Ship your vehicle? Map and satellite question.


I just came from a trip to South America. I have a dream of someday retiring in South America, a place like Uruguay or Chile. Not sure how practical it is.
You would need different maps to navigate. Cellular and satellite service consistent with the electronics etc. You’d have to meet whatever emission standards there are. Will license plates fit? And you need service for your vehicle!




. Armored luxury vehicles is a thing, especially in places like South America.Joking aside, I haven't moved to another country with a vehicle yet, but I am from Europe and toying with the idea of moving back someday. I have however done European Delivery, and while I was driving my car around Europe for 2 months, I had European maps and things like traffic sign recognition etc. was working, Mercedes configured the region accordingly, so it would recognize the European traffic signs, and they installed the maps for Europe. However, the online services weren't working, because they can't be activated outside of the market the car was sold originally. The Mercedes me backend won't accept a NA VIN in Europe or other countries outside of the USA, Canada and Mexico. So even if you can get the cellular modem replaced to support the regional frequency bands, you still won't be able to activate the actual services. I just used CarPlay and Google Maps in order to have live traffic, but having the European maps installed meant that all the assistance systems that depend on map data were working correctly, even though I wasn't actually using them to navigate.
Moving a car to another country is possible. You just have to bring it into compliance, so you can legally register it. Warranties and such won't transfer and certain features as mentioned above may not work. Also depending on the fuel quality, the engine may not run optimally, either. In my case, they actually retuned the engine as well for the European octane levels and then changed it once the car arrived in the USA.


