I guess buying a car is serious business anywhere in the world but especially in Bolivia where you have such a high amount of chuto (falsified) papers. In the picture above you see the police officer and technitian taking the motor and chasis numbers. Both must match in order to pass the test. If not, you may lose your car.
After this you must go to another police department to get another document. From there (if all goes well) to the notary.
So, all in all you spend a trip to the lawyer (1hr), three trips in all to Diprove (police dpmt1 2-5hrs) another trip to Transito (police dpmt2 – 1hr) and finally to the notary (1 hr). Yay, the car is now in your name.
You can imagine, this actually encourages people not to do a title transfer and instead they just make out a power of attorney which takes a few minutes and costs much less.
Joshua and John waiting in line before the police comes to check the car