# Has anyone bought a new car in Mexico?



## Perrier (Dec 18, 2016)

I'm thinking of buying a new car next month. I've been renting a car for the past month but want to get rid of it. 

What is the process for negotiations etc at a dealership?

Any advice would be helpful


----------



## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

Perrier said:


> I'm thinking of buying a new car next month. I've been renting a car for the past month but want to get rid of it.
> 
> What is the process for negotiations etc at a dealership?
> 
> Any advice would be helpful


We purchased a new 2016 Subaru last spring. With the depreciation of the peso - we watched the purchase price increase weekly. If I had to guess we got the car at 19.64 or so. 

There were NO negotiations on the price of the car. I believe they are set nationwide. We did manage to get premium floor mats and an English language owner's manual at no additional cost.

It is a great car.


----------



## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Perrier said:


> I'm thinking of buying a new car next month. I've been renting a car for the past month but want to get rid of it.
> 
> What is the process for negotiations etc at a dealership?
> 
> Any advice would be helpful


I bought a new motorcycle last April. No negotiations on price, but it was a demo and last year's model so I got a break on the price and some extras included. The process was basically the same as in the US.


----------



## Perrier (Dec 18, 2016)

Gatos said:


> We purchased a new 2016 Subaru last spring. With the depreciation of the peso - we watched the purchase price increase weekly. If I had to guess we got the car at 19.64 or so.
> 
> There were NO negotiations on the price of the car. I believe they are set nationwide. We did manage to get premium floor mats and an English language owner's manual at no additional cost.
> 
> It is a great car.


I'm a big Subaru fan but the wife and I don't really need to be driving much.
I've had this VW Veneto for a month and we've put on 1500km. I like the car for what we need. It's only around $10k or 220,000 Pesos


----------



## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

In 2009, I bought a VW Crossfox. No negotiations. Paid 70% down followed by three payments. No interest.


----------



## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

Has anyone financed a vehicle in Mexico?


----------



## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

Zorro2017 said:


> Has anyone financed a vehicle in Mexico?


Some have; Mexican citizens with healthy bank accounts, property, co-signers, first sons and a willingness to pay unbelievably usurious interest rates. Tourists, never. Expat residents, virtually never. New naturalized citizens, very rarely.

Next question, please.


----------



## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Zorro2017 said:


> Has anyone financed a vehicle in Mexico?


I did, but probably not in the way you meant. I loaned a Mexican friend some of the money he used to buy a Harley-Davidson. He repaid me in labor over the following few months.


----------



## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

I think it's ironic that in Mexico, where so many things are subject to negotiation that are non-negotiable north of the border, one thing that's notoriously negotiable north of the border (new car prices) isn't negotiable at all here.


----------



## Meritorious-MasoMenos (Apr 17, 2014)

There are ways to buy new cars in Mexico not from dealers and below their listed prices, but you have to be totally involved in the Mexican way of life, which I was then, 1980s, married to a Mexican. Through her and her extended family, who worked in both business and government, there was a huge web that could be accessed for many things.

Most ex-pats obviously are cut off and they have to play by the rules, but let me emphasize again, for Mexicans, laws are just suggestions.

Now, I just found out the devastating news that I'll have to go back to the States, probably for years, from Thailand, rather than to Mexico because of family situation.Kids. I already had one freelance offer as a journalist, and with a rampaging Trump, it may be miserable for most ex-pats but it's golden for journalists.

Anyway, as an example that this rule still applies, my Mexican wife and I split up in Virginia. She wanted a divorce. We both lived in Virginia. Easy no fault rules that no lawyer is needed. But she procrastinated and I had to leave.

Over the year I spent in Mexico in 2015, the situation of the stubborn marriage impasse came up with various Mexican friends. I have no intention of ever getting married again (and from what I've seen, the International Society of Females has decreed that it would expel any woman who took up with me), so it wasn't a big problem. There's also no fault divorce in Mexico. But about a month before I left for Thailand, a friend, the former best friend of my wife, in fact, introduced me to her brother, who works in a government office that processes divorces.

My wife is a U.S. citizen and because she hates to fly, hardly comes to Mexico, much as she loves it.

So I meet with the brother, No problem that she doesn't live here. He'll just send out an official notice to any one of her addresses, her parents house, or where we once lived, Isn't important, as no answer is needed. No answer means she's not interested in contesting. He would just need "minor expenses," about $100, and I'd have my divorce. Since we were married in Mexico, U.S. authorities would certainly recognize it. But it would take two months, I would not have to do a thing. He would fill out all the forms, I would just have to sign, he'd do all the work and then bring me the finalized decree. But that is how Mexico works. But it would take two months and I wanted to get to Thailand.

Back in the 80s, my wife and I opened video arcades when they were new to Mexico. there were hardly any. No real laws. Again, through both our contacts, we went over the heads of delegaciones (local borough gov'ts in DF) and got higher officials to order them to give us licenses. We had pull. That's how Mexico really works.The only taxes were income and they were ridiculous, like $30 a year.

Of course, the delegationes were infuriated and sent "inspectors" to look for violations. We understood, We could have fought but of course you don't want to abuse your contacts. We just set up a payment of "voluntary" donations to the delegation of each video arcade. We were making money hand over fist, I wasn't even touching my U.S. salary as a journalist.

So we bought two new cars. Again, a family member knew a trusted person who specialized in getting new cards with warranties for about 10 percent below list price. You ask for the make, model color (all standard shifts and no air conditioning back then), take a test drive, make a down payment, pay in full a week later at pickup. Both came registered to our names. Both lasted more than 20 years (left to her family when we left)

For my Mexican driver's license, I just gave two photos to my brother ih law and a minimal amount of pesos. He brought me a valid license that same day.

In nearly nine years, I never had to do anything to renew my visa. Office handled it. Just an arrangement with big news organizations, I guess. I traveled constantly, always had to get those extra pages they gave back then but no more but I never did a thing for my Mexican visa.

It took me a long time to decompress when returning to the states and actually have to follow all those stupid laws. For example, I wanted to buy this super popular sports car and that week, the only models were in Maryland and I lived in VA. I had 30 days to register it in Va but didn't take it seriously. A VA cop finally pulled me over and gave me a ticket. I was flabbergasted. In Mexico, every certified journalist had this huge laminated card twice the size of a drivers license labeled "From the President's Office" and told all Mexican officials to extend all courtesies. the few times I was stopped driving, just flashed the card and the officer bowed and sent me oh my way. Monthly visits to war zones in Central America. Always very strict passport and customs - long slow lines upon returning. We just went to head of the line showed the card had walked right on through never searched.

I blubbered to the U.S. cop that it wasn't fair and he just shrugged. I was of course smart enough not to offer him pesos.

So, expats who have "compadre" relationships with Mexicans can skip much of the bs. Are the car dealers in Mexico independent or owned by the companies. The latter could account for the impossibility of no bartering. It's a monopoly if so. But I have no idea.

But yeah, if you're going to stay here long term, make good friends with a few Mexican families. Do favors for them. Don't ask for favors. Just in the course of things, moan about a problem. Chances are one of them will know a way around the bureaucracy.


----------

