Deferred Maintenance:

Costa Rican’s generally do not maintain their cars well. On the outside they generally look great and cars almost always have seat covers to protect the interior.  The real problem is with the things you don’t see. Several Tico’s have shared their thought pattern with me about car repairs:  “If I’m going to sell it, then I don’t need to fix it.”

The high cost, lack of parts are the main reason for the deferred maintenance. I generally expect any used car car to need lots of little to medium sized repairs.  My rough guide is allow $300 to $500 per year of age.  For example 1 year old car might need $300 of repairs.  For a 5 year old car for each year budget $1,500 to $2,500 for repairs.

No matter what you buy, unless it is less than 2 years old, plan on buying a battery.  It is quite common for a Tico to buy rebuilt batteries as they are much cheaper but they don’t last anywhere near as long.