Before you start

Cédula de identidad
Your foreign licence and, where required, an official translation
Medical and psychosensometric assessment at an authorised centre
Proof of a Guayaquil address for the vehicle registration

Step-by-step

1
Check with the ANT whether your licence can be converted at all
Ecuador converts licences from some countries and requires the full course and examination from others, and the position has changed over time. Confirm with the national agency rather than with a driving school before paying for anything, because the school has an interest in the answer.
OnlineWho: You
2
Complete the medical and psychosensometric assessment
An authorised centre tests sight, hearing, reaction time and coordination. It is required for issue and for renewal and is a standard part of the process rather than an obstacle.
In personWho: You
3
Register the vehicle with the ATM, not with the national agency
Guayaquil's municipality has assumed the transit competency, so matriculación is done through the ATM's own online trámites portal and its offices. Someone arriving from another Ecuadorian city and going looking for a national agency counter will not find one that handles this.
OnlineWho: You
4
Find your inspection month from the last digit of your plate
The ATM's RTV calendar for private, state, diplomatic and consular vehicles assigns a month by the final digit: plates ending 1 in February, 2 in March, and so on through 0 in November. January is open to all vehicles and December is for overdue cases. Motorcycles use the last numeric digit. Miss it and you cannot renew the matriculación.
OnlineWho: YouAnnually
5
Use the Metrovía and the Aerovía before you conclude you need a car
The Metrovía bus rapid transit runs in dedicated lanes on trunk corridors under the same municipal authority, and the Aerovía cable car crosses the river to Durán from 05:30 to 21:30 for USD 0.74 per person per section, with the last cabin boarding at 21:10. Neither covers the whole city, but the corridors they do cover are the ones that jam.
In personWho: You
6
Think about where you park before you think about the car
Secure parking is the real constraint here rather than traffic. In the northern suburbs and the Samborondón urbanizaciones a space comes with the flat; in the centre and in older Urdesa it frequently does not, and street parking overnight is not something residents do. Settle this before you sign either a lease or a purchase.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Cédula de identidad
Foreign licence with translation if required
Medical and psychosensometric certificate
ATM matriculación and revisión técnica certificate, once you own a car
Compulsory insurance documentation

Things most newcomers don’t know

Vehicle registration is municipal here and licences are not — and the split is invisible until you need it.

Ecuador devolved transit competencies to municipalities, so in Guayaquil the ATM handles matriculación and the technical inspection while the ANT still issues the licence. Cuenca has the identical split under EMOV EP. The practical consequence is that half your paperwork is done on a municipal portal and half on a national one, and a guide written for the country as a whole will send you to the wrong counter for one of them.

Source: Autoridad de Tránsito Municipal; ANT

Guayaquil has no pico y placa, which changes the calculus of owning a car versus Quito.

Quito restricts circulation by plate digit on one weekday a week during peak hours, which is why many households there keep two cars or plan around it. Guayaquil's plate digit does something entirely different — it sets the month of your annual technical inspection, running February for plates ending 1 through November for those ending 0. A single car is a workable proposition here in a way it is not always in the capital.

Source: Autoridad de Tránsito Municipal

The Aerovía is a commuter link, not an attraction, and it is priced like one.

At USD 0.74 per person per section it crosses the Guayas between Guayaquil and Durán in minutes, against a bridge crossing that can take the better part of an hour at peak. It runs 05:30 to 21:30 with the last cabin at 21:10, which is the constraint worth knowing — an evening on the Guayaquil side means arranging a way home that is not the cable car.

Source: Aerovía Guayaquil

Traffic is not the reason people here drive defensively.

Route choice in Guayaquil is shaped by security rather than congestion. Residents avoid certain corridors after dark, keep windows up and phones out of sight at lights, and use ride-hailing apps rather than flagged street taxis specifically because the app records the vehicle and driver. None of this appears in a traffic guide and all of it is the first thing a local will tell you.

Source: community-reported

Common mistakes to avoid

Looking for the national agency to register your car, when the municipality does it in this canton.
Missing the inspection month your plate digit assigns you and then being unable to renew the matriculación.
Assuming Quito's pico y placa applies here, or assuming the plate rule that does apply is the same thing.
Planning an evening across the river on the Aerovía without checking the 21:10 last boarding.
Renting or buying without settling secure parking first.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.