# No More importing used cars



## Bobbyb (Mar 9, 2014)

If you were planning on importing a used car it may be too late. According to El Imparcial used cars may not be allowed anymore. NAFTA was to have removed all obstacles for the import of used cars. No restrictions. But AMLO must have other ideas. The car dealers and mfrs. are lobbying for NO import of any used cars!!


----------



## Bodega (Apr 20, 2016)

The dealers and the manufacturers have always lobbied for not importing used cars. The current regs are already sufficiently restrictive as to prevent importing cars that will compete with the sale of new/recent autos. Personally, I can’t see our president supporting such an overhaul of the guidelines.


----------



## lat19n (Aug 19, 2017)

I think I remember this tune from a while back...

Totally unrelated (maybe) - we imported a car years ago. We used a broker and have a valid pedimento etc. Perhaps 3 or 4 years ago our state wanted to make sure every car was insured, so they came out with a new license plate and insisted that everyone produce proof of insurance to receive a plate. 

Now this year they are saying their database has been corrupted (?) and they need to reestablish the data. So they will have new plates. They once again want to see our pedimento etc. Personally I think it might just be another 'money grab'. But who knows.


----------



## Bobbyb (Mar 9, 2014)

I don't think Amlo knows what he is doing. This subject was front page news in El Imparcial. Stya tuned for more bad ideas!


----------



## Bobbyb (Mar 9, 2014)

Found some more info. Apparently according to NAFTA there was to be NO import duties or restrictions starting Jan 1 , 2019. But the car dealers and mfrs. are lobbying. I think they want a 50% duty!! Crazy. If AMLO is really a man of the people he should let the people bring the cars into Mexico with Zero duty! We shall see.


----------



## lagoloo (Apr 12, 2011)

"A man of the people" would mean the Mexican people...including their car dealers, etc. (grin.)

Not planning to leave, but if we did return to CA, the Mexican car we bought new here in 2010 wouldn't be eligible for licensing because of smog features...luck of the draw.


----------



## Stevenjb (Dec 10, 2017)

lagoloo said:


> "A man of the people" would mean the Mexican people...including their car dealers, etc. (grin.)
> 
> Not planning to leave, but if we did return to CA, the Mexican car we bought new here in 2010 wouldn't be eligible for licensing because of smog features...luck of the draw.


If it is from a U.S. manufacturer, check under the hood to see if it has the 50-state CARB emissions sticker.


----------



## lagoloo (Apr 12, 2011)

It was born in Brazil.


----------



## lat19n (Aug 19, 2017)

lagoloo said:


> It was born in Brazil.


Like you, our Mexican purchased 2016 Japanese car will likely never leave Mexico - but there is a sticker under the hood which reads (In English) :

Vehicle Emission Control Information
Conforms to regulations : 2016MY
US EPA : T285 LDT2
California : LEV II LEV LDT2

Worse case - maybe you would just have to replace the catalytic converter. We have Mexican friends who have done that in order to get a '0' or '00' hologram on their older cars. It is not expensive at all.


----------



## lagoloo (Apr 12, 2011)

But.......we have no intention of leaving Mexico, with or without the FIT, so no problem. The little thing has been a perfect car for narrow, crowded streets.


----------



## lat19n (Aug 19, 2017)

Some responsible person should consider changing the title of this thread to something like "Possible car importation changes". I tried to find more info on this topic - other than to original source posted - there is not a lot out there. (I have zero skin in the game).


----------



## Stevenjb (Dec 10, 2017)

lat19n said:


> Like you, our Mexican purchased 2016 Japanese car will likely never leave Mexico - but there is a sticker under the hood which reads (In English) :
> 
> 
> 
> ...


California : LEV II LEV LDT2

Congratulations - From a web search - appears that your vehicle is California smog emissions compliant.


----------



## lat19n (Aug 19, 2017)

Stevenjb said:


> California : LEV II LEV LDT2
> 
> Congratulations - From a web search - appears that your vehicle is California smog emissions compliant.


California has a special place in my heart since I met my wife of 35+ years in Marin County - on a business trip.
If I had all the money in the world I might have a base in Tiburon.
Our Californian compliant vehicle will never make that trip.


