudd]

66 austin healey