Where I live in Texas, I often see caravans of cars pulling others to Mexico and Central America. Most vehicles are in poor condition.
Despite this, in Guatemala most of the cars that circulate on the streets are “rolled” or brought from the United States. These cars can be a bargain or your worst nightmare.
Here I share five practical tips to avoid that the purchase of a wheeled car leaves you without money and disappointed:
4. Check the equipment
A great advantage of models brought from the United States is that they tend to come with better equipment than agency models in Guatemala.
Because by law all cars in the United States must carry airbags, some wheeled cars sometimes even carry curtain bags, something that is only seen in luxury agency cars.
The same goes for the transmissions: most are automatic and with the traffic of Guatemala today, your foot may appreciate it. Now there are cars that have up to eight speeds in automatic transmission.
The equipment is an advantage if it really works, but a blown airbag or a bad transmission is of no use.
5. If it is worth less than in the States, it is for something …
Many times the cars they sell to you in Guatemala are far below what they would cost in the United States. How to establish what is a reasonable price? When you add the import cost and taxes, a good car can often be more expensive if it is rolled.
To check the prices in the United States, use the Kelly Blue Book site ( www.kbb.com ) to have parameters of the cost of the car based on the year, condition, mileage, etc.
If it is cheaper in Guatemala than what the site tells you it costs in the United States, water… It must be for a reason.
