Driving into Mexico, flying out .

You have to leave with the car if you entered on a FMM - Tourist Permit.

The car will be associated with your visa. You and the car must travel together. The six month sticker you get for the car is invalid if you leave the country without the car, you also lose your deposit on that sticker. You can donate the car to Mexico if you can't take it back.
The car will be associated with one of your visas, so the one who doesn't have the car connected to their visa can fly in and out. I've been going through this over the last two years hoping the rules would change and let me nationalize the car. No such luck the rules just got tighter. They want people to buy a car in Mexico not bring one in.

Thank you so much for confirming what I was thinking.  Much appreciate the knowledge.

In the past we have done what you want to do: Drive in, fly out temporarily, fly back, and finally drive out before initial 6 months is up. We have not had a problem. When we finally drive out, they scrape off our sticker and refund the deposit.

That must have been some time ago jhaselwood.  We just returned from Belize and they are looking quite closely at those dates on your paperwork. People do drive in and out as long as they are still within the 6 month period but that's not driving in and flying out without the car. The rules seem to change every six months in some way. This time the fee I had to pay to re up  the car was $83.00 more U.S., plus We had to pay 300 pesos a person to exit Mexico. That may be a peculiarity of that particular border.

Just drove out of Mexico (Columbia Solidarity Bridge ~25 miles NW of Laredo) and had no problem getting our TIP deposit back even though we had flown out and back in to Mexico a few months previously. They never bother to check to see that the visitor vias is the same as the one we got when we drove in.

Jim

The passport tells the tale more than the visa, so I'm guessing the Laredo border is so busy that they are not closely looking at stamps and dates. It's always a risk. Some barely look at the paperwork others examine it closely. Some check points pull you over and want to see all of your paperwork others just wave you on.

I just make sure I am following all their rules, and I'm polite. No matter how long or how closely they look everything will be in order. You should probably continue to use that border exclusively.

When we use the Columbia crossing, there is little traffic. In fact after we cross the river, there were no cars ahead of us at U.S. Customs. On the Mexican side, they only ask for the TIP paperwork and the sticker off the windshield. I'm not sure whether we're supposed to or not, but we never stop to get our passports stamped or to turn in our visas upon exiting Mexico. And the U.S. side never stamps our passport either.

We were stopped by an INM checkpoint about 30 miles before the border but all they wanted to see was the TIP paperwork and we were on our way.

jhaselwood wrote:

When we use the Columbia crossing, there is little traffic. In fact after we cross the river, there were no cars ahead of us at U.S. Customs. On the Mexican side, they only ask for the TIP paperwork and the sticker off the windshield. I'm not sure whether we're supposed to or not, but we never stop to get our passports stamped or to turn in our visas upon exiting Mexico. And the U.S. side never stamps our passport either.

We were stopped by an INM checkpoint about 30 miles before the border but all they wanted to see was the TIP paperwork and we were on our way.

In a total of 10 years in Mexico and crossing the border in several places in Texas, I have found it unreliable to depend on rules staying the same or being enforced the same in all locations.  I always have a back up plan.  And I have needed that back up plan on several occasions over the years.

I won't comment on crossing with US cars.  I always fly or take the bus these days.

jhaselwood wrote:

When we use the Columbia crossing, there is little traffic. In fact after we cross the river, there were no cars ahead of us at U.S. Customs. On the Mexican side, they only ask for the TIP paperwork and the sticker off the windshield. I'm not sure whether we're supposed to or not, but we never stop to get our passports stamped or to turn in our visas upon exiting Mexico. And the U.S. side never stamps our passport either.

We were stopped by an INM checkpoint about 30 miles before the border but all they wanted to see was the TIP paperwork and we were on our way.

Well that is interesting. At several borders I have had to do the visa and passport before I could even go to the window where my fee would be returned. Coming back in might be a problem for you. They want your expired visa. The U.S. just looks at the passport if I recall.