# Buying a van



## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

I need to buy some kind of a used cargo van to go haul my stuff down from storage in Laredo. 

I'm really nervous about this, and am looking for any advice on the process. I've only bought new vehicles twice in my life, and have never bought used. (I had hand-me-downs too, but the point is I didn't buy them from dealers).

I'm only a little mechanically inclined, but not good with cars, and unless a fault is obvious I'll probably miss it. I can look for rust, oil puddles under the vehicle and really obvious stuff, but not the more subtle signs of a lemon. 

I'm thinking that I should buy from a used or semi-new car dealer to avoid some of the worst pitfalls (like paying for a vehicle the seller doesn't actually own). But how to avoid being sold the vehicle they want to get rid of rather than the one that's the best they have that meets my needs?

I need to find something that will get me to Laredo and back. It's a 30 hour trip from Cancun, so I need it to not break down for the first 100 hours.

I plan to only keep this vehicle for a year or less, once my stuff is retrieved i will think about trading it for something smaller. I don't want to buy new for this since I won't be keeping it long.

Some may ask "why not rent?". My understanding is that to drive it into the US to pick up my stuff, I need to be the owner. Please advise if that's not correct. A rental would be perfect if it's possible, but I don't know where to rent a truck I can drive across country and into the US.


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

My rapid/random thoughts. 
This 'cargo van' you have in mind - is it the kind which has a roll up back door type thing or is it about the size of a van that might carry 8 people at an airport to their hotel ?
When you look around Cancun - do you see a lot of these vans on the street ?
Were you thinking of getting a menaje at the consulate in Laredo ? Can you ?
Have you mentioned your intentions to the owner of whatever warehouse you are using in Laredo ? Maybe he knows someone who could bring your stuff to you. I doubt your situation is unique.
Is Estafeta in Cancun. I know they are in Laredo. I would have see if maybe they could bring you your stuff. 

I know the world changes. I know that we were given soo much bad information when we moved down and we accomplished things we were told were not possible. A smile, some decent Spanish and a pocket of pesos help.

We pulled a trailer behind an SUV, both with US plates into Mexico. When we got to our destination we imported both vehicles. We still have the SUV. It took us maybe 3-4 years to sell the trailer. There simply aren't that many here. 

We imported our vehicles, using an import broker, at Aduana in Mexico City. We never returned to the border. I'm sure Aduana has a presence in Cancun.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

I was thinking of the airport bus sized thing, maybe with a raised ceiling. They are typically called 20 passenger vans. You can fit 20 children in them (but probably only 12 US-sized adults), and they get used for school buses. There are tons of those on the streets here in Cancun, there must be some used around, though the seats would be a bother - I could take them out, leave them here, and then put them back in afterwards, but I'd just as soon buy a van without them. A ford transit is another thing, a bit more oriented towards cargo than passengers, less frequently seen here.

The roll-up type back gate truck, like the smallest penske rental, is what I used to move my stuff to laredo, and I had it less than half full. A typical passenger van will be tight, but I can probably get rid of some more stuff to the goodwill in Laredo. A few extra cubic feet by having a raised roof will help. 

My stuff is in a 10x10 storage unit, that is not filled to the ceiling, more like 5 feet on average. I'm figuring 500 cubic feet, and that may be high since the storage unit wasn't packed tight as could be.

I could get a menaje de casa, but I think I would have to get it from the embassy in Seattle where I got my original visa. I sent them an email and asked, and they didn't say I could get one from Laredo, but they said I could definitely get one from them (although I'm running out of time, I have six months from last september). But the airfare to go and get it probably outweighs the cost of just importing my junk, so I was planning on not bothering. 

The embassy in Laredo doesn't answer the phone or make appointments, it's unclear how one could even get an appointment to get the menaje de casa from them even if that was the "right" embassy. I suspect they're just overrun.

I explored hiring a company, and the ones that talked to me had minimums like $5000 plus required the menaje de casa. I think it's going to be less hassle to do it myself, actually, and probably cheaper, even including some loss on buying and then reselling a truck later. 

The hard part is getting the stuff across the border. If I lived in Laredo and owned almost any kind of truck, even a pickup, I could ferry my stuff across to storage in Neuvo Laredo in multiple trips, then hire a Mexican moving company to move it the rest of the way, that would be easy. But I don't. And I can't fly to Laredo and rent anything and drive it across the border, or I would have already - the truck rental places like U-Haul and Penske prohibit entering Mexico. That's why my stuff is stuck in Laredo in the first place.

That's useful info about the trailer, I'd also considered just getting the vehicle I want long term (something like a jeep wrangler) and buying a trailer to tow my stuff, with the idea to resell the trailer. That apparently won't be as easy as I thought. But I was leaning towards the van anyway as a more simple solution. I'm thinking I'll drive the van until I have more money and can afford a new wrangler. 



I'm on Residente Permanente now, so I can't get a TIP for anything anymore.


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

eastwind said:


> I'm on Residente Permanente now, so I can't get a TIP for anything anymore.


That is some of the bad information we received. We only ever had RP status. When we got to Laredo they gave us a TIP (I think it was for 30 days but it might have been for 3 months). One of our top priorities was to get an import broker when we got here. You have the luxury of starting those conversations beforehand. The import broker gave us some preliminary paperwork that showed he had started the import process at Aduana. No one ever questioned the expired TIP anyway - and we did lose the TIP deposit in the end.


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

Actually - I misspoke. No one had ever told us that with RP we could not bring in our vehicles. We were shocked.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

What I was really looking for was advice or experience buying a used vehicle in Mexico, the type doesn't matter so much.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

I rented a van to do what you are planning. I rented it in Guadalajara, took the seats out and left them at the rental agency, drove to the US, filled it up, drove back and turned it in. I paid for full insurance coverage and was told it would cover me in the US as well. In hind sight I realized I probably had no coverage while I was outside Mexico. Fortunately, the only problem I had was a flat tire and that was in Mexico. I am not sure how to solve the Insurance problem. I guess you could minimize the risk by switching vans at the border city, but it would be nuisance.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Thanks, you've posted your story before, and I'm using it as inspiration, but I didn't realize yours was a rented van, I thought all along that you owned it. There are a lot of Hertz places here in Cancun, and I bet they could rent me a 20 passenger van. Based on MangoTango's encouragement, I will at least ask if it's possible to rent to drive into the US. I'm sure Hertz US could give me insurance for $20/day or something, like I was renting a US vehicle from them, but whether I can get it _without _rent a US vehicle would be interesting. It would certainly be cheaper to rent than buy used and resell. 

I also didn't know you left the seats at the rental company, that's more new information for me that is interesting.

Thanks

A related question, if anyone knows. Mexico has some kind of a zone near the border, and if you cross into Mexico from the US you don't need any car paperwork if you stay in that zone, correct? Something like 20 miles? My question is whether the US has a similar zone. My storage unit in Laredo is just 4 miles from the border.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

eastwind said:


> Thanks, you've posted your story before, and I'm using it as inspiration, but I didn't realize yours was a rented van, I thought all along that you owned it. There are a lot of Hertz places here in Cancun, and I bet they could rent me a 20 passenger van. Based on MangoTango's encouragement, I will at least ask if it's possible to rent to drive into the US. I'm sure Hertz US could give me insurance for $20/day or something, like I was renting a US vehicle from them, but whether I can get it _without _rent a US vehicle would be interesting. It would certainly be cheaper to rent than buy used and resell.
> 
> I also didn't know you left the seats at the rental company, that's more new information for me that is interesting.
> 
> ...


There is no equivalent zone on the US side of the border. But there is also no paperwork required to bring a Mexican vehicle into the US.


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