So last month after being told I was not allowed to bring in a car that was more than 10 years old, I thought it would have to be sent back to the United States. I went to the port and was able to come to a solution with the officials. If we can call it an "agreement" to support the cause of customs officers security and protection of the country, by "donating" about $800 which is just over Q6000 here in the local currency.
In other words a bribe which was asked for and paperwork was written on changed the rules because I was willing to pay. It would have cost me about $1200 to ship the car back to the U.S. for freight and towing as well as port services... If I chose not to ship it back it would become property of Guatemala and they would then auction it off.
Lesson learned, do not try bringing in a car older than 10 years or you will run into problems, I may have been lucky that they offered me a solution to keep the car here, but I feel they do this sort of thing all of the time. I'm just glad to have my car now. Maybe next time I'll just buy it here.
Oh, I also had to pay 17% of the cars value for taxes. They valued the car at $8,500 even though I payed $3,700. Apparently they have a guide that states all vehicles values. Obviously overvalued. It's pretty expensive to bring in vehicles to Guatemala. Next time, I'll just buy a car here.
