The seller offered me this truck earlier before he posted this thread and I was considering it for my inventory and have spoken with him. I can facilitate this deal.
From someone who has imported 8 trucks from Colombia there are a lot of barriers in terms of bringing in a Colombian truck. The first barrier actually would be just wiring the money and getting the truck in your name which as far as I know neither can be done without physically being in Colombia. Transferring the truck into your name can take anywhere from one week to 3 months. It is nothing like buying a car in the USA. Once you purchase the truck realize that there is no insurance for these older vehicles so if the truck is stolen or damaged you are out your investment. I mitigate this somewhat by shipping the trucks in insured containers from central Colombia. This adds cost to the shipping. Also until the truck is in the container it is at risk.
Setting that aside the seller does not own the truck and it is not in his name and is selling it for a friend. This is common in Colombia and I have spoken with the seller and he seems like a legitimate guy although I again I do not know him and can not vouch for him either way. I do not believe the seller has ever exported a truck before.
The truck itself looks good in photos. It does have something that bothers me that should be disclosed which is it has chevrolet adapted power steering and the driver's side fender has been cut. I bought a 1979 olive FJ43 sight unseen myself last year and the seller did not disclose this and it cost me money to repair. This required us to source the Toyota steering parts and replace and paint match the fender.
Also on every hard top truck I have done I have had to remove the hard top and repair the windshield rust and tub rail rust. Once you get into this along with the fender I would just go ahead and repaint the entire truck.
Were I to do this truck for my inventory I would fly out to where the seller's representative has the truck, inspect the chassis number and data plate and especially the paperwork. Meet the real owner of the truck. Give a partial deposit from my Colombian bank. Once the papers cleared to my name I would pay the seller all the remaining funds and I would then ship the truck from where it is over 10 hours to where my shop is in Medellin.
I would then spend 30 to 60 days fixing the power steering, going through all the deferred maintenance and repainting all or part of the truck. maybe do a soft top.
Get all the export papers done. Then ship the truck in insured container 2 days to the coast. Truck would arrive eventually in Tampa in 3 weeks. Then I would drive the truck to the county DMV get it approved and pay the nearly $1000 in taxes to get it titled in Florida.
Likely my Tampa mechanic would spend few days to a week with the truck fixing any things we missed.
At that point I would have a $40,000 to $50,000 truck depending on what we did to it.
I have two invoices in front of me and pick up my Nissan Patrol in a few days. Total shipping is $5500 for a 20 foot container. I usually send 2 at a time in a 40 foot container which drops it to $4500. That is my hard cost and does not includes costs I have for having a registered Colombian export company and a bonded LLC in the USA.
I am NOT saying any of this to throw anyone off of this truck or any truck in Colombia. If you have contacts in Colombia to import the truck that is great. Maybe the seller here can assist you.
If you don't have contacts please realize the real difficulties and costs involved. There is a huge misperception on the side of gringos and Colombians in terms of what needs to be done. Any comparison to Japan, Europe or Australia import process I believe is false ( I have not imported from those countries only Colombia). And yes I have difficulties even on the Florida side.
With the permission of the seller's representative I would gladly assist anyone who wants to purchase this truck. I posted this not to put anyone off or detract from the seller's thread.
If someone seriously wants to buy this truck just please read my post here and be realistic about the costs involved and likely a 60 to 90 day timeframe for delivery.
Again no harm intended to buyers who are interested in Colombian sourced trucks and none intended to the seller representative. I work with both gringo buyers and Colombian sellers all the time and I need both to run my business.
hey why everybody said that???? Hahahaha