The Cost of Owning a Car in Costa Rica

Since Buying a Car in Costa Rica about 10 months ago, we have gone through many of the motions of car ownership, including taxes, insurance, maintenance, and of course repairs. Anyone living in Costa Rica will tell you that the roads are rough and your car will take a toll. Our 14-year old Chevy Tracker has had an especially difficult past several months.

Since we bought it, we’ve been vagabonding around the country and have put on 15,000 miles. From the southern Pacific to the Caribbean coast, to northern Guanacaste and the mountains of the Central Valley, we’ve been on smooth highways, sandy beach trails, as well as some of the worst pothole-ridden roads in the country.

With that much travel, we feel lucky to still have four wheels on the ground, let alone a functioning car. This post will cover some of the regular maintenance costs anyone would encounter as well as specific issues we’ve faced since owning the Green Buggy.

 

Maintaining a Car in Costa Rica

General Ownership & Routine Maintenance Costs ($630 plus gas)

Annual Marchamo (registration & mandatory liability insurance): Marchamo is easily renewed at many banks in Costa Rica. Our cost: $230 (based on vehicle year, make, and model). Newer or high-end cars will be more. Marchamo is due at the end of the year (payable Nov. – Dec.).

Annual Riteve (vehicle inspection): We had heard horror stories about people needing many repairs to get their Riteve and were even warned when buying a car to make sure the Riteve was not about to expire. The general consensus after talking to a few people was to have a mechanic bring it in for you, so that’s what we did. We dropped off the car with a mechanic for a few days while he did some repairs, and waited for his phone call. Cost: $18 for actual Riteve + $20 service fee + cost of repairs (steering column, rear brakes, muffler welding; see costs below). The peace of mind of having the mechanic take care of it was worth every penny of the $20 fee.

Additional Insurance Coverage (purchased through INS, the national insurance company in CR): This of course is optional but we paid about $130 for an annual policy with a good amount of extra liability (no collision) coverage. Find a local agent to see what works for you.

Gas: Gas prices have been consistently above the $5 per gallon mark ($1.30+ per liter) for our time here. This makes the cost to fill our modest 17 gallon (64 liter) tank a wallet-hurting $80-90. Diesel is a little cheaper at about $4.75 per gallon ($1.25 per liter). The good news is that the price is the same at all gas stations because it’s government regulated so you don’t have to bother shopping around.

Oil Changes: Similar to gas, oil is expensive. At $8-10 per quart, an oil change done by a mechanic can run around $70 (5 quarts oil + filter); depending on where you live and what kind of car you have, it could be a little more or a little less. We’ve started buying the oil and doing it ourselves instead for about $50.

Air for Tires: One nice thing about Costa Rica is that you never pay for air. Pull into any gas station and the attendant will gladly check your pressure, even if you don’t buy gas.

Headlight or Blinker Bulbs: Also very easy, most of the larger gas stations have an inventory of the popular bulbs and other things like wipers, fluids, etc. They will also usually install them for free. Cost $6-12.

 

Picture
Spiffy new headlight assembly

 

Unexpected Repairs (Total ~ $725)

Serpentine Belt & Pulley: Unfortunately our belt went during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. If it had been just the belt, we would have been fine, but since all the parts’ stores were closed for the holidays (and then were backed up afterwards), we waited 10 days for the pulley to arrive. Total cost: $310. The lesson: If your car breaks down during one of the big holidays in Costa Rica like Christmas or Easter, don’t expect to see it anytime soon.

New Headlight & Assembly: The hot weather had dry-rotted the plastic fasteners holding in our headlight. We didn’t even want to try getting this from the parts’ store so we bought it on eBay for $40 and had some friends bring it down, then installed it ourselves.

New Battery: One thing about bumpy roads and hot conditions is that they can really take a toll on your battery. When ours died, we decided on a quality new one with a 2-year warranty. Cost: $120.

