I got this awesome text message the other day:
“His name is El Gonzo and he is a blue Geo Tracker.” Ashley and Lindsay are buying him together. Sweet!
Here is my car at Irazu Volcano. She’s been around the block a few times!
I only have ONE, just ONE friend here who I regularly hang out with who has a car. ONE. This means that I am the person who is always driving places. Riding the bus in Costa Rica is a b*tch and takes forever, so I happily volunteer to come out to wherever my friends are 90% of the time. Now my friends can come out to my cute mountain town and sneak on to tennis courts with me. Their world is about to open up and our adventures are about to get even more exciting. Score!
I think that technically you can get a ticket if you dont have your license plate screwed into the front bumper (plus it probably wont pass the yearly inspection)….you could get away with it on the “i am a tourist/girl ” factor but it may be a good idea to screw it if you havent yet
I failed Riteve because of that despite the cops telling me it was OK to keep it inside. It was easy and free to attach it to the bumper, though. I was just being LAZY!!
I’m thinking it’s expensive to have and maintain a car in Costa Rica? What is the yearly RTV cost? How about insurance? I know gas is about $5.00, correct?
It’s expensive to buy or import a car. Gas is about $5 or $6 a gallon. I can’t remember what I paid for Riteve – it was either free or practically free, but you have to pass it the first time or they do charge for the 2nd inspection. Insurance depends on the car – for full coverage mine is less than $200 a year. Taxes are also less than $200 a year. Maintenance – I’ve had several things done for free or super cheap like get the fender replaced, repair the muffler, repair a flat tire, get the fluids changed… except oil. That runs about $30 for filter and oil in the mountains. Down near Belen they charged $50.
You have to be smart when choosing a car down here. You don’t want to get something that will be difficult to repair (like no used parts available in country). My friend who has a ’89 Mitsubishi Montero just shelled out 1000s and waited TWO months for some part of the engine to be completely replaced. They had to ship a part from the States to fix it.