Mexican plated car Insurance

Question : Can a Mexican National after purchasing a U.S. plated car and having it Licensed with Mexican plates able to obtain full coverage car Insurance. Would it make a difference if the person borrowed monies via his bank? A very dear person had their car stolen, when I asked "did you have insurance" they said no and mentioned a bank. I am assuming they got a loan via a bank. Still don't understand. Any comments out there? The person I beleive did try to get insurance. They did mention that they could not get full insurance and what they could get was not worth the money. If I'm not mistaken, Mexico only covers full insurance. Don't know what I am trying to ask here, but this person was avid about being able to obtain Insurance.

You can buy as much or as little insurance as you want. I'm not sure what you want to know.

David wrote:You can buy as much or as little insurance as you want. I'm not sure what you want to know.

Sorry, this person was told they could not get car insurance because it was first an American plated car. Is that true?

Many (most?) insurance companies will not write insurance for nationalized cars because of the high rate of fraudulent paperwork -- AKA stolen cars with phony titles.

Rolly wrote:Many (most?) insurance companies will not write insurance for nationalized cars because of the high rate of fraudulent paperwork -- AKA stolen cars with phony titles.

Thank you so much Rolly. I know my friend would have gotten insurance if they could.

I acutally had told an aquaintance of the situation and they said " bullshit that is not true and the person was telling me a story and if they didn't have insurance it was too bad.

I own a Mexican plated van that was nationalized. I had no problem at all getting insurance for it at Parker Insurance. ANA is the insurer. The only caveat is that the insurance companies will only cover up to 85% of the blue book value on it because it was nationalized. I have no idea why this is.

"...insurance companies will only cover up to 85% of the blue book value...."

Perhaps because that is the value of the car had it remained in the US.

Yes, I am sure it has something to do with that.

Rolly, I have no idea why you would state that it is hard to get insurance for nationalized vehicles as that is not the case. There are many thousands of nationalized vehicles in Mexico. When I was looking for a mini van about 10 years old every one I looked at had been nationalized from the US.

Maybe being a Mexican buying a nationalized behicle would make a difference??

little italy wrote:Question : Can a Mexican National after purchasing a U.S. plated car and having it Licensed with Mexican plates able to obtain full coverage car Insurance. Would it make a difference if the person borrowed monies via his bank? A very dear person had their car stolen, when I asked "did you have insurance" they said no and mentioned a bank. I am assuming they got a loan via a bank. Still don't understand. Any comments out there? The person I beleive did try to get insurance. They did mention that they could not get full insurance and what they could get was not worth the money. If I'm not mistaken, Mexico only covers full insurance. Don't know what I am trying to ask here, but this person was avid about being able to obtain Insurance.

The question was, can a "Mexican National" convert US plated to Mexican plates and get insurance? Sounds prejudicial if they can't......and an expat can....just sayin....

Can a Mexican National buy a US plated car in Mexico? Wouldn't the expat bringing it into Mexico have to convert to Mexico Plates before selling to Mexican National?

When my Mexican plated vehicle was stolen I only received 90% of book value at the time of theft. 85% or 90% may be the standard deductible.

"Can a Mexican National buy a US plated car in Mexico?" Buy, yes. Get it licensed in Mexico, therefore legal, is difficult and expensive but can be done.

When I was thinking of converting my pickup, my insurance agent told me that he normally would not write a policy for a nationalized vehicle, but he would make an exception for me because my truck was already insured by his company, and he would be confident that the papers were in order.

He explained that most companies were reluctant to take on a nationalized vehicle for the reasons I listed above.

Bob, I'm glad you found insurance easily, but not everyone has been so lucky. I have had several e-mails to my website from people seeking advice to find a willing insurer.

Now that Rolly has had a chance to defend his statements - this may just be one of those circumstances where the correct answer is MAYBE and there may be a difference between the way it is handled with a Gringo vs a Mexican. Then again, maybe the insurance companies are willing to accept all the premiums that come down the pike from Gringos and then drag their heels paying when there is a claim? Who knows?

We also asked our insurrance agent about a nationalized car and were told that Ins. companies do not like nationalized car and NO we could not get the same insurrance than on a Mexican plated car. That was AXA. We are not Mexican citizens.

After reading all of the above, I'm confused as I do not see why a Mexican buying a US plated car could not insure it. As far as a US title being fraudulent or the car being stolen, that could be checked ahead of time with a simple call to the original selling dealer. As in my case of a one owner vehicle bought in Mass.

As far as the Mexican getting insurance on a US car, I think it would be a matter of shopping Agents/Companies to find out which Company would insure it.

John: The problem is that the Mexican cannot get the car transferred to Mexican plates and transferred to his name. Therefore, no insurance.

Rolly wrote:When I was thinking of converting my pickup, my insurance agent told me that he normally would not write a policy for a nationalized vehicle, but he would make an exception for me because my truck was already insured by his company, and he would be confident that the papers were in order.

He explained that most companies were reluctant to take on a nationalized vehicle for the reasons I listed above.

