Acquiring Arteb Brazil GMT400 headlight reflectors

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1998_K1500_Sub

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The Arteb headlight reflectors for the GMT400 models sold in Brazil (and perhaps Argentina?) have been discussed on WWW.GMT400 prior (search this site for "Arteb").

I've been working to acquire a set of these and it appears I'll have two pair coming my way later this month, one pair for my 1998 Suburban and another as a spare.

I've learned a bit in the process of finding and acquiring these reflectors, and if there's interest I'll share what I've found. Speak up(!) if you care to hear more, otherwise I'll just let this topic die a natural death.

I will say that, if somebody wants a pair of these, the BEST option available is to call your closest friend in Brazil and have them buy and ship them to you using Correios’ “Mercadoria Economica” international service. Pay your friend back using Xoom, Paypal, or similar methods.

Unfortunately, I don't have friends in Brazil.

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These reflectors have an improved light distribution over US domestic GM OEM reflectors, i.e., akin to the European "E-code".

Arteb is an OEM mfgr for, at least, GM and Ford in Brazil. These reflectors are, I believe, GM OEM as they have a GM part number.

See http://www.arteb.com.br/ingles/unidades.asp and the references to General Motors and Ford thereon.


Part numbers:

Left Side - 93255734 (Original Code) - 0160191 (Arteb p/n)

Right Side - 93255735 (Original Code) - 0160192 (Arteb p/n)

Find Arteb's 2017/2018 catalog on-line at http://www.arteb.com.br/catalogo.asp . PDF download is available.
 
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df2x4

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Ho Lee Chit! I was one of the guys discussing these here years ago. Please do tell how you got hold of them, I tried to make it happen a few years back but I never could find a package forwarder who was willing to work with me. I'd love to know how to get some. Hell I'd pay YOU directly if you could make it happen again!
 

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I’ll try to put together a detailed response so that anyone can retrace my steps and do this for themselves.


The net-net, for tonight, is I used a forwarding service to handle the purchase and delivery of the products from the seller(s) in Brazil to my door. At least two such means exist for this, one is www.4repack.com and the other www.parcl.com. Read up on them. I paid about US$680 for two pair.


For now, here’s some bits and pieces.



Brazil’s a big country… BIG country, with a BIG population of 209mil (US is 325mil). Businesses there can get along just fine without doing business outside of their country and/or South America. Too, unlike Europe, where many people speak English because, well, England is “right there” and England was (is) such a powerful economic entity, in South America Brazil *is* a powerful economic entity; it’s native language is Portuguese and, from what I’ve seen, they don’t seem to care too much about speaking English because there aren’t many English speakers nearby (Guyana, of “Gold Rush” fame, is the only South American country where the main language is English).



These items are a concern…



Communication: I’ve become proficient in using Google to translate text and WWWsites. I’ve also learned a little Portuguese, which wasn’t too difficult because I had two years of Spanish in high school (but written Portuguese is not similar to written Spanish, so there’s a learning curve). I never tried calling anyone on the telephone because I doubted I would find an English-speaker for reasons mentioned earlier.



Find a seller: The only retailers I found were in Brazil (e.g., https://www.jocar.com.br/) although there’s a healthy market for these reflectors on the South American Ebay-like site Mercado Livre (use Google to get a link). On-line retailers are offering the pair for B$1200-1400, which after currency exchange (and ignoring exchange fees) amounts to US$320-372. On Mercado Livre, prices are similar but occasional discounts exist.
 
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1998_K1500_Sub

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Pay for the product: This is half the battle. I found difficulty trying to use my US-based credit card on any Brazilian WWWsite and was never successful. The reason appears to be rooted in the concept that Brazil’s sellers expect their buyers to be in Brazil, so things like “Shipping address” and “Billing address” are specific to Brazil, i.e., the pull-down menus list only their “states” and the format of the address fields is specific to Brazil, etc., so I could never enter information which would enable and validate a credit card purchase (I did try, many times). I also investigated, with one retailer, the option of using an international wire transfer. I’ll save the details for another post; there’s much more to tell.



Have it shipped to you: I didn’t find any retailers that shipped internationally; each one I queried said “no”. One seller on Mercado Livre told me they would ship but I didn’t pursue a purchase with them. Shipping isn’t cheap. My experience with FedEx, DHL, or UPS, reminded me that these are “priority” shippers, meaning they’ll get it to you from Brazil in a matter of days, but oh my, the price; I was seeing numbers from US$290 to US$450 to pick up my package from a retailer and deliver it to my door. The cheapest option AFAIK is Brazil’s equivalent of the USPS known as Correios (http://www.correios.com.br/ ). For two reflectors (4kg total in a box 50x40x40cm, insured with 3-4 week international delivery) their price from Brazil to my door is about $73 (insurance is 2% of the value above B$100 = US$26.60, e.g., 2% of $372-26 is about $7 for insurance, then add $66 for shipping to yield $73 total).



Duty: Duty isn’t a problem. If the items of value are less than US$800 and for personal use, there’s no duty.



Exchange rate: US$1 equates to about B$3.75. Had I been able to use my US-based credit card, I could have exchanged for 2%; some cards are 0%, some are 3%, YMMV. Had I used an international wire transfer, I don’t know the fees exactly but there’s a receiving-bank fee that can be sizeable (see https://brazilphenomenon.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/finding-swiftbic-codes-of-brazilian-banks/ ). THE BIGGEST ISSUE with transferring currency has to do with the fact that the receiver (in Brazil) is a business entity. For comparison, if I want to send money to an individual in Brazil, I can do (and have done) so readily using PayPal, Xoom, or others. BUT, presumably for tax purposes, one can’t as easily send money to a business, especially (as I said earlier) most places are only set up to do business with others in Brazil.



This is all I’ve time to type tonight; I’ll add more in the upcoming days.
 
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One more thing:

If you want a pair, here's one way.

This seller on Mercado Livre told me they would ship to the US for B$350 (about US$93). You can read my Q&A with them at the bottom of the page at the link below (search for "Últimas perguntas" at their listing below and use Google to translate):

https://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-721168868-farol-silverado-9702-original-arteb-par-_JM

The Q&A may not read well after translation, so I've copied it and "smoothed" it a bit, below.

This particular seller prefers to use WhatsApp to communicate. Supposedly WhatsApp facilitates language translation and, in the end, the sales transaction. YMMV.

Here's the Q&A between me and this seller:

Q) Can you ship to United States?

A) Good afternoon! Shipping yes, only you pay the shipping fees


Q) What is shipping cost to united states? Zip code of the US Postal Service 61342

A) Good morning mate! The shipping cost is R$350,00!


Q) How can I complete this purchase? I need to provide my delivery address in the United States and my credit card number.

A) If you have a number of WhatsApp it is better to talk. You will have to deposit the total amount before I can ship.


Q) I can call you. However, I can only speak English. This is a problem? Is there someone who speaks English too?

A) Send your WhatsApp number, we'll talk there
 
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