Recently I had my car shipped down and, for those who might be interested, below is the breakdown in costs (in pesos), and dollars where appropriate. The car is a 2005 Jeep Rubicon with 10,000 miles.
Impuestos Transferencia de Bienes y Servicios (ITBIS) 110,833.19
Impuestos Arancelanos 115,451.34
These were paid to the Colector de Aduanas.
An additional 3,340.00 was paid to the Direccion General de Aduanas for parking.
Another US $350.00 was paid to the shipping agent's representative for his services here.
And, finally, the actual shipping fees were US $1,600.00
When it came time to pay the registration, I was quoted just slightly over US $3,000.00. Unfortunately, I only had a couple of thousand dollars left and wasn't able to pay for the registration fee at that time and will have to make another trip to SD when I return.
Although much has been made about shipping a vehicle versus buying here in the DR, I am glad that I shipped my own car. If I were to buy something comparable here in the DR I would be paying a minimum of US $25,000.00 I'm sure. In the end I will have payed a total of US $12,100.00 for shipping my own vehicle, and I feel more comfortable with having my own car.
I was also extremely surprised that nothing whatsoever was missing from the car. I had pretty much written off my stereo system when I shipped the car. However, everything was intact when it arrived, with the exception of the face plate for the CD player, which the agent's rep had, but forgot to tell me about.
One of the downsides to shipping, however, is that they will not quote you the taxes and fees before shipping your car. The arguement goes that Customs must first make sure that the car you said you have shipped is the car that actually arrived in port. They then assess the value of the car and determine the taxes and fees. I understand that many people have shipped their vehicles and ended up simply leaving them at the port after finding out what the cost would be.
Another scam is that the agent's rep was running around paying tips (bribes) in order to expedite my paperwork. However, I noticed that each time he did so, I ended up being serviced last. I finally told him to stop and that I was not going to cover the cost of these tips.
All in all a frustrating experience, but glad I did it nonetheless.
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