----------



## Bobbyb (Mar 9, 2014)

lat19n: I did not get up one morning and think: Why don't I make up a story about importing cars. It was front page and page 3 in El Imparcial with a big bold headline. Even had interviews with people in the business. Next day even more headlines. The article explained how according to NAFAT the duties and restrictions were supposed to drop to ZERO this January. But one of the Jefes in a car dealers Association was lobbying for 65% duty!!! For some reason the story was not on the Mexican wire services. It was written by a Hermosillo reporter.


----------



## Bobbyb (Mar 9, 2014)

I managed to find the google translate of 2 articles. I hope this is not against any forum rules. There were 2 more articles but I cannot find them.
When the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed in 1992, which took office on January 1, 1994, it was established that 15 years later imports of used cars to Mexico would begin to be tax-deductible. 

Thus, in 2009, Mexicans could import used cars from the United States or Canada up to 10 years old that responded to a series of rules imposed in the commercial agreement, but free of liens. 

Vicente Fox Quesada , then president of Mexico, issued a decree in 2005 by which authorized imports of used vehicles between 10 and 15 years old , when the rules of the FTA still did not come into force. 

The measure of the Fox government caused an increase in imports of cars from the United States, which exceeded the sale of new cars. According to data from the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA), between 2005 and 2006 the importation of cars increased by 149%. 






To curb this measure and due to pressures from new car dealers, President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa reformed that decree in 2008, with which the years of antiquity of cars susceptible to import decreased from 15 to 10 years. 

DECREES 

In 2009 and 2011, the federal government issued two new decrees that referred to environmental and technical conditions that vehicles from these two countries had to comply with. These actions, according to the AMDA, allowed the import of cars to be reduced between 2008 and 2009, almost 78%. 

In Annex 300-A, Appendix 300-A.2, the North American Free Trade Agreement establishes that from January 1, 2009 and gradually until 2019, Mexico may not adopt or maintain a prohibition or restriction to the importation of used original vehicles from Canada or the United States. 







So far, in the new agreement -called T-MEC-, no data of the content regarding the importation of used cars has been aired, so it is not foreseen that in the near future what was agreed in the FTA could disappear , according to consulted sources. 

OPPOSITE EFFECT 

According to the customs agent Gerardo González Guerra, although the population believes that the decrees facilitate the free trade of vehicles, it is the opposite, since they limit commercial activity and place barriers on those who seek to acquire a used foreign car. 


"It is clear the FTA, right now to import a car should pay nothing else the VAT, with zero tariff, and that is not happening, with these decrees you take away the right that people have, the right that gives the treaty to be able to acquire a used car, " he said. 








The pressure that AMDA has exercised directly on the government -which led to issuing and continuing the decrees for years-, he said, is inconsistent because the segment of the population that requires the purchase of a used car does not have the income to buy. a new car 

He added that, in addition, new car dealers can not compete with the US market, which sells 17 million new cars a year versus one million sold in the country, or the level of replacement, estimated in six years in the neighboring country against 14 years in Mexico. 

OBSTACLES 

One of the main arguments of the distributors to press for barriers to import, he said, is the emission of pollutants from used cars, even though they know that there are very specific rules in the United States on environmental matters. 





For example, he said, for the revalidation of license plates of the vehicle, a smoke emission test must be passed and if the car contaminates it does not obtain the circulation permit issued by the Department of Transportation (DOT, for its acronym in English). 


"I do not understand why the government clings not to let them import, give them the right to the FTA, apart from generating savings for SMEs, payment of legal taxes, without giving money to anyone in the customs, or the Federal Police, or to the municipal transits, "he said. 


REVERT MEASURE 

President Felipe Calderón issued decrees to curb the importation of cars, but the effect was reversed because thousands of "crooked" cars entered the country, said Efrén Rosas Leyva. 

The president of the Association of Merchants of Used Cars of Ciudad Obregón (Acauco) said that the problem reached such a degree that the same leaders of affiliated organizations of illegal vehicles affirm that there are 5 million cars circulating under these conditions in Mexico, and around of 400 thousand in Sonora. 


