#620 – The Expat Files: Car Ownership, Rentals, and Data Security in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wander Hello there all you expat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here So let's get started People are always asking me about rental cars here in Latin America because obviously few people drive their own car down And I don't recommend it though ever so often some hardcore I don't give a damn types will drive their cars down and shoot me an email and say hey no problem Johnny

[00:47] I did it by the way if you want to roll the dice and do it well It is an adventure that said if you're so inclined here's a few tips number one have three Separate hard copies of all your paperwork and have it notarized and have it on a little USB device, too In case you lose it or it or your car gets stolen so you can pop over to a cafe internet and print your paperwork out Again number two have a lot of $20 bills for bribe money because you're probably gonna get hit in various Mexican departments as you're driving through departments by the way are their states and often You know the cops will call ahead once they've hit you for a bribe and let their buddies know in the next state or department That you're on your way and report how much they were able to wangle out of you

[01:33] So the next cops that stop you will know what the traffic will bear so to speak and you know What makes you an obvious mark as you're driving through Mexico is that your plates will be from a US state not a Mexican state Therefore you'll stick out like a sore thumb By the way, like I said in the last show once you've reached the country you're gonna settle in you've got between 30 and 90 days to register That car pay the taxes on it and get some new plates For that Latin country and you will need a lawyer to do that for you And another thing if you have a nice car up in the station You're thinking about bringing it down simply because it's a late model or four by four or whatever You always have to balance that against what you could get by selling it in the states versus what one just like it Claws down here in Latin America. And you know, I hear this refrain quite often. They say Johnny, but I take such good care of my cars

[02:21] I've got a 2005 Dodge Ram in perfect condition with only 26,000 miles on it. I really want to bring it down. It's my baby I just know I'll never find anything like it down in Latin America Well, I hear stuff like that from expat wannabes and gonna bees all the time And you know what you say might be true But remember there's a lot of old guys and old ladies down here who haven't been driving their cars And they're sitting in garages and eventually they get the cobwebs dusted off them They get pulled out of the garage and sold which is why I always recommend you stay away from the used car dealers I found that the used car dealers down here are worse than the ones up in the states if that's possible They know every detailing trick in the book and how to make a motor sound and look good Even if it isn't and they'll roll back the odometer too

[03:07] And there's no one to call and no one to sue if you find out that's been done And there's a real epidemic of that going around when it comes to cars that have been driven down from the states Which is why I almost always recommend you buy a car. That's been sold initially from a dealer down here They call that in the ads and such they Hensia which means the agency in other words the car was initially purchased in Latin America when it was brand new at a real Bonafide car dealership agency, you know like Honda Kia Ford Audi Mercedes Whatever then at least you can be sure that the car wasn't purchased as a wreck up in the states Then shipped or driven down bond owed repaired and restored down here Those are the cars you want to stay away from but how do you know? Sure?

[03:53] There's some nice ones that pop through once Well, I mean a gringo driving a nice car down is the perfect case But that's really a hundred to one shot with those kind of odds. It's almost impossible to find a car like that Besides if a gringo is gonna go through all that trouble to drive it down or have it shipped He's not gonna sell it when it gets here So the odds aren't good the other 99 out of 100 cars that come in from the states were Generally Rex bought at an auction for cheap Maybe even scrapped and that's exactly why they bring them down to Latin America for the cheap labor To put them back together and do the body work, etc And believe me the mechanics and body men down here can really make them look like new You know you hear a lot of stories about used cars down here In fact, the famous captain mango told me a story the other day about a guy

[04:41] We both know who bought one of those cars that had been shipped down from the states. He thought it was a great deal He paid something like fifteen thousand US for it. And it was a fairly late model BMW 5 series SUV That's their top-of-the-line SUV and new probably 50 or 60 grand for that year A couple years old probably was worth 30 now. This one was very low mileage and looked absolutely pristine I saw it myself. It was impressive and for a second when I heard he paid only 15 G's for it I thought man, I'm jealous. I want one of those now apart from the fact That's not the kind of car you want to drive down here Sure, it's luxury all the way, but you know, you're setting yourself up as a mark It's what every up-and-coming latin wants to drive, you know, because it's all about the show yet

