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zunigan · #1 07-25-2009, 06:34 PM

We have a 1993 truck that my husband just fixed to drive in Tijuana. He then got a permit to take it to Zacatceas. Its for 6 months. Does he have to bring it back to get another one or can he just take the papers and do it without the truck being there. Driving there was an awful trip and he does not want to have to drive it back and then back again.

MandyMeMe · #2 07-27-2009, 01:15 PM

Only thing is that they want you to return that permisso sticker on your car...they say you cant get another one until you return the old one. Did you pay cash for this one or use your credit card? Im guessing it's in your name? Now if that vehicle will stay in the interior for ever...then you dont have to worry about anything. Is it a american vehicle with american tags?
you can get it mexicanized and not have to worry about all the polictics too.
There is alot more to this....i can explain if you want...let me know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zunigan

We have a 1993 truck that my husband just fixed to drive in Tijuana. He then got a permit to take it to Zacatceas. Its for 6 months. Does he have to bring it back to get another one or can he just take the papers and do it without the truck being there. Driving there was an awful trip and he does not want to have to drive it back and then back again.

lost14 · #3 07-27-2009, 01:36 PM

I actully have a question on this too. Hubby wants his truck in Cancun. So I am either going to drive it there (well at least to the border) or might drive it to FL and have it shipped there. Don't really want to legallize it right now cause we are being told $1000-$1500 and we surely don't have the money for that. Problem is does it then have to be in my name and won't I have to turn the sticker in with my visa (or whatever they call it FM-2?). Or can I bring it there get the sticker and in 6 months go back and renew sticker? Pretty certain it is just at a point of entry right so I would assume if I ship it where it docks would be point of entry right? Help me out here?

MandyMeMe · #4 07-27-2009, 05:52 PM

They will charge you mega taxes if you ship it...really check into that first. If your going to keep the truck in Cancun for ever...then you dont have to worry about all this....if you are going to be driving the truck all over Mexico...esp comign back to the border then you will need to renew it in 180 days. When you get your visitors visa...always get it for 180 days. You dont to turn in a visitors visa...just the permisso..the sticker that goes on your car. Now to return the permisso..you have to drive through the return permisso lane at the aduana....they must see you physically remove the sticker..they give you a receipt. At that point then you can get another permisso sticker. All this happens on whom evers name the vehicle is in. So if its your name...then you must have a visa(visitor, fm) to get the permisso. You need the permisso to travel to the interior of MX. They will give you up to a month....or so lead way when returning this permisso. We were stopped once at a fedearl check point and the permisso was like a month outdated and they tried to get money from my hubby...but he refused and after a bit of words or so they let us go...we were coming to the border then. It's just mad crazy here. I think that if you ship your truck here...it has to be 10 years or older. Really check into that one though. They may try to tax you to death also. Something else the mexicans like to do to americans bringing stuff here. If you have a specific question i can try to answer for you.

lost14 · #5 07-28-2009, 07:13 AM

Ok thanks that was alot of info. Well the truck is a 2000 so we will be able to bring it as of nov so all set there worked out rather well.

I looked into shipping and was quoted about $900 but I did not think about taxes. I guess they don't include that huh? I think I read someone from Cancun was trying to ship there car to Belize and then drive it over so less tax but not sure.

Ok so right now the truck is in my husbands name. Now can he just get a permit at the border even though he can't go to US or would it be better to put it in my name?

And so I drive it to the border we get the permit (how much is that?) and then drive it to Cancun. Lets say it will stay in Cancun forever then we dont have to get another permit or how does that work. I guess we could drive to Beleze I don't think it is that far to that border. This is just so complicated. Not sure if the truck will stay there forever. We want to get my husband back legally but the way the law is now we have to wait 10 years. If law changes we could do the process but then it would probably be at least 2 years and probably better to just sell the truck there or give it to family.

We are really trying to get away with this as cheap as possible.

