Hi Kyla, thanks for reaching out. We worked with Suzi Santiago’s service (https://es.suzisantiago.com/) to purchase the car. They helped us secure the RUT, contact private sellers, and complete mechanical inspections. I’ve remained in touch with them, and they’ve helped me resolve other issues that have come up while owning a car in Chile, such as incurring unpaid tolls, finding spare parts, and preparing for border crossings. They helped me resolve these issues. I recommend their service, though be prepared that there will be research and work on your part to move forward and complete the process of purchasing a car.

Also, I lucked out by finding a seller who would accept a transfer of US dollars from my US bank account to their US bank account. I still don’t know how I would have managed to easily procure and inexpensively transfer the CLP required to purchase the car. In retrospect, I should have planned that out before committing to a car purchase, as I could have committed to buying a car that I didn’t have the mechanisms to actually purchase.

One last thing, from my view, the used car market in Santiago appears to have cooled some given worldwide economic headwinds. I don’t have data to back it up, but I hope you find a more friendly buyers market than we did.

Good luck.