Although the car T.J. is selling has some years and miles on it, it looks great. (I suspect it's too old to be nationalized, hence the need to keep it in the TIPs status. Is that right, T.J.?) One question I'd have, could the new owner retain the existing Florida plates, and renew them if they wanted to, without also being a resident of Florida? Could the existing Temporary Import Permit be transferred to the new owner, or would they have to take the car out of the country and re-import it? Well, I guess that was two questions....
The 'safest' place is going to be just like anywhere else I expect. Safest will be from an official dealer, less safe would be through a second hand car lot and least safe from a private individual. We've bought 2 cars, one from a dealer and one from the tianguis and didnt have any problems with either.
Wow, Steve is more or less implying that I might be shadier/more risky and the "least safe", as a used car seller, than some some sleazy used car salesman. Ouch.
Low blow probably not intended directly at me, but man, I am bent over in pain and having trouble breathing. A referee would call time to let me recuperate. Still I do have a nice used car for sale. 2nd owner and it can be nationalized (V). Best believable quote is $23,000 and don't have to take it to a US border and it tekes 3 weeks. I am sure someone is getting paid off somewhere. I did get a quote of only $1,150 US from a broker in Tijuana and it would take 3 days with the car there. Price jumps to almost $2,000 US with the car not there and it takes 6 weeks. Learning a lot about this process. I really prefer to sell it to someone with Inmigrante or No Inmigrante status.
The changes in the law which has allowed many to go to permanent residency relatively easily has also created some havoc with those who have/had cars with TIPs permits, because they lose the privilege of having a TIPs car from the moment they apply for permanent residency, as I understand it. Further, no visitor or temporary resident can have more than one TIPs car in the country at a time. I'm glad I didn't have to face this question, but I feel for those who do/did.
T.J., one of the options that a person with an expired TIPs permit has is to ask for permission to take the car out of the country on a one way trip, with a five day limit to reach the border. If the car doesn't sell within the time frame you have in mind, would this be a viable option for you, with the idea of selling the car to a dealer in Texas, for example? The program is called, "Retorno Seguro", and here is a place you can get full details. http://www.aduanas.gob.mx/aduana_mexico/2008/vehiculos/141_10027.html
I thought I'd post a link to an interesting conversation they're having in PdC which would lead one to believe that permanente and foreign-plated auto might work. registering USA vehicle in MX - Playa del Carmen, Mexico forum
Kathy, like everything in the law there are complexities to this question that go beyond the scope of the thread you mentioned, which addresses the process of nationalizing a car that is legally and temporarily in the country with an unexpired TIP. If the TIP has expired, as when, by operation of law, a temporary resident becomes a permanent resident, the car is then illegally in the country. The person affected can get permission for a one way trip back to the border where they entered using a Retorno Seguro, but then they face the problem that, as a permanent resident, they cannot temporarily import a vehicle- a thing only visitors and temporary residents can do. T.J. is not the only person in Mexico who's gotten to this stage, in this situation, though the issue has been hanging around ever since the immigration law was changed last November, and he won't be the last: it's just hard to come to terms with the costs and complexity of it all. There is another thing spoken of in the thread Kathy cited us to, an anomaly in the laws of Quintana Roo which seem to allow a permanent resident to operate a car in Quintana Roo only, provided all registrations are current, and the driver has a current, foreign license as well. (See the thread for full details.) This is not the only place I've seen mention of this, and it is apparently true, but I've never seen a cite to a law which expresses this privilege. ______________________
Just to throw in another option, we our selling our 2003 Mitsubishi Montero Sport. It is an automatic (4 door) SUV with electric locks, key fob, electric windows. Lots of passenger room and cargo space, and it won't be bullied by the bad drivers (unless they drive a Suburban or Hummer, maybe). About 124,000km. I just put a bunch of money into maintenance items that were due up, and then an opportunity came up so I'm moving back to the USA. I'm listing it for 80,000 which is what I paid for it only a couple of months ago, which means the buyer essentially gets all of the maintenance work for free, and would likely be willing to negotiate down further if that gets it sold faster. I have the Factura and Tenencias and Tarjeta de Circulacion and service records, all of that nice paperwork. If you're interested, send me a message and I'll meet you for a test drive.