Thanks so much for your help.

zunigan · #6 07-28-2009, 05:25 PM

Ok I guess that pretty much answers my question. My husband does not want to drive back to tijuana to renew the sticker. It was a awful drive to his town and he does not want to ever do that again. Thats why I was wondering if I could just turn in the sticker and get another one. Guess not. Plus truck is in his name. He paid 800 to get it ready to drive in baja and 40 for the sticker to drive it to zacatecs. Now we will have to figure out something else.

pamela_c · #7 07-28-2009, 08:13 PM

I believe that the permiso is like $29. We were actually legalizing trucks, but I was reading the information at ADUANA last summer and that's what I recall. I can tell you for sure in a couple of weeks, cuz I will be leaving Sunday or Monday to drive another pickup down to my husband. This will be the first time we won't legalize the pickup, so we will just get the permiso and then go from there.

mamallama · #8 07-28-2009, 10:30 PM

This all sounds horrible, if you had an option (like I may when we get to this point) would it be alot easier to just buy a car in mexico under the mexican citizens name?

pamela,
do you take cars/trucks down there on a regular basis to resell? that's totally legit is it not? my guy was talking about doing something like that once this is all over with, we used to see people hauling them down through texas all the time, 2-3 cars hitched together. He seems to think there is decent money in it?

pamela_c · #9 07-28-2009, 11:28 PM

It is legit, but it's not cost effective usually. Especially, with the exchange rate right now. My husband just had a ton of pickups here and wanted to give them to nephews, etc. He does have a couple of extras down there now that he's thinking to sell, but with what we paid here, the $1000-1500 to legalize and the expenses of driving from Oregon to Mexico City doesn't make it profitable. We have done it mostly as a way to take loads of things, that we buy here, down there. Right now,
my bedroom looks like a flea market with all the clothes, jackets, etc that are ready to load up. Some people do buy insurance salvage vehicles and take them down there to repair and sale them and are able to make a profit, but I don't know what is involved with doing that.
Cars are priced comparable there as they are here. Occasionally you find a great buy, but it looks about the same to me normally. They have places where people go to sale their cars (my husband always calls it an auction, but it's not). You rent a space for a day and sit there and try to sell the car. My husband has haggled what he feels are some good prices for vehicles for family members at those places. The only problem that we have run into was that he bought a Jetta that the people had not paid for the stickers for a number of years and when my husband went to try and get it all straight, they wanted to charge him like $1500 for the four years of back stickers. So, you would want someone to go with you who understands those things. The other thing to be careful of is fraudulent documents.
And if legalizing, you have to be careful, their can be extreme differences in what the agencies try to charge you. Some will also try to take your vehicle for an "inspection", which is not necessary. I have names of agencies we trust in Ciudad Juarez & Laredo.
Oh, also, you can only legalize certain years of vehicles. Like right now, it is 1999 vehicles. You can do older pickups, but the charges can be ridiculous for an older truck. It's easier and more cost effective to keep it simple. At the end of the year or first of next year, then it will be 2000 models that can be imported.
I just probably did an overkill on information on this subject. Sorry.

MandyMeMe · #10 07-29-2009, 01:14 PM

The cars and trucks that you see tied together are mainly headed for honduras and guatemala....we live close to a border crossing here in TX called Los Indios and that is where you can see miles and miles of cars/trucks/garbage trucks, busses, you name it...you see it lined up waiting to cross over into MX...once in MX they rearrange all the cars and trucks...you can pull more cars/trucks than in the states...so you can see 3-4 cars tied up and one truck pulling it or you name it you see it....motorcycles hanging out of truck windows....and htese cars are usually stuff fulled to the windows with more stuff....and once in mx they are tagged with tape across the front window and it reads guatamala on it. So you know it's headed their.
If you buy a new vehicle here....expect to pay up to 50% down....and then monthly payments...they want a big lump sum of money down here.
Also the used cars are real cheap...but like pamela said..it's a hot or miss whether or not you get a lemon or not.
Also remember that you need to keep your USA tag...thus your county in your state will start sending you notice's in the mail about renewing your tag...inspection etc.
Also you wont need your state insurance any more...you can go with out insurance in mexico or you can get mexican auto insurance.
I just called my state DOT and told them the truck is in Mexico and that i will return the tag when i bring it back to NC. When ever that will be. I did this once and NC only c harged me like $100 fee for not returning my tag when they said i should of.
Or if you think your going to be returning to your home state at any point...you may want to keep your state insurance and figure that out later...lol
NOw when i cross over into Texas...the border patrol who checks my passport and etc....they take my tag info and enter it into the computer.
I dont know why they do that...i will ask next time i cross over.
I know that my tag will expire from NC in the next month or so.
So i need to figure out what to do.
Im thinking to get a Texas tag on my truck...i have Texas auto insurance...it covers me 25 miles into the interior of mexico...which is as far as we drive right now.
Now if we go further into Mexico...we are not covered...but that is what it is.