[05:30] It's also what every bad guy and no good Nick wants to steal. But you knew that already, right? anyway as captain mango relates our Mutual friend bought that car and after a couple of months things started going wrong a little thing here and a little thing there And you know buying original parts for a BMW SUV like that Probably cost four times as much as buying them for a Nissan or a Toyota Then came the last straw He's driving it on a long-distance trip to the beach and starts raining All of a sudden the water starts pouring through the sunroof causing as you might imagine a small disaster in the interior of the car now you have to imagine to take off and replace a Sunroof with original BMW parts for that model, you know, they're complicated electric things with servo motors and stuff and

[06:19] To do it right not screw around with silicone caulk and all that. Well, you're gonna add a couple of grand I'm thinking though I could be wrong I'm usually pretty bad at these things and underestimate Anyway, you get the point right now It's a testament as to the craftsmanship of the body workers down here in Latin America How well they can make a car look even bring it back to its original luster affair. It's been totaled That's how they can get the cars down here so cheaply They've been in wrecks and often the frames bent or out of whack, you know They buy them cheap on these auction sites up in the States So those high taxes anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of a car's value Are pretty much a non-issue when a car has been scrapped or totaled and it says so right on the title By the way, no matter what car you buy down here in Latin America

[07:07] It's got a completely new title in Spanish issued from the Latin country you bought it in Now if you could see the original US title, you know, if it was rector scrapped, right? Well, the seller is never gonna make that available to you No, I know there are ways to check the history of a car back in the States by having its VIN number But it's a rare thing for the average consumer here in Latin America Anyway to ever do that in fact, I've never met a single Latin person who knew a system like that even existed Which is why it's so easy to hide the fact that cars come down here as wrecks Just imagine the profit margin you can build into that car once you've had it completely redone When you can hire as many excellent body guys as you want for 15 to 25 bucks a day Nope, not an hour a day

[07:53] And so the only big money that's got to go into a car like that is if for example The headlights were bashed out or you're in need of other original parts that can't be fabricated here Now any of you listeners who've done body work You know if a car's frame or body has been bent even if they try to twist it back to normal It's never perfect and they do have heavy-duty hydraulic machines that do that You know kind of works the end result can look pretty damn good, but nothing quite fits the same So I repeat stay away from cars that are brought down from the states So then how can you tell one that's here from the states versus one that was purchased originally from a dealership in Latin America? Well, there are two very easy ways

[08:39] One is the cars that originally came from a dealership here in Latin America all have their speedometers and odometers in kilometers So therefore if you see one that's in miles or miles per hour That's an American one that's been brought down and repaired one by the way a car that's been brought down from the states It's always slightly less expensive Maybe 10% or more than the exact same one that was bought new at a dealership down here in Latin America And the seller can do that because as the car came through most likely as a wreck or scrapped He paid almost no import tax and there's a second very easy way to tell if a cars come in from the states Just look at the cars back panel or trunk for that chrome insignia or sticker Indicating it came from a dealership in the states For example, Jack Seville's Ford Connecticut or Ransom Pontiac Cleveland

[09:29] So then you might ask if the car has a US dealership sticker or logo on it Why don't they just take it off and just bondo it up so as to give the illusion that it's not a car driven down From the states being that in this case, it's kind of the gringo disadvantage The car actually loses points and is less valuable However, that doesn't seem to be the case not with local Latin customers Anyway, who make up ninety nine point nine percent of the car buying public. The truth is Latin buyers don't seem to care at all if the car came from a local Latin dealer or from the states To them all that matters is the car looks good drives nice and the price is right So in again It's only us gringles and expats who put the time and effort into thinking about such things as where the car came from and why

[10:17] You shouldn't buy one that comes from the US What we're talking about right now is not at all on the radar for Latin car buyers They have no idea or don't want to know that the car They just spot could very well have been totaled or a wreck How they can know anyway when they get the car it almost always looks great Like I've said many times before there is no Latin consumer reports Latins don't investigate things they buy what their neighbors buy and if possible try to get one up on them In fact the other day I checked a consumer reports article on the internet The title went something like this the 10 most unreliable cars and trucks on the market today These are the cars and trucks that have gotten the worst owner ratings for their frequency of repairs and problems and such So number one 2015 and 16. It was the Toyota Tacoma

