On Selling a Car in Chile. Not!

Wed Feb 6^th, 2013 | 9:00 AM

Sergio, picked us at the Casino parking lot. We were all deep asleep in the sidewalk and slept most of the way to the Notary Office. Our bodies and minds were exhausted. We had not had any proper sleep since Tuesday morning when we got up early to buy the car in Melipilla. 

With high hopes we headed to the Notary Office. By now we were experts on the process of buying/selling a car in Chile. We knew that the public Registry would not do the transaction due to our temporary RUT number. The Notary was our only hope.  We had the entire paperwork ready… We had it from the day before! 

Little did we know, that we could not sell a car that we bought only a day before through a notary office. Since they only give us proof of purchase and not proof of ownership. Had the Public Registry Employees accepted our temporary RUT and given us the proof of ownership ‘al tiro’ (at the moment like they say here) the car would have been sold.  But for us, nothing is ever that simple. 

We headed back to the towing company. By then the sun was high on the sky and they had enough time to examine the vehicle.  Enough time to realize the piece of junk we bought and decide it was not in their best interest to buy it from us. 

We were stuck with the:

‘Car That Shall Not Be Named’. 

All the employees of the tow company were very helpful. They really wanted us to find a way to return the car and get our money back. However, we were pressed on time. We were all meant to be in Punta Arenas on Friday for the skills tests. We were still heading the Patagonian Expedition Race… remember? 

Our only option was to put a formal complaint with the ‘Carabineros’ (police) stating the kms we traveled and the day that the ‘Car That Shall Not Be Named’ died on us. In that way we could continue our travels to Punta Arenas, race and head back to deal with our junk with wheels. 

Complaints were filed, papers were signed, our story was told yet another time and we headed with our 550 lbs of gear to the bus station in Rancagua.

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