Tire Patch: We got tired of visiting the gas station every three days to add air and finally got it patched up for just $3. Look around and you will see dozens of tire repair shops along the road (Reparar de llantas).

New Steering Column: This was part of our necessary Riteve inspection repairs. The new one is actually a used part and doesn’t look much better than the old. Cost: $150 (parts & installation).

Rear Brake Pads: Also part of the inspection, but we thought we might need brakes anyway as they were starting to squeak. Cost: $50 (parts & installation).

Muffler Welding: It’s no wonder that most people who live in Nosara (where we’ve been living for the last couple months) have an ATV or a horse to get around. Many of the roads along the central and southern Nicoya Peninsula are basically like off-road trails, especially in the rainy season. Our muffler shook loose after hitting a few massive potholes just in time for inspection. Cost: $46.

Bolt installation (missing from steering column installation): The mechanic must have forgotten to install a cotter pin on the tie-rod end because we lost a bolt a few days after we picked it up. Fortunately the nearby gas station mechanic had a jar full of them and we were back on the road $6 later.

 

Bad Road in Costa Rica Picture
“Road” south of Nosara. Note the SUV stuck in the mud. Luckily it wasn’t us.

 

Overall, around $725 in unexpected repairs is probably less than we imagined over a ten month period for such an old car. We knew going into it that buying a used car in Costa Rica was a gamble and we would probably need to make some major repairs.

Through all of our car woes, it has helped that Matt is mechanically inclined. For example, when our muffler became unattached about an hour and a half from home, he MacGyvered some coiled up barbed wire from a nearby fence to temporarily hold it in position and prevent any more damage. Similarly, after the shop installed our new battery, we discovered that it was really loose and bouncing around. The missing steering column bolt is another good example of a careless installation. Last but not least, after our first oil change, we noticed that the filter that the mechanic used was about half the size that it should have been (it looked like a motorcycle filter).

By far the best thing we brought to Costa Rica was a bag full of tools and some backyard mechanic knowledge; it has saved us far more than the extra baggage fee we paid. Now to find out what that loud noise is coming from the front end . . . .

All in all, we don’t regret buying a car as it has given us the freedom to see so many parts of this amazing country. Maybe at some point though we’ll be able to upgrade to something a little newer, maybe even from this decade.

Update: After many years of faithful service, the Green Buggy was sold and we’ve since purchased a newer car. You can read about that experience here. Having a newer car has made a lot of difference with our overall maintenance costs. Really, all we’ve had to do is keep up with oil changes, get a new battery, and replace the tires. 

With a newer car though, there definitely is a bigger investment, plus the annual marchamo and insurance costs are higher. Overall though, we are happy to have a newer car and less worry while driving out on Costa Rica’s adventurous roads! 

How has your experience been maintaining a car in Costa Rica? Leave us a comment below

Want more information about living in Costa Rica? Check out our Living in CR category. 

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19 Comments

  1. Hi,
    My husband & I are planning to move to Cista Rica in the next year. We’Re currently thinking about driving from Texas. We are wondering if you or anyone you know have ever driven there. If so, what what is the drive like coming through Mexico from the U.S. relative to safety issues and road conditions? Anything you can share would be helpful.
    Thanks,
    Brenda Tucker

    1. Hi Brenda, We have not done the drive from the US to Costa Rica; we flew here. But there are definitely people doing it. When we were at the Panama border a few weeks ago, we talked to a guy from CA who was traveling all the way to South America in his truck. If you to some searching online (maybe search ‘overland travel’ in addition to driving from US to C. America because that’s a common search term), there are some websites/blogs of people sharing their experience and they often are very detailed and cover best routes, etc. This has come up in the Costa Rica expats Facebook groups too, I even remember a thread recently. Join the groups Expatriates in Costa Rica and Gringo Expats in Costa Rica if you haven’t already and then search old threads. Hope that helps!

