The most popular brands imported into Costa Rica in the last years were the Hyundai Accent and Toyota Rav4. Other popular makes imported: Mitsubishi Montero, Toyota Corolla & Yaris; Honda Civic; Hyundai Tucson and Nissan Sentra. In the new cars category, 52% of the market is covered by Toyota, Hyundai and Nissan alone. New U.S. vehicles imported into Costa Rica still are under 10% of the total including all brands such as Ford, GM, Chevrolet and Jeep.
Costa Rica spends about 6% of its GDP in importing new and used vehicles. Given the lack of good road infrastructure and major traffic jams in and around the cities, purchasing of motorcycles of all types is increasing. Currently, motorcycles can be found even at home appliances stores.
Costa Rica is importing an average of a little under 50,000 vehicles a year. About 30 % are used and mostly brought from the United States, mostly bought at auctions and some are repaired in Costa Rica, if needed. The remaining 70% are new vehicles that are sold with local financing sometimes as long as seven-year loans or leases, both in US dollars or Costa Rican colones
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Local production is limited to small electrical and metal parts, batteries, electrical copper cable, hydraulic seals, filters (air/gasoline), steel leaf springs, aluminum and steel wheels, windshields, carpets, hoses, mufflers, bus bodies, seat covers and tires. Major U.S. competitors in this sector are China, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Germany, Taiwan and Brazil in that order.
Total imports in this sector increased again in 2017. However, an increase in traffic and two major bridge re-construction projects this year have led Costa Rican drivers to leave their cars at home and instead use public transport a few days a week. Imports from last year grew just 2% but are expected to increase in 2018. Total exports from Costa Rica increased in large part due to the expansion of the local Bridgestone plant.
Increasing imports of used low cost vehicles from Asian countries during the last few years led to an increase in imports of auto parts from China. Industry sources indicate that the U.S. share of the import market is expected to slowly decrease in market share, but the total exports figure from the United States will increase in the following years.
The number of registered vehicles in Costa Rica has more than doubled since 2005, reaching 1,794,658 in February 2018. In another division excluding the heavy vehicles, this is the division found: 1,166,042 (65%) automotive vehicles, 589,037(33%) motorcycles, 20,918 (1%)Micro Buses, and 9,661(0.5%) Buses.
The average Costa Rican car is 16 years old.
Costa rica
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