"The measure of not having complied with the FTA has been reversed and we consider that the excessive entry of 'crooked' cars is a product of corruption," he said . 


The new government, headed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, explained, has not yet signed the renewal of the decree that would give continuity to the imposition of barriers to the importation of vehicles, which opens a window of possibilities. 

He considered that the taxes that now are imposed on the cars that are imported are very high. 


"We see it as a measure out of tune, right now there are vehicles that can pay up to 60 thousand pesos of import taxes, but precisely that is the objective of the decree: Discourage the legal import of vehicles," he said. 


For Fidel Lugo Ayala , national president of the organization Serving the National Heritage (Sipafa, AC), the measure imposed by the Government contributed to strengthen corruption and could import vehicles at convenience. 


"The changes to raise the tariff, coupled with the dollar rose, because families who bring a vehicle of foreign origin can not import a car that is not 2010 or 2011 model, but those are expensive and there it is difficult to import or nationalize them " , he added. 


An important measure that has been requested to deputies, senators and the federal government, he said, is that regularize the cars that currently circulate illegally in the country, an act that would curb the importation of vehicles. 

He emphasized that the car dealers, as well as the assembly companies, represented by the AMDA and the Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry (AMIA), are the ones who pressure the authorities against a possible regularization. 

"They say that the economy is being damaged , " he stressed, "but the truth is that people who bring a car of foreign origin will never buy a new national car from dealers, it's not their market" . 
TOPICS: GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO , TLC , USED ​​CARS 

The free trade of cars should not be absolute, but be regulated, because otherwise illegalities and unfair competition that threatens the automotive industry in Mexico, said Roberto Gómez del Campo Laborín. 

The president of the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA) in Sonora, said that the decree that regulates the importation of automobiles must continue because it is a way to stop the indiscriminate entry of vehicles into the country. 

"We have fought for legality and that has resulted in the publication of the automotive decrees of the Government to put the rules of import, since previously no rule was met. 


"For several years, import rules have been imposed and this has meant that the entry of cars is not so indiscriminate because there are requirements of origin, of environmental standards, that do not come from crashes or contraband," he explained. 


The used vehicles of import, indicated the industralist, yes they turn out to be competition for the sale of new cars in Mexico, because the cycle of sale of a new car includes the used one, when delivering this car the client, on account of the new one. 

He added that the United States has car sales fourteen times that of Mexico, so if the entry of vehicles coming from that country is released, it would affect both the shipbuilding industry in Mexico and the sales of vehicles. dealers. 

"In that sense, we support the continuation of the decree that regulates imports," he said. "Free trade must have its dimensions as well, it is not an absolute freedom and it is necessary to see which aspects of that free trade benefit the country." . 

He emphasized that free importation is not a positive situation for the country because it disturbs the automotive industry and especially for Hermosillo since it has the example of the Ford Plant, which not only exports, but also generates jobs and sells cars for the interior of the country. Country. 

HIGH RATE TO USED CARS INCREASES BUYER PRICE: HOTELERS 

The high tariff that, according to the sellers of cars from the United States, charges Mexico for a used vehicle that enters the country is what hinders the free trade of units and increases the price for buyers. 

Managers and owners of lots of imported cars used in Hermosillo agreed that the authorities should lower tariffs and respect the dictates of the Free Trade Agreement on imports. 

"A car models 2010 or 2011 there are times that goes up to 45 thousand pesos the pure import, which is almost the cost of the car, if a car costs 50 thousand pesos, with the import we put here at 100 thousand pesos" , explained Manuel Corrales, owner of a lot of imported cars. 

They pointed out that currently the Mexican regulations allow only the importation of cars of the 2010, 2011 and 2019 models, a fact that affects negatively in two ways: In the sale of lotteries and in the acquisition of a car by local buyers. 

Antonio Urbalejo , in charge of a lot of cars located north of Hermosillo, said that the price of cars grows even more in Mexico because you have to pay, in addition to importation at the border, nationalization, registration to the Public Vehicular Registry ( Repuve), and the replacement. 




TOPICS: IMPORTATION OF USED CARS , AMDA


----------

