You should know: when buying a car in Mexico with foreign license plates, you are taking a great risk. Most often, such cars are imported into Mexico under the temporary import regime, which does not give the owners the right to sell them. Such cars are cheaper because they are not cleared through customs. Even if the car was imported into the country with all customs duties paid, the importer must first register the car in the State Registry of Motor Vehicles and purchase new, Mexican license plates, and only then sell the car. And one more option — the car was imported at preferential rates by a resident of the states of Sonora, Baja California and Baja California Sur, and the owner did not change the license plate. In this case, he will be able to legally sell such a car by paying the difference between the full customs rate and the preferential one, which is most often unprofitable.
Please note that you do not need to be a citizen or resident to purchase a car in Mexico. Any foreigner, including travelers, has the right to own property in Mexico.
Many Americans travel to Mexico in their own cars. Upon entry, they apply for a Temporary Import Permit (TIP), which is linked to the holder's FMM migration form and is valid for the same period as the FMM. In fact, TIP — This is an analogue of the migration form, only for a car. Since 2020, TIP is issued electronically and can be checked from the smartphone of any traffic police officer in Mexico. When importing, no import taxes are paid, only a security deposit of $200-400 is charged, which will be returned if the owner removes the car from the country on time. In most Mexican states, it is almost impossible to renew TIP without leaving the state.
The owner of a car imported into Mexico under the temporary import regime has the right to move freely throughout the country until the end of the TIP period. He is not obliged and does not have the opportunity to change the numbers to Mexican ones. Moreover, he is not able to sell such a car or rent it out.
There are different situations in life. Exporting your car every time, then importing it again, dealing with complex repairs, or simply storing the car in Mexico can be quite expensive. A non-resident does not have the right to prepare a full-fledged import, and it is not profitable. If the owner wants to sell such a car in Mexico, he can only do so informally, to resellers for cash and at a price of 30-50% of the market value. This is how such cars appear in Mexican car markets.
The buyer, not being versed in the intricacies of buying a car in Mexico, buys such a car and immediately exposes himself to the danger of running into a traffic police inspection. The temporary import permit has been issued to another person or its validity period has expired.
A more complicated situation is when the seller has an invoice in which the buyer will be included, and the car comes with Mexican license plates. In other words, the purchase looks completely legal. The license plates and documents for the car look real and are considered as such, they are just not registered anywhere. The legs of these documents grow from the traffic police officers themselves. We have talked about such situations in other publications on our website.
The very first check by the traffic police will reveal that you are not the owner of such a car or that the car does not have valid documentation for use in Mexico. The car will be confiscated and you will never see it again. Of course, you can buy a car for a lot of money, but more often than not it’s not worth it. However, there is no guarantee that you will not be checked again.
Sometimes on social networks, in groups dedicated to immigration to the United States through Mexico — we are talking about applying for asylum at road crossings between countries — You can find advice on buying cars in Mexico with American license plates. They say that it will be easier to cross the border in such a car, since American border guards will consider that the car belongs to a US citizen. If possible, they will think so until they check your passport before crossing the border. And then they will hand you over to the Mexican police, who will definitely check the documentation for the car and take it to the impound area. As we said above, the car has the right to be confiscated.
Even if the car was imported legally into Mexico, the owner only has one day to enter the car's data into the State Register of Motor Vehicles. There is an opportunity, the owner, who is also the importer, who is also the seller, has not yet had time to change the license plates to Mexican ones for an urgent sale. However, it is very easy to verify the legality of importing a car into Mexico.
The next case — preferential import of cars from the United States by residents of the three border states of Mexico. Having officially registered such imports with the payment of customs duties at a preferential rate, many of them continue to drive American license plates. To sell such a car, the owner is required to register it under the normal permanent import regime, paying the difference between the preferential and regular import tariffs, otherwise the sale will be considered illegal. Registration of import of a used car at the full import rate is most often unprofitable, since it will make the price of such a car higher than the market price. For this reason, such a car is sold illegally or semi-legally. We wrote above about the consequences for the buyer — any road check will result in the seizure of the vehicle.
If the seller decides to sell the car in compliance with all the rules, before the sale he is obliged to deregister the car and hand over the license plates. In this case, the car is sold without license plates, but with permission to operate for 30 days. During these 30 days, the buyer should register the car with the traffic police at his place of residence and obtain new license plates.
So, in Mexico, avoid buying a used car with foreign license plates if you don't want to get in trouble with the traffic police.
When purchasing any used car, carefully check the materials about it in the registries. In Mexico, all registries are open, and verification is easy. If the car has foreign license plates, take into account the sticker on the glass with the date by which the car must be cleared through customs. Explore ourpublicationon how to properly buy a used car in Mexico. It’s another matter if you need a car “here and now”, and you agree to buy it right at the street car market, signing papers on the hood. This means that you assume all the risks of such an act in advance.