[11:06] You know that big bruiser that's so massive and boxy almost everyone has a terrible time maneuvering it into a regular parking place I know my sisters would never give it a shot Anyway on that consumer report demerit list it was neck-and-neck with another rhinoceros loser the Chevy Suburban Now let me give you one guess well two guesses as to the two most popular cars rich Latin Americans Outfit their bodyguards in naturally the two worst rated vehicles The Tacoma and the Suburban what else yep you see bodyguards standing next to them in Starbucks and I hop parking lots all the time Oh and in those parking lots you'll see other battleship sized cruisers to Chevy Tahoe's and GMC Yukon's

[11:51] The biggest most macho the usual suspects are also the perennial favorites of the pretentious jerks who have bodyguard brigades Surprise surprise they're on that consumer report list too Not to mention on that feces list you have the Dodge Ram which is huge with the upscale macho crowd along with the Jeep Renegade Which just goes to show that people with money often don't have much gray matter I mean come on these guys have money and power and you'd think they'd know better They'd do some research, but like I said there is no Spanish version of consumer reports I mean come on. It's been around 50 years and still hasn't made it down here yet in fact I've never met a Latin person who's ever heard of it details details, huh? So again, that's not to say there aren't some decent cars coming down from the US

[12:39] But you're never gonna know which ones they are because they're all gonna look nice when they're for sale on lot Now you might be wondering why I talked so much about cars here in Latin America because I got so many emails about them How about this one this one's from Dwayne? At least I think it's from Dwayne got his name cut off in the email somehow says dear Johnny. I'm down in Mexico I came down here before I found your show and I have to say you're right about most things Concerning Mexico, but you know for all the bad things happen in here There is some good and it's still a hell of a lot better than living up in Arizona in the big brother world Where I hail from I just hope to God the Social Security Administration doesn't pull a fast one Like the rumor that's been going around people are saying soon enough

[13:26] They'll pass a law that says you have to live six months up in the States or they'll cut you off from Social Security Now I know it's only a rumor But just look at the Canadian big brother example They say if you don't live up in Canada for at least five months a year They cut you off from the national health I say when you're down here living in Mexico or anywhere in Latin America, I suppose screw the national health You're right When you say it's a fifth to a sixth as cheap as it is up in the States or wherever you have to pay for In a first world without it being subsidized, but back to the point Johnny Here's something about having a car in Mexico that almost no green gringos No, but first let me clarify a few things about residency in Mexico Temporary and permanent now your resident temporal is good for anywhere from one to four years and upon expiration

[14:17] It's automatically kind of renewed Or you can apply for a permanent residency which gives one permanent status without having to reapply over and over again However, this all does have a bearing on owning cars here in Mexico I'll get to that in a second But I want to say that when you apply for a permanent residence You can skip the temporary if you want But you have to prove that you have a residence in Mexico and meet certain income requirements as with all Latin permanent residency programs And of course, there's a process now to be followed which includes real proof of income coming from an outside source and Fingerprints being taken etc. Etc. And you know when it comes to us gringos living here The Mexican government has its own stupid form of big brother, too

[15:03] Oddly enough it only seems to apply to us not the locals Now as far as owning a car as a temporary resident You're allowed to keep the car that you drive here titled in the USA In other words, you can have a car from Texas or Minnesota Whatever and still have it in Mexico no need to go through the process of getting it retitled with Mexican plates Which believe me is a nightmare But get this if you're a permanent resident you kind of get penalized because they don't allow you to have a vehicle Titled in the US with US plates ass backwards as they say although there's no such term in Spanish I don't think but get this as a permanent resident in Mexico You can import a vehicle, but you must pay a fee to get it in which is a minimum of fifteen hundred dollars US

[15:51] That's the minimum and that vehicle must be at least eight years old I know that sounds sort of ridiculous, but the explanation I've been getting from authorities and cops and such Even car dealers here in Mexico is that there are now so many gringos here in Mexico I think you hit the number at one point five million if they were all allowed to bring in late model cars Duty-free or somewhat duty-free that would virtually kill the new and late model car business here for the retailer So they stick it to us and say that we can bring a vehicle in we got to pay that fifteen hundred bucks And the car must be at least eight years old, but that's not all it also must be a NAFTA that's nafta. We all remember that stupid Accord was supposed to make goods and services cheaper, right?