pamela_c · #11 07-29-2009, 04:51 PM

I'm curious Mandy, do you cross over at a smaller border crossing where they don't have the camera things that read your plates before you get to the window? One time, I spaced and didn't stop so it could read it, so the agent had to lean around front and get my license plate number to put in the computer. I always wonder about the purpose, but have also never asked. I just hope that I never have a plate # associated with coyotes, drug dealers or the like and get hassled.....which I assume is part of the purpose (but do not really know).

MandyMeMe · #12 07-29-2009, 06:18 PM

I cross over at a 16 lane crossing...the have cameras but i dont know what its taking a picture of. The agents always walk around to the back of my truck and write the tag number down....now some of them dont...maybe 45% of the time they dont check my tag. Go figure
It can take up to 2 hour some days to get to the US....the line is so long...but there is a cable channel on TV-24 hours that has a rotating camera that shows you the line...so you can gauge how long it will take you once you get there.

lost14 · #13 07-30-2009, 06:44 AM

Mandy
If you want to send me your NC plate I would be more then happy to drop it at the DMV (I think it can be any in NC right).

Ok I am going to ask a bunch of questions here:

1) I drive hubbys truck to texas and cross over into mexico. Truck is in his name can I get permiso (or whatever it is called) for $30? Or does it have to be in my name to do this?

2)We get the permit and drive it to Cancun. It is going to stay there forever. Do we need to keep getting a new permit every 6 months?

3)Do I need to keep it registered in my home state?

3)Or I drive to Texas and we make it legal. That will cost about $1000-$1500 right? After this can the truck ever come back to US. What if we live on the border can I cross back and forth with it?

4) Or I ship it from FL to Cancun. Is that the same as driving? Or do I have to pay addition tax?

Thanks guys this is so complicated. Hubby's truck is a 2000 so if we are going to do it we have to do it this coming year.

MandyMeMe · #14 08-01-2009, 07:00 PM

Thanks for the offer...i have family who could do that for me...i dont want to send it back...it's a 2005 and i need that tag...i cant get a mexican tag for it.

#1..it has to be in his name...unless you change the title...have a notary change the title into your name. Have a registration in your name....that is ok...or a title in your name.
He can get the permisso when he gets here to MX....it doesnt take that long...the office is open 24/7
#2....well if you never come back to the border...you'r ok....but if you want to bring it back up here to the frontera...you will need to have the permisso. They have federal check points somedays...somedays....and the feds are checking for the permisso...they can hassel you over this.
#3 only if you want to...i didnt....i canceled the insurance too...called the dmv...told them i was taking my car to mexico and needed to keep the tag...it's ok.
#3-A....if you make it mexican...you can bring it back and forth.
#4...dont have a clue...you need to so some research...call companies...find out the deal...let us know what you find out...honestly it will cost you more to send it and pay taxes than what the trucks worth...per my hubby...i asked him all these questions...lol
Honestly the cheapest way right now is get the permisso and let time answer your other questions.

lost14 · #15 08-10-2009, 08:50 AM

Thanks mandy...

So just to clarify. Hubby can get a permiso for around $30 and just drive it in Cancun with North Carolina tags?

Doesnt really seem like there is a benifit to making it legal?

Well I will keep researching this.