The story about finding the right car for you:

We did a lot of research to choose the most suitable car for our trip. It has to combine these important facts:

1. The car has to be in a perfect condition! Troubles on your way cost,depending on the problem, a lot of money and a lot of time. So you have to take the newest car you can get for your budget.
2. The car has to have manual transmission!! You find much easier and cheaper ways of repairs if you get problems with it and you want to have fun while you are driving up and down.
3. When you expect to go around Southamerica you calculate with needing a huge amount of gasoline. So the car must be not too heavy, must have a new engine witch is not to big and run with gasoline, witch is important for going higher than 4000 m (you won´t make it with an small, old diesel engine!!). You want to have a fuel consumption witch is not higher than 10 l / 100 KM. Furthermore, the cheap diesel in most of Southamerican countries is very dirty, the good one is sometimes surprisingly expensive. (In most southamerican countrys are different diesels offered at the gasstations. If you have the wrong car, don´t take the cheap one! We met some people who got seriously big problems with their engine afterwards.) e.g. the good diesel in whole argentinian patagonia cost around 15 – 20 eurocents more than the good 95 gasoline.
4. The car has to be big enough for the both of you (we are 1.83m and 1.70m tall ) and still small enough to get through narrow roads, to use less gasoline and to pay the lowest price on autoroutas, ferries, etc…
5. The car has to be a very common car for Southamerica witch gives you many opportunities for finding easiely and quickly spare parts for any broken things (and yes, there will always be some parts broken on your car!)
6. The car has to have DEFINATELY 4x4!! You will need it many times, especially for the very often bad weather conditions witch make many roads quite difficult and dangerous. And of course to find the pictureperfect spots where all the regular tourists don´t get to („ioverlander“ app helps you to find! )
7. The car hast to be some kind of NOT being obviously a travellers car to keep away bad people who know that in these type of cars is a lot to steal.
8. After the both of us were also buying cars in Australia and Newzealand to travel around, we were sure about not wanting to sleep again in the same room where you cook and where all the dirt from outside gets into it. Furthermore, we wanted to have more sleeping quality, witch includes more space, more cleanness, a quick build up and down for the night, warmer nights when it´s cold and even cooler nights when it´s hot outside (more to the very special rooftop tent we own, further down).
9. You have to like the whole make up of your new home.

(We are Germans and bought it from Germans, the car was loved and taken very good care of! )



Why the Nissan X-Trail 2.5 is perfect for a trip around Southamerica:

1. 159.000 km and built up in 2010 is probably the best you can get for the money we are asking for! The car is extremely reliable. A broken bearing and a broken cooler was all we had in rough 15.000 km so far (both of them are replaced and well-functioning now, of course)
2. Manual 5-gear transmission is just great! I think I don´t have to explain why..
3. Our fuel consumption while driving an average speed of 100 km/h is (with the rooftop tent!!) around exactly 10 l in 100km ( the highest we had was 12,8l, lowest 8.8l). The new 2.5l gasoline engine from 2010 easily gets you in every altitude! Furthermore you have the best fuel consumption you can get for an offroad car compared to all other big ones!
4. Our back construction for cooking and all the boxes down below provides you space enough for everything you want to take with you (even a third person who is hichhiking ). And of course, the rooftop tent provides you of preparing your sleeping area in the car again and again every night, because you got your made bed already on the top of the car. You will love it! You can leave everthing inside the roofbox while you are driving (we have four pillows, many blankets, two sleepingbags for extremely cold nights, some extra isolation below the regular matress and a double matress system for sleeping the most confortable way, all up there).
5. Have a look at www.mercadolibre.cl , www.chileautos.cl or www.yapo.cl (The first one is like the chilenian ebay). You will see there are plenty of Nissan X-Trails. When you are doing that, also check the pricerange for how much the Chilenos sell their cars.
6. Our Nissan X-Trail has 4x4 AND 2x4 driving! This helps you a lot to save money on petrol, to keep your tires in a good condition and to get you whereever you want to go. All people who claim that they didn´t need 4 x 4 do that just because they haven´t been at all the places where it´s necessary! (like every beach and many, many places more..)
7. Check out the specials about our rooftop tent down below! Home - Solo Made in Italy
8. Look at the pictures of our car! Then you will see „the beauty“ of our grey/brown and a little bit unspectacular car. It´s surely not that pretty, but you will love it the same way we did!



Specifications and Facts Nissan X-Trail 2.5:
- 2010, 159.000 km so far..
- 4 Cylinder (V4) 2.5L Engine
- Chilenian plates
- Takes 95 Gasoline
- 5-Gear Manual Transmission
- 4x4 and 2x4 Drive
- Airconditioning (very well working and usefull!)
- 5 Doors, 5 Seats
- Four 12V DC Power Outlets including the right adapters
- 4 Wheel Anti Lock Brakes (ABS)
- Driver And Passenger Airbags
- Alarm-System + Panic Button On The Key + second spare key
- New strong battery (never run out of electricity)
- Central Locking (and rear child safety door locks)
- Electronic Windows
- One Brand New Spare Tire
- Stuff like cupholers, middle armrest and everything all other cars have, too..



