How to bring your car to Mexico

In my opinion Bhavna, it is simply not worth doing. It would be better to buy a car here. Of course if you live near the border you can just drive back and forth without importing. The cost of importing your car depends on the value of your car.

If you have a car with a foreign plate import sticker or not they will look at you much more closely , stop you much more often and demand to see your papers . With a Mexican plated car I get little attention.

What I know about importing cars may change . It changes often  The message seems to be 'we really don't want you to import your car, but if you insist there will be a substantial fee which you will get back when you leave. if you become a citizen you can't have a foreign car. We would like you to own a Mexican car if you are a citizen"

When we moved here we brought a car with us. The only thing we did was get Mexican auto insurance.
They told us at the time it would cost 900 American dollars. So there was something about the year
of cars to be imported so we left it like it was. Still have same car after 11 years here.

suferdude wrote:

When we moved here we brought a car with us. The only thing we did was get Mexican auto insurance.
They told us at the time it would cost 900 American dollars. So there was something about the year
of cars to be imported so we left it like it was. Still have same car after 11 years here.

The reasons you have not had problems is that you basically live in one of those border areas that does not require import fees, etc., as yet, and may never. If you try to move south east that will change. If you are seeking citizenship that will change also. So as long as you stay there you should be fine.

Basically they see you as one of those Americans who visits.

surferdude ... are you saying that you still have US plates on your car?

Bhavna,
I investigated bringing my car to Mexico and it was too costly and inconvenient.  Since I bought my house in Mexico I did not want to be forced to take my car periodically out of the country to meet their requirements.  I sold my cars in Texas and bought one used car in Guanajuato.  What I did bring with me was my 16 foot boat.  I hired a driver through U-Ship It and he was excellent.  Even though He was held up at the border for 10 hours going back and forth with me on email for additional information and documents, he finally was issued the 10 year boat permit to bring this boat into Mexico.  My advice for bringing a boat into Mexico is hire an experienced driver and give this person power of attorney signed by 2 witnesses with photos of the witnesses passports.  Provide all current US registrations for the boat with the title and bill sale which must include all serial numbers for the hull, motor, and any electronics.  The bill of sale is also needed for the trailer with current license plate and registration.  Provide the driver with a copy of your passport and Mexican visa.

Hi, my wife and I are moving permanently in Mexico next October. We looked at bringing our 2013 Sonata but to do so the owner can't have the permanent Visa status but only the temporary visa only. And after 4 years, you need to import the vehicule.


So, it is quite expensive, time consuming to import a vehicule in Mexico under permanent or temporary visas.

One more reason in our case was that you basically don't need a vehicule were we live  (La Peñita de Jaltemba, Nayarit) and being 65 over, you get a 50% discount on intercities buses (ie: La Peñita de Jaltemba to Puerto-Vallarta less than 75$ pesos).

Adios, GyC.

Its still convenient to just buy a car in Mexico. Even in any country, its really costly to import a vehicle and you will be asked for more requirements and fees as well. It seems to be complicated at times and will just consume most of your time and efforts.