[16:39] They called it free trade, but there's no such thing as a free lunch Well, here's one way that NAFTA agreement stuck it to us Mexican gringos Listen to this if you're a permanent resident and bring a car in it must be eight years old and must be a NAFTA certified vehicle Do you know what that is does anybody know what that is well? I'll tell you that means it must be made in a country that signed an after Accord Meaning the US, Canada or Mexico now that also means if it's Japanese made or Korean made Or made in the UK or Europe that would be Range Rover Mercedes BMW body pugeot Renault Fiat That means those European cars as well as Toyotas Mazas Honda's Kia's high on days, etc are excluded and you can't bring them in

[17:25] Well, you can but you'll pay such a high import tax that you might as well buy one at a dealer down here And yes, they have dealerships for all those cars here. So I just wanted to throw that at you, Johnny Love the show kind of makes me wish I'd have found you a lot sooner Who knows I'd probably be south of the border to I mean south of the Mexican border signed Well, it's cut off, but I think it was Dwayne now you mentioned NAFTA That's the North American free trade agreement and that was signed only by the US Canada and Mexico didn't include any of the Latin countries south of the Mexican border So all that stuff about cars and imports for NAFTA and non NAFTA countries doesn't apply when bringing a car in South of the Mexican border though I'm glad Dwayne you shed a little light on the way things are in Mexico regarding importing cars

[18:11] Though I guess to some people it's as muddy as ever, huh? However at the beginning of the show today, we're talking about renting cars here in Latin America Yes, you can rent a car at the usual suspects Hertz Avis and stuff They're all at the big international airports or quite nearby But believe me you don't get any kind of deals by running at those places However, there are a lot of independent car rental companies Usually tucked away in neighborhoods just outside the big major airports throughout Latin America Where you could often get deals at half the price of Hertz or National or Avis And you know some of those mom-and-pop car rental agencies have what you might call Rent-a-rec style cars, you know cars that have the usual Latin America scratches and dents

[18:57] But who cares really unless of course you're on a business trip or a date and you have to impress somebody, huh? So how much are we talking about per day? Well, the cheapest I've ever seen rental cars go for here in Latin America is around 30 bucks a day And of course you have to add the insurance on to that Usually another five to ten bucks a day. However, if you have a platinum credit card or American Express They'll usually cover the insurance for you and you won't have to check that box But typically you'll pay maybe 40 to 60 dollars a day to rent a car down here And if it's for a week or more or long term, probably around thirty dollars a day Of course, those aren't mom-and-pop prices You'll pay a lot more if you're at the usual first world franchises like Hertz or Avis

[19:42] And you know occasionally gringles will show me a newspaper clipping from a Miami or Chicago newspaper Or the internet saying that one of the biggies like National or Hertz is offering some kind of rental deal for 99 bucks a week that would be somewhere around 15 bucks a day. Well, you're not gonna get that kind of deal here in Latin America I've never seen it In fact, I've known people who've gone for that $99 a week deal in the States and there's a lot of extra charges Believe me though. The ad says 99 bucks a week. That's a kind of a loss leader Come on so best thing to do just go on OLX.com if you speak a little Spanish and check out car rentals, you'll be able to find the best deals there That's where you'll see all the mom-and-pop car rental agencies advertising Oh and you can rent motorcycles and scooters here in Latin America, too And I know for a fact some Harley Davidson agencies will rent you Harley and a few off the books agencies

[20:33] Will rent them too. Yep, and you can rent yourself a bicycle also on OLX.com And don't forget almost all Latin countries now have olx.com. It's their version of the Craigslist So yes, you do have a lot of rental options now since we're talking about rental cars Let me read you some excerpts of an article that came out recently in the British newspaper the Daily Mail It's entitled is your rental car spying on you It starts by saying it's usually the first thing anyone does in a rental car plug in their smartphone However, IT experts have warned that users could be accidentally revealing everything from their text messages to their addresses to all their financial information, too the FTC officials today urged renters to always delete their personal information when they return a

[21:24] Rental car, but the question is how do you do it? And how do you do it permanently the article warns? They've got your data as soon as you connect your smartphone including text messages Home and work addresses phone numbers and potentially everything you've got on your smartphone Lisa Weintraub Schifferle attorney for the Department Division of Consumer and Business Education says when I rent a car It's fun to get all the bells and whistles like navigation hands-free calls text streaming music and even web browsing But what most people know is that when you enter the car's infotainment system, it'll store personal information It may keep the locations you entered in your GPS where you visited and everywhere you travel in that car And if you connect a mobile device the car will keep your mobile phone number call and message logs even the contacts and text messages