Bob, I'm glad you found insurance easily, but not everyone has been so lucky. I have had several e-mails to my website from people seeking advice to find a willing insurer.

I guess like many things in Mexico it depends on which day of the week it is........jajaja.

Quoting Chapala Payaso: "John: The problem is that the Mexican cannot get the car transferred to Mexican plates and transferred to his name. Therefore, no insurance."

CP: I have to question what you are basing this statement on? In the days when we were still driving from the New Meico border to Central Mexico, we would see numerous groups transporting NOB vehicles south (one vehicle towing another). It is hard for me to believe that they were going through this drill if they couldn't license these vehicles?

Earlier this year, I know of one Mexican who moved to Mexico after living in CA for 25+ years. He was able to jump through a bunch of hoops and legally license the vehicle when he crossed the border. Going back to 2003, we had a GMC pickup that we signed over to a Mexican friend in Oregon. He and a buddy drove the pickup to Mazatlan and it legally became a Mexican pickup in the very short period they were in Mazatlan prior to returning to Oregon by bus.

Maybe some clarification is in order?

That is what car nationalization is for....
Mexicans to Mexican plate foreign cars.

CheenaGringo wrote:Quoting Chapala Payaso: "John: The problem is that the Mexican cannot get the car transferred to Mexican plates and transferred to his name. Therefore, no insurance."

CP: I have to question what you are basing this statement on? In the days when we were still driving from the New Meico border to Central Mexico, we would see numerous groups transporting NOB vehicles south (one vehicle towing another). It is hard for me to believe that they were going through this drill if they couldn't license these vehicles?

Earlier this year, I know of one Mexican who moved to Mexico after living in CA for 25+ years. He was able to jump through a bunch of hoops and legally license the vehicle when he crossed the border. Going back to 2003, we had a GMC pickup that we signed over to a Mexican friend in Oregon. He and a buddy drove the pickup to Mazatlan and it legally became a Mexican pickup in the very short period they were in Mazatlan prior to returning to Oregon by bus.

Maybe some clarification is in order?

I refer you to an article in Fox News Latino dated 09/24/12 and further citing a report by U.S.A. Today entitled CORRUPTION AND LOW PRICES ALLOW A FLOOD OF ILLEGAL CARS INTO MEXICO.

This article estimates that approximately 6,000,000 cars and trucks driven in Mexico entered the country illegally and are unregistered and uninsured (auto insurance is not legally required in Mexico). Most of these illegal vehicles are simply driven down into Mexico from the U.S. Because these vehicles are duty free and require no sales tax charge, they are much cheaper than legally imported cars or even cars manufactured in Mexico. Crooked cops and other authorities typically exact mordida from owners/drivers of these cars but even with the mordida these cars are much cheaper than legally imported and registered vehicles.

One contributor to this article who lives in Chihuahua estinates that 1/3rd of all vehicles driven in that state are illegal and thus unregistered and uninsured.

We are not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. Bettah watch yo ass and assume everybody you pass out there is uninsured and perhaps short of funds since paying that mordida.

Cheena et al: I am not really on top of this anymore and things may have changed, as they are prone to do. But there was a time in the past couple of years where the only cars that could be imported legally were those exactly 10 years old. I have heard that this has changed and I have a friend who is considering nationalizing his 1992 car to reduce police hassle and in case he wants to sell it here. It would cost him $3,400.00 Pesos and I was assured by my contact it could be done legally.

I believe that buying a foreign plated, or even an out of state Mexican plated, vehicle will create a lot of potential woes unless you know how to go about it. I used such a facilitator who does this as his occupation and who is an abogado, not some fly by night wheeler dealer. You will also be charged an import fee of a consisderable amount.

When I bought my cars, I went to the tianguis in GDL and a condition of the sale was that the car would have Jalisco plates and be registered in my name. The seller was paid the remaining owed when so delivered.

In my not so humble opinion, any buyer, Mexican or gringo, would be well advised to not buy a car without Jalisco plates and not pay until the seller and buyer go to the appropriate offices to transfer the title to the buyer's name and obtain Jalisco plates. Plates are $900.00 Pesos and transfer fee runs about $550.00 Pesos.

CP - The $ 3,400 pesos sounds too cheap. I have heard of people paying $ 2,000 + US to Nationalize a car. Just not worth spending half the value of a car that you'll never get back.

I believe it can be expensive for a gringo to nationalize a vehicle but cheap for a Mexican citizen to do so.

John,

I happened to talk with my contact yesterday and that is the price he quoted. I imagine that if you wanted a person to drive it for you to the site, it could be more. As you know, there is no firm price for anything in Mexico that doesn't come out of a vending machine.

For the Dawg:

I have read any number of articles on the "chocolate problem" and I will admit to milking this topic for all the info I can gather. The fact is that after putting out approx. $1500USD over 13 months for rental cars and getting nothing but a receipt, we are taking a hard look at purchasing a Mexican/Jalisco plated vehicle. I have discussed the issue with Spencer from S & S and for $500USD, it appears we can cover our collective rear ends? Insurance is an issue and we believe that we have the storage problem covered.