Long Term Vehicle Storage in Panama

Submitted by zchan88 on Mon, 02/20/2012 - 08:15

During the summer we will be forced to put our travels on hold while we return to the states for a series of weddings. During this four month period we would like to find safe storage for our vehicle in Panama. Does anybody has information in regards to long term storage of their vehicle in a foreign country, no matter which country it may have been? Prices, required paperwork for a vehicle permit extension etc...

#1 Thanks Zach I was just

Submitted by PaulTodd on Mon, 02/20/2012 - 11:52.

Thanks Zach

I was just about to post the exact same question. I have been madly searching the net with out much luck.

#2 Panama storage

Submitted by trektraveler on Sun, 02/26/2012 - 16:50.

How long, what type of veh? The paperwork you have is an importation temporal?

#3 Long term vehicle storage in Panama

Submitted by zchan88 on Thu, 03/01/2012 - 11:01.

We are driving a 2003 Astro Van. We are looking to store the vehicle for 4 months. When we arrive we will be getting a temporary import permit. I received this information from someone who stored their vehicle in Panama for 3 months.

" I stored my Land Rover Defender in Panama City for about 3 months. I paid USD 5.00 per day plus 7% tax. You get all the papers right there which you need to show to customs in Panama City to get a confirmation that you can leave Panama without your car (I had a note in my passport about temporary importing a car to Panama). This way, even if you fly out of the country, you don't get troubles when you come back. Make sure that when you come back you get a NEW temporary import permit and not (like me) an extension."

$5 per day for us is too much. I am looking into other options. The PDF file he sent me is for a company called Crawley. It looks privately run. I'm trying to find out more about how the temporary vehicle permit will work. When I find out more info I will post it to the forum.

Zach

#4 Vehicle storage

Submitted by trektraveler on Thu, 03/01/2012 - 19:10.

Hi...

I am not sure who "Crawley" is ? ... was it Crowley..which is a shipper.

As I can see you have 2 major obstacles to overcome:

1. YOUR TEMPORARY IMPORTATION PERMIT IS ONLY VALID FOR 60 DAYS (you wish to store for 90!).

2. The $5 STORAGE FEE, MOST STORAGES WILL CHARGE AT LEAST $5, MAYBE YOU MAY FIND ONE CHEAPER, BUT IT MAY NOT BE RELIABLE?

TREKOFTHEAMERICAS HAS A REPRESENTIVE IN PANAMA, NEAR CLAYTON, MAYBE CONTACT THEM AT WWW.TREKAMERICAS.NET . THERE IS A QUESTIONAIRE, YOU CAN INQUIRE ABOUT THIS ON.

HAPPY TRAVELS, AND BEST OF LUCK.

TREKTRAVELER

#5 Thank you Trek Traveler.

Submitted by zchan88 on Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:49.

Thank you Trek Traveler.

Yes, it is Crowley who I received information from not Crawley. They are a shipping company.

The temporary vehicle import permit for Panama is 90 days according to a number of resources I've found. Although, I've also heard that officials at the boarder are not always consistent. Usually they'll match the import permit with the visa which is 90 days. I'm hoping to find out if there's a way to either extend or get a new permit to account for the extra 6 weeks I plan on being in the country. Either that, or find out how much a fine would be to get the car out of the country. I will post when I hear back from Trekamericas.net.

#6 contact Panama Passage

Submitted by Kristin on Sun, 02/26/2012 - 18:43.

Check out Panama Passage - they might have an answer for you.

#7 Trekoftheamericas Annual Expedition

Submitted by trektraveler on Mon, 02/27/2012 - 05:23.

I have traveled the Pan American Highway from USA to Ushuaia, Argentina 14 times in a RV (one time from Alaska). The route is never boring, a new adventure each time, and the shipping has changed over the years, orginally from Panama to Cartengena - then when there was a problem with Columbia, we shipped into Chile, and Peru. Even one time when the ferry was running from Panama to Columbia, we took this "to good to be true" ferry with our RV, cabins, and dinner show - all for $800 !! It went broke and was discontinued!!!

I will be glad to supply information to any travelers. I also have a Adventurelog available on PDF, and we are doing a annual Trekoftheamericas 10 vehicle expedition each August from McAllen, Texas - Love that Road!!

#8 costa rica storage

Submitted by sjmiller on Fri, 04/06/2012 - 08:02.

I found a decent way to store a vehicle in Costa Rica. You are allowed to suspend the temporary vehicle import paper if your car is stored in a registered govenment storage facility (Almacen Fiscal) These are run privately, and there are many by the San Jose airport. We shopped around and found one for 3$/ day. It seems pretty legit. So first, you store the vehicle, then you go to the customs office at the airport (aduana), and suspend the permit (this is free). Then you are allowed to leave the country. When you return, you go to the customs office to reinstate the remainder of the time you had left, then you pick up your vehicle and pay the storage warehouse. Seems pretty straightforward. We are storing our vehicle from mid April 2012 until we finish work (likely in September)- I should add that we have not done this yet. We only have talked to all of the people. I will write an update once the vehicle is stored next week with more detailed info on how it went.

#9 thanks!

Submitted by Kristin on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:16.

That is such helpful information - I added it to the Costa Rica page as well.

#10 Aaahhh !!! Thank you sjmiller

Submitted by math.mart on Sun, 04/08/2012 - 10:19.

Aaahhh !!! Thank you sjmiller for the valuable info !

I have been following this thread and waiting for updates. I am in the same situation in Costa Rica and want to store my motorcycle to return to Canada. It's been hard to get precise info on this. I will also store the motorycle starting mid-April until August - Sept. If you can post the name of the company you will be using that would be great. I will do some searching on my side and post an update here. $3 seems like a descent price for storage. Keep us posted !

#11 storage info.

Submitted by sjmiller on Tue, 04/10/2012 - 12:07.

Hi all,

I have had requests for more information. Here is the detailed blog update about our storage process. If you are going to do this, I suggest setting aside a few days to visit warehouses, and find somthing that suits your needs. We fly out the day after tomorrow, hope our truck is still there when we fly back down!

http://headsouth.travellerspoint.com/19/

-Susie and Paul

#12 We left our LandCruiser both

Submitted by Lostworldexpedition on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 11:55.

We left our LandCruiser both in Panama and Costa Rica while we traveled elsewhere. As mentioned above both countries will suspend the vehicle permit while the vehicle is at a government sponsored storage site. I know that Costa will suspend it indefinitely as long as the vehicle is in storage (we met a guy that had his vehicle in storage for 3 years). I regret not having written down the steps of what we did, but it wasnt terribly hard or complicated... mostly annoying bureaucratic stuff

Panama was about 5 bucks a day while Costa Rica was a little less. Whatever you do, do NOT forget to suspend the vehicle import permit. Both countries will make it quite annoying and expensive if you go over your permit length of stay (so will most countries in South America, we paid $324 in Ecuador for overstaying the permit by 1 day!).

#13 I did the exact same thing as

Submitted by math.mart on Sun, 04/29/2012 - 17:14.

I did the exact same thing as Susie and Paul (see post above) in Costa Rica and it worked fine.

Stored my motorcycle at the almecen fiscal "Coco's" which is pretty close to the San Jose Int airport. You can store it indoors (moto only) for $3/day. They give you a paper, with it you go to the customs office and they freeze your TIP for free.

Pretty simple.