[22:15] However, the answer is simple just delete that information She says but unless you delete that data before you return the car other people can view it including future renters and rental employees Even hackers she even warns not to connect your mobile phone or devices to the infotainment system just for charging them It's safer to use a cigarette lighter adapter to charge devices instead of the car's USB port She says so then how do you delete your information from our rental car? Well, you go to the infotainment system settings menu to find a list of devices that have been paired with the system Locate your own devices and follow the prompts to delete them the owner's manual in the rental car company may have more information About how to delete your data, but you probably will have to ask them to get that information So there you have it yet one or two more things to worry about and think about this when you're

[23:05] Traveling and hooking up your devices if there are hackers and no good nicks sweep in those systems They'll know you're away from home and for how long of course for those idiots who are posting their life history and all their Happy meals and bowel movements on Facebook. It doesn't matter does it by the way talk to an IT nerd friend of mine recently And he said you know what the problem with all this is Rental car companies will be tracking you on GPS and your speed So if you speed run a yellow light or do a Chicago roll, which you will because it is a rental car, right? They'll put your stuff in a big database and next time you go rent a car They won't let you or they'll just charge you an extra fee because they deem you a higher risk Just like insurance companies do after you get into an accident So that's where we're heading with all this and the easy answer drive a 1982 Ford Fairlane

[23:54] Or any car that doesn't have a map screen and GPS or a USB port And I'll tell you this if you go to a mom-and-pop car rental place here in Latin America Three-quarters of the cars on the lot that you have to choose from will be of the older non trackable type Okay, no upset about that now I like to mention something that Confuses people a little bit when they fly down to Latin America or any country nowadays You have to have a return flight and we talked about in a past show a service called fly onward calm Or you can actually rent a return ticket for nine dollars and ninety nine cents And you do that if you're gonna buy a one-way ticket say what? Yep, people used to buy one-way tickets all the time But now when you go to the airport, they'll ask you for a return ticket. You can't fly one way anymore

[24:42] You have to have a return flight and that's because all countries have a limit on the amount of days You can stay on the tourist visa and in Latin America. That's usually 90 days So when you travel to Latin America, for example, you have to show a return ticket when you check in at the airport That shows you're gonna come back within 90 days However, some people don't know when they want to return for example If they're coming down to a Latin country and applying for residency in that case You can't always predict how many days you're gonna be down and in other cases For example when a person comes down just wants to explore and check things out They don't want to have a definite return date. However, like I said at the airport, they don't care about that So you can still get a one-way ticket But in order to comply with airport and country regulations You can go to that website flyonward.com and buy or actually they say on that website

[25:32] You're renting a ticket for that return flight. Now, it might sound weird even complicated and quasi-legal However, a lot of people are doing it and some attendees to my Exped Insiders seminar have done it In fact, one person sent me an email with his own feedback after using that system He says dear Johnny in regards to flyonward.com and buying or renting a ticket for $9.99 It worked like a charm and the iron is I was never asked for a return ticket at the check-in or customs in Guatemala Just a note about that site though He says the fly onward website is totally automated and if support or response to a question is required Then expect to get a little frustrated the best thing to do he says is to request a 24-hour ticket just prior to arriving at the airport or

[26:21] Request a ticket later if pre-planning your trip is needed so there's a few pointers if you're coming down on a one-way ticket and you're gonna fulfill that return ticket requirement using flyonward.com By the way, our emailer says the irony is that he was never asked for a return ticket at the check-in or customs Well, that's understandable because According to flyonward.com you're automatically registered in airline computers as having a return ticket So there's no need for them to mention it to you to people in the airport and customs and such It just looks like a regular return ticket. They don't know was rented for just 24 hours for $9.99 Okay, we're getting towards the end of the show now And I like to remind everyone at whatever stage you are in your preparations for your plan B

[27:09] Which we all know means get out of Dodge and boat with your feet Well, if you're up there wondering what to do and you haven't got boots on the ground yet The very next best thing is to enroll in my expat essentials course Just go to expatplanb.com to check out my nine-hour course It's the next best thing to get boots on the ground www.expatplanb.com This is the expat files living in Latin America If you want me to help you out with your own plan B Just schedule a one-on-one consult send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to learn how to move forward with your own plan B from right up there in the states go to www.expatplanb.com and check out my three videos. See ya nos vemos