  2. Hi there! My husband and I just moved to Costa Rica in July and have recently purchased a used car. Thanks to your blog, we understood the process better! Next up, we need to purchase voluntary additional insurance but aren’t sure how to find a local agent that can speak English. While we do speak some Spanish, we feel as though it would be best to have the options explained to us in English just to be sure we understand what we are (or aren’t) signing up for. Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! Pura vida!

    1. Hi Andrea, INS offers additional insurance and I think a couple of other companies might too but INS is the biggest. The best way to find an agent who speaks English is to ask around in your area. Other expats will know or you could ask in the local Facebook group for your area who people use. We found our agent through our mechanic who spoke English. The options are fairly similar to what we used to have available in the US, but our premium was much more affordable

      1. Thanks! We knew to look for INS but finding a rep is the key. Seems as though asking around is your best bet to finding anything reputable in CR – from rentable housing to restaurants to you name it. It’s just difficult when you’re new and in Chepe areas rather than a smaller town with many expats. Sadly, we haven’t found many friendly or helpful expats online. Thanks for your help!

  3. Hi Jenn & Matt –

    My boyfriend and I just returned from our trip in Costa Rica – your website was super helpful as we planned our trip! That said, we did rent a car and, as luck would have it, drove over a nail on our first day there and got a flat. The rental company charged us ~$150 for the one tire because they said they couldn’t repair it (the tear unfortunately was pretty bad). We have insurance through our credit cards and are planning to submit a claim, but that seemed high to us. The rental company said that tires are expensive in Costa Rica. Can you give us an estimate of how much tires cost in your experience? Thanks!

    1. Hi Jennifer, Bummer about the flat! It has been awhile since we have bought tires, but they are expensive here. I think we paid a little less than $500 for a set of 4 for our car. It could depend on where you had to get it done too. When we bought ours, we shopped around for a deal. Hope this helps and good luck.

  4. Hi. I’m hoping to move to CR in September and I want to buy a car. What do you think the cheapest I could expect to pay for a basic old 4×4? I know you are not a car dealer but I thought you might have some idea. 🙂 Ill only be using it for driving around Puerto viejo occasionally and in and out of San Jose to get essentials so I’m not sure I even need a 4×4.

    Thanks

    1. Hi Nicola, You can probably get a really old 4×4 (late 80s early 90s) for maybe $3,000-$4,000. But with something like that, you might want to rent occasionally for long trips to San Jose or other places. It would work for getting around town though. For something newer (like 10 years old), you’d probably pay around $10,000 or more for a 4×4. CRautos, like we mention above, is a good place to get a realistic price.

  5. Hi, glad you guys are living your dream, but would you say how much you initially paid the the car, and is that in USD .
    Terry
    United Kingdom

    1. Hi Mike, Yes, shipping companies could help you ship your car and belongings. We didn’t ship our stuff so aren’t sure of the details but a lot of people do that. Just be aware of Costa Rica’s high import tax on used cars.

  6. Can you update us on your vehicle experience? When did you buy it / when was this article written? Did you sell it? What was the purchase price- the sales price and how long? If not what would you sell it for if you got a new car? More repairs / maintenance / fuel cost / oil / tires etc? How many km have you driven and how many km/liter? What were the lawyer fees / transfer costs when you bought it?

    1. Hi David, This is an older article about the first car we bought. We have since bought two others. You can read our updated buying a car post for more details on that. We sold the Chevy Tracker for not very much but that was because the undercarriage was getting really rusted out and we just needed to get rid of it since we had already bought a new car. We ended up getting a 2015 Hyundai Tucson for our second one (2 years old at the time) because we wanted something new that wouldn’t need much, if anything, for repairs. We’re selling that right now to keep it new so that we get a good price for it on resale. We replaced it with a brand new Tuscon, because we liked the old one a lot. Lawyer fees are set by the government based on the value of the car, so they are more expensive for a newer vehicle.

  7. Hi Guys

    We just bought a brand new car from Toyota but have no idea where to get Costa Rican plates from. Any ideas of where we need to go to do this?

    Thanks

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