Maintenance:

- Change of oil, oilfilter and airfilter at 148.000 & 159.000 km
- Replacement of the front
- Has no timing belt but a chain, so no need to replace at any time
- Changed the wheel bearing in the front



Special Gear:

- Lights in the front, in the middle and in the back of the car
- Electronic converter witch we fixed below the plattform in the back. It changes from 12 V to 220 V, with multi plug in adaptor and USB slot, so you can charge pretty much everything!
- Radio incl. CD – player and aux-cables to plug in smartphones & laptops
- GARMIN© Navigation System
- Fireextinguisher
- Fluorescent jackets
- Toolbox with every size of tools you need
- 3 Different spare lights
- Rear child safety door locks
- 20 liters spare canister for gasoline to have a reach of around 750 km
- Jump starters for a flat battery
- Jump starter kit for helping yourself out (jump starting from a powerbank)
- Towing rope to help other cars



What comes with the car: All equipment for storing your belongings in the car and camping in a very confortable way, such as:

- A wooden plattform witch perfectly fits in the back of the car, for cooking and whatever you want to do or put on it (85 cm x 130 cm)
- Underneath you can store 5 big plastic boxes for your camping stuff
- 1 big coleman© passiv coolant
- 2 camping chairs
- 1 table
- 5 kg chilenian gas stove (lasts about one month), 3 kg argentinian (euro system) incl adaptor to charge in every country of southamerica + cooking station with two fireplaces
- Lots of dishes like pan/pots etc
- 2 sleeping bags
- 1 tent (for hiking; actually it is in a bad condition, so better bring your own one)
- 2 x 20 liters canisters for fresh water
- Mini dust collector
- A lot more things witch is to much to be listed in here (travel guides, tools and tapes, etc…)
Specifications Rooftop Tent:
- Columbus Variant, from Autohome©, the world leader in rooftop tents since 1958 (Autohome - Leader mondiale in Tende da Tetto per Auto) (Übersicht Auswahl Columbus - AutoHome...)
- Size of sleeping area 130 cm x 200 cm; highest level 150 cm
- Weight around 52 kg
- Size in total 30 cm x 125 cm x 215 cm
- 100 % water- and windproof fabric
- Realistic time to build up: 30 sec. And down: 2 min.



Why we choose this type of rooftop tent:

At the beginning we did a lot of reaserch about rooftop tents in general. Many people told us that it won´t be a good idea to take any rooftop tent for travelling southamerica (especially for patagonia).
- First: „You can not build it up or down easily within 5 min!“
BUT: Yes, they are raight if you have just a regular rooftop tent! It needs even more time than this.. Convince yourself while meeting us in the extremly quick build up and down of our special tent
- Second: „Rooftop tents are not stable and strong enough to provide you any sleep while outside is strong wind or heavy rain!“
BUT: Through the aerodynamic form of the Columbus Variant (45 ° angle when built up) you can put yourself in the raight position to escape any wind or weather conditions. With a regular one, witch most other travellers sell, you will have NO chance to sleep inside! The special fabric will keep you warm and safe against the conditions outside.
- Third: „Your rooftop tent will brake easily within some weeks because they are just built for short holidays!“
BUT: Our rooftop tent has the highest quality of all! So it´s not surprising that they are the world leaders in this business. They are made for lasting over several years of use (we met people who used the same model we do whitch was more than 10 years old.)
- Fourth: „You will need a lot more gasoline with a rooftop tent on your car!“
BUT: Through its special aerodynamic form it needs around 50 % less more gasoline compared to all other rooftop tents or roofboxes witch are constructed more like a cube. So in the end, you will get your money back while saving money on gasoline and the comparetivly high price will pay you out!
3200 € you would for a brandnew one (Home - Solo Made in Italy). Just have a look at the according links and convince yourself of the pricerange. It is totally worth its money!



Provided Documents:

- Permiso de Circulacion (valid until March 2019)- This document shows that the Chilean street taxes for the vehicles have been paid.
- Revision Technica (valid until and including February 2019)- Every chilean car must complete a once yearly technical roadcheck.
- Seguro Obligatorio - Compulsory Third Party Insurance for your vehicle which has a validity of one year. You buy it automatically when you buy the car at the notary.
- Certificado de Emisiones Contaminantes - This form details the emissions that the car emits and its environmental impact. It is obtained simultaneously with the revision tecnica.
- Foreign country basic insurance (we show you where to go to!).

In total we are asking for 9 700 €

Feel free to ask any questions!

Marlene & Paul

Email: Paul.Benesch@gmail.com

Whattsapp: +49 1573 48 46 371

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