Cars and Licenses

[BryansRose]

Same subject, different question.

I've recently moved to San Luis Potosi and have my FM-3. My license plates are expiring in June, and I'm having trouble getting them renewed because I don't have a residence in the state. My car is only 4 years old, so registering it here would be costly.

A friend here said I don't need to have the car registered unless I plan on driving back into the US, which I don't. Is this true? Would I be okay on expired plates?

[RVGRINGO]

It is true that one should have the vehicle currently registered somewhere. That said, many do drive with expired US plates in Mexico and enforcement is lax, insurance sellers don't seem to care, etc. This has nothing to do with your 'importada temporal' or your FM3, which must both remain in effect for you and the car to stay in Mexico.
Remember, that you must eventually remove the imported vehicle from Mexico and will have to have it currently registered in the USA in order to drive it there without being ticketed or possibly having insurance invalidated. Look into getting a US address through friend, family or a mailing service.

[BryansRose]

Thanks for your reply. I was not aware that I had to someday take my car out of Mexico. Could you explain this please? I had not planned on ever going back to the US with my car.

[RVGRINGO]

Yes, you must remove the car from Mexico eventually; unless you manage to nationalize it, a difficult and rather expensive process, which the government seems to be curtailing.
When you bring your car to Mexico, you do so on an 'Importada Temporal' (Temporary Importation) and you have signed and posted a bond with your credit card guaranteeing that you will remove the vehicle from Mexico whenever your immigration status ends. You may not ever sell that vehicle in Mexico; not even for parts if you wreck it. Should you do so illegally, and should the car ever be used in a crime, cause damage or kill someone, you would be traced through the VIN and remain responsible; even though it might have been sold ten times over. Mexican jails and prisons aren't nice. In fact, if your car is stolen you will still face those same problems and cannot ever bring a replacement into Mexico. That's the way it is and that's what you agree to when you bring your car to Mexico and sign on the dotted line. So, if you intend to remain in Mexico 'forever' and don't want the possible problem of having to remove an aged wreck from the country by truck, you might want to consider not bringing a foreign plated vehicle to Mexico and buying a car here. There are dealers in all of the major cities for new models as well as reliable used cars with good titles.

[BryansRose]

Thanks for the explanation.

So, since I'm already here with my car, the best idea seems to be that I should keep up a valid registration in the US. And if and when I want to replace the car, I drive back to the US, sell it, rent a car and drive back down, and buy Mexican and at last register it down here. Or buy US and go through the whole temporary importation thing again.

Whew!

[G.Bledsoe]

[QUOTE=RVGRINGO;143329]Yes, you must remove the car from Mexico eventually.

If you brought a car into Mexico on FM2/3 visa, it can stay in Mexico as long as you renew your visa, since the car's temporary importation permit is linked to your visa. When you renew your visa, the car's permit is renewed. That process can can go on for many years.

But "eventually" you may want or need to replace your car for whatever reason -- engine failure, accident, etc. In that case, you would have to return the car or what's left to the border and have the permit cleared, before you could replace it with another car from the U.S.

If your car is ever destoyed, just make sure that you bring the VIN and the windshield with the sticker attached to the border. If you are in a serious accident in Mexico or your car catches on fire, make sure you get a police report and plenty of photos to prove that the car was destroyed. With the help of a Mexican attorney, the permit can be cleared.

My friends in SMA have a private mail service P.O. box in Laredo, Texas, and maintain the registration on their vehicles through that address. I would recommend that you continue to have the car registered in the U.S. Even California allows people from outside the state and country to have a car registered here. It's more expensive than other states, but it works.

[BryansRose]

Thanks.

I have a mail service in the Illinois, but it seems that senders (like my bank, and apparently the DMV) can request that mail not be forwarded to a mail service, and it just gets returned to sender. Maybe before it expires, I'll drive up to Laredo and get an address at a mail service and register my car there.

Thanks again for the replies. This is such a murky area.

[G.Bledsoe]

Originally Posted by BryansRose

Thanks.

I have a mail service in the Illinois, but it seems that senders (like my bank, and apparently the DMV) can request that mail not be forwarded to a mail service, and it just gets returned to sender. Maybe before it expires, I'll drive up to Laredo and get an address at a mail service and register my car there.

Thanks again for the replies. This is such a murky area.

Yes, it is a murky area. It's too bad that the US and Mexico cannot agree to abide by that part of NAFTA that called for free trade in automobiles across the border by 2007, then we would not have worry about these things. Things are scheduled to change in 2010, but I suspect that the Mexican car manufacturers will get NAFTA postponed again.

My Mexican friends tell me that US cars more than 30 years old may be imported by paying customs fees and taxes. I will test that proposition soon.

[HolyMole]

Originally Posted by RVGRINGO

Yes, you must remove the car from Mexico eventually unless you manage to nationalize it, a difficult and rather expensive process, which the government seems to be curtailing.
When you bring your car to Mexico, you do so on an 'Importada Temporal' (Temporary Importation) and you have signed and posted a bond with your credit card guaranteeing that you will remove the vehicle from Mexico whenever your immigration status ends. You may not ever sell that vehicle in Mexico; not even for parts if you wreck it. Should you do so illegally, and should the car ever be used in a crime, cause damage or kill someone, you would be traced through the VIN and remain responsible; even though it might have been sold ten times over. Mexican jails and prisons aren't nice. In fact, if your car is stolen you will still face those same problems and cannot ever bring a replacement into Mexico. That's the way it is and that's what you agree to when you bring your car to Mexico and sign on the dotted line..................

Some clarification: As posted previously, my car was stolen in Mexico and found a couple of days later, damaged beyond repair. My Mexican insurance company eventually, (7 months later), settled on a "write-off" value, but would offer no assistance with the question of what to do about the temporary import permit under which the vehicle had entered Mexico....it was my responsibility.
Fortunately, I had all documentation, including photos. After 18 months and three letters to Mexican Customs in Mexico City, I eventually was issued a cancellation of the import permit.
Hopefully, when we go back to Mexico in November (with another vehicle, obviously), we won't have any problems.
Note that we did try to enter Mexico with our "new" vehicle about a year after the 1st one was stolen....and before I had straightened out the original problem....and the computer "caught me": I could not import another vehicle because the computer said I still had that 1st one in Mexico. Fortunately, our vehicles are always registered in both mine and my wife's name, so we were allowed to bring that 2nd vehicle into Mexico under her name.

[RVGRINGO]

NOTE: You cannot bring a rented vehicle, even a UHaul, into Mexico. So, if you were to drive a US plated vehicle to the USA to sell it, scrap it or give it away, you would have to come back to your home in Mexico by bus or plane to buy your car here.
NAFTA agreements on cars seem to apply to importing and exporting manufacturing or dealer organizations, not individuals. Remember, many 'American cars' are actually made in Mexico and Canada. Still, an individual can't simply import one of them to the USA. In fact, there are many models sold in Canada or Mexico which aren't available in the USA and have different content for their own markets. It is complicated and very few expats try to import vehicles from elsewhere. A friend, who had to move back to Florida, just sold his Mexican plated 2004 Nissan Platina and is having to drive his old 1982 Chevrolet guzzler with, failed AC, out of Mexico next week. They plan to abandon it or give it to charity as soon as they get Mexican Customs to remove the sticker and issue the receipt, then cross the border and take a bus from Texas to Florida. They couldn't abandon it in Mexico for fear of the various consequences and the fact that they might want to return one day.