I?m with a stuborn cold here at home and I was reading some posts on the living forum and ran into the one regarding marbete and revista. Guys, you have it drop dead easy in DR. I just don't recall even doing something when lived over there, had someone from the office had this things sorted out.
Here in Chile we have pretty much the same process, but is quite stressfull, time consuming and expensive, specially the revista.
Here you must have your car inspected on private run technical inspection plants, which have very modern equipment for checking light alignment, brake operation, suspension settings, gas emissions, etc. There?s a year calendar subject to the end number of your car licence plate, March thru December. The thing is that the least time it takes to check your car is 1 hour (at the end of the month or previous to vacations it can take hours). You are charged a fixed rate of $35 dollars for cars and $25 for motorcycles. But you can get rejected by having a bad light bulb, visible smokes from the exhaust, poor braking, bad suspension, or whatever in the mood of the inspector. Then you have 15 days to correct it and come back, sometimes having to pay again. Overriding the system is scarce and if possible it costs over $150. Should you be stoped by the police, you get a ticket with a $120 fine, and your car can be towed away as it is not allowed to do so without this certification.
The marbete, know here as ?circulation permit?, definetely can?t be overrun as this is a major income for local governments (we have comunas run by majors, each one trying to get their inhabitants to pay within their comuna) The thing is that this process runs every year from January until march 31. The Chilean way states that 80% of the people leave this process for the last 2 days, when the thing turns to be chaotic. Also consider that each car, model, equipment, year, etc, has its own value, expressed on a percentage that ranges from 2,7% to 3,5% over the state calculated commercial value of the vehicle. As an example this year I paid $350 for my 2005 Nissan Pathfinder and $110 for my 2004 KTM 950 Adventure S motorcycle. BUT, before paying, you must buy a compulsory Third Party Accident Insurance Policy, another $30 to $60 bucks per vehicle and have a valid revista.
At last, but not least, here in Chile all main roads and highways have been put on private hands, and we have to pay tolls for using them. We have urban highways that work with tags and freeflow technology (you get charged upon passing under a special portal) so we have to pay extra for using them and going from one place to another in this city (nearl 7 mill people, 600 thousand cars, 12.000 buses). In my case, I conmute riding my bike, as I get charged 40% the rate of cars, but still have to pay nearly $30 per month in ?tags?, in the Nissan it would be nearly $70. Doing the math having a car here costs at least:
840 bucks a year for moving around using urban highways
350 bucks per year to be able to use my car
50 bucks for the insurance
35 bucks for the technical inspection
And yet haven?t considered car insurance, normal maintenance, gasoline consumption (BTW gas here is $1,28 per litre), nor paying other tolls when driving to the beach or somewhere else (i.e. the 490 kms highway from Santiago to La Serena has 9 tolls that sum up nearly $30 each way!!!)
So please, let me say you are in paradise!!!!
Here in Chile we have pretty much the same process, but is quite stressfull, time consuming and expensive, specially the revista.
Here you must have your car inspected on private run technical inspection plants, which have very modern equipment for checking light alignment, brake operation, suspension settings, gas emissions, etc. There?s a year calendar subject to the end number of your car licence plate, March thru December. The thing is that the least time it takes to check your car is 1 hour (at the end of the month or previous to vacations it can take hours). You are charged a fixed rate of $35 dollars for cars and $25 for motorcycles. But you can get rejected by having a bad light bulb, visible smokes from the exhaust, poor braking, bad suspension, or whatever in the mood of the inspector. Then you have 15 days to correct it and come back, sometimes having to pay again. Overriding the system is scarce and if possible it costs over $150. Should you be stoped by the police, you get a ticket with a $120 fine, and your car can be towed away as it is not allowed to do so without this certification.
The marbete, know here as ?circulation permit?, definetely can?t be overrun as this is a major income for local governments (we have comunas run by majors, each one trying to get their inhabitants to pay within their comuna) The thing is that this process runs every year from January until march 31. The Chilean way states that 80% of the people leave this process for the last 2 days, when the thing turns to be chaotic. Also consider that each car, model, equipment, year, etc, has its own value, expressed on a percentage that ranges from 2,7% to 3,5% over the state calculated commercial value of the vehicle. As an example this year I paid $350 for my 2005 Nissan Pathfinder and $110 for my 2004 KTM 950 Adventure S motorcycle. BUT, before paying, you must buy a compulsory Third Party Accident Insurance Policy, another $30 to $60 bucks per vehicle and have a valid revista.
At last, but not least, here in Chile all main roads and highways have been put on private hands, and we have to pay tolls for using them. We have urban highways that work with tags and freeflow technology (you get charged upon passing under a special portal) so we have to pay extra for using them and going from one place to another in this city (nearl 7 mill people, 600 thousand cars, 12.000 buses). In my case, I conmute riding my bike, as I get charged 40% the rate of cars, but still have to pay nearly $30 per month in ?tags?, in the Nissan it would be nearly $70. Doing the math having a car here costs at least:
840 bucks a year for moving around using urban highways
350 bucks per year to be able to use my car
50 bucks for the insurance
35 bucks for the technical inspection
And yet haven?t considered car insurance, normal maintenance, gasoline consumption (BTW gas here is $1,28 per litre), nor paying other tolls when driving to the beach or somewhere else (i.e. the 490 kms highway from Santiago to La Serena has 9 tolls that sum up nearly $30 each way!!!)
So please, let me say you are in paradise!!!!