Forums > General > Traveling Mexico

Bubba

Sep 4, 2003, 2:20 PM

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Temporary Texas Plates #2

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Rolly mercifully locked the thread below concerning the author's planned travel to the U.S. That discussion was, indeed going off on a bit of a tangent. As it happens, that need to go the the U.S. no longer exists thank God and I can stay here in paradise.

I am reopening that discussion because a poster said something in that thread that is a bit misleading. Those of you contemplating a move to Mexico need to know the following:

You do not need current U.S. auto registration in Mexico for your U.S. registered car once you are here. Period. Either for the Mexican authorities or for car insurance coverage. Stop worrying about your expired registration. Nobody down here cares in the least. If you are registered in California as were we, they will not renew your registration anyway - especially if you need a smog check. Forget it!

As GG stated in that earlier thread, if you must drive back to the U.S., have your documents, including your FM2 or FM3 in order and if a cop pulls you over he/she will understand your problem.

I was able to get U.S. liability coverage and my normal Mexican coverage from Lloyd so that I could be fully covered in the U.S. for 30 days during my visit there. No problem. No need to stop over the border for coverage. It was not cheap ($186USD for 30 days) but damned convenient.

Kip

Sep 4, 2003, 2:45 PM

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Re: [Bubba] Temporary Texas Plates #2

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No need to go to the land of mint julips? Good on ya!!

Kip
kip

FeelinGroovy

Sep 5, 2003, 8:34 AM

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Re: [Bubba] Temporary Texas Plates #2

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Bubba,
Thanks for explaining this so well. I have one question, maybe two ... I'm planning on moving to Lakeside next spring/summer ... driving down (from Sacramento), with an FM3 in my New Beetle with my dog, Abby, a beautiful Bichon Frise, but I digress. Anyway, so I would have vehicle permit, appropriate Mexican insurance yada yada yada. Say 3-4 years I decide (for some reason I can't think of) that I want to move back to the States, say Texas for example. What would one do WRT the car registration at that point? You seem like you might now this is why I ask.

So CA won't let you register your vehile because you're in Mexico, is that what you mean? I know you say forget it, don't worry, but ...

Thank you,
Libby

shoe

Sep 5, 2003, 11:22 AM

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Re: [Bubba] Temporary Texas Plates #2

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Just a comment!

For those of you that had Allstate vehicle insurance in the US, all you need is your old policy and/or your old insurance card when you return to the US as they are good for 30 days. You have your old insurance automatically active immediately when you cross the border. They did this for military personal a long time ago and it applies to everyone now. This is what my agent told me when I suspended my insurance earlier this year. It wouldn't have mattered if I had cancelled it. They did this to get you back to them I am sure.

Another thing is that if you save all your Mexican vehicle insurance policies while you are out of the US and then go back, you will not be put into a higher premium catagory because you didn't have continuous coverage. You can prove that you had it. I would think that this would apply to any company but I don't know.

I would check with other agents/otheir companies if I was you. I had to get mine to do some work on this as he didn't know all this stuff to start with. He didn't know that I could suspend the insurance as a example but he knew about the 30 day deal as he dealt with a lot of military people being around Fort Knox.

shoe

Nothing is intrinsically good or evil, but its manner of usage may make it so.
-St. Thomas Aquinas

Bubba

Sep 5, 2003, 12:30 PM

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Re: [Libby] Temporary Texas Plates #2

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Libby:

Even if you could register your car in Califonia for a year or so, eventually you will run into the problem of smog certification which you cannot achieve outside of California.

Here is what you need to know. It does not matter in the least as long as you keep the car here. Now, when you go back; that is another story. I defer to those who have been through that. I ain't going back!

Sep 5, 2003, 9:08 PM

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Re: [Libby] Temporary Texas Plates #2

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Quote

Libby writes:
driving down (from Sacramento)....Say 3-4 years I decide (for some reason I can't think of) that I want to move back to the States, say Texas for example. What would one do WRT the car registration at that point?

Since it sounds like the vehicle is currently registered in the State of California, have you investigated placing the vehicle registration into Non-Operational Status?

With regards to Non Operational Status, the California Department of Motor Vehicles writes:

Quote

California law requires vehicles to be currently registered if they are driven, towed, stored, parked on public roads or highways or parked in an off-street public parking facility at any time during the registration period.

Non-operational means that the vehicle will not be driven, towed, stored, or parked on public roads or highways for the entire registration year.

I'm not guaranteeing that this will work, but an interesting arguement could be made that while in Mexico, the vehicle won't be "driven, towed, stored, parked on public roads or highways or parked in an off-street public parking facility" anywhere where the State of California has jurisdiction. To make this work you'd need to file the DMV's Certificate of Planned Non-operation after you departed from California, and reactivate your registration before you drove the car back into California.

Statutory authority for non-operational vehicle status is supposed to come from Revenue and Taxation Code §§10855 and 10856, and Vehicle Code §§4452, 4604, 4604.5, 5105, 5106, 9269, 9553, 9554, 9706, 9710, 9862, 38121, and 38246. Please post the findings of your research so that others can benefit.

With regards to moving to Texas you might also want to investigate the concept of "informed consent"......

esperanza

Sep 7, 2003, 7:41 PM

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Re: [ET] Temporary Texas Plates #2

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Non-operational status...I did this for a while, and it does work.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

FeelinGroovy

Sep 8, 2003, 8:45 AM

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Re: [esperanza] Temporary Texas Plates #2

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I will definitely look into the non-operational status and report back. Thank you all for your feedback.

BTW, I would never actually move to Texas :)
Libby