The car scene in Mexico.

Al right guys. This is going to be my first long post here on CT.

I am mexican, which means most of you will think about sombreros and burros (donkeys) and tacos and tequila; which most of it is true, only we don’t move around in donkeys.

Here in Mexico having a car is common. You have to pay (if the car is new) rights, and off you go… Not much of a hassle. UNLESS you own a car of more than aprox. ￡14k. Then you have to pay a yearly “fee” of 8.7% to 19.1%, until your car is worth less than ￡14k. Every six months we have to take our cars to an emissions test, which dictates how many days per week you can use your car.

People here tend to see cars only as a form of transportation, and cars are often rusty, ugly and not well kept.
Edit: MOST of the ones that modify their cars are “cabbies”, and yes, we have to suffer their riceness.

*EDIT #1: An user complained to me about this part, and how my opinion was biased. While he was partly right, he was very rude.

As you con see from the photos above, it’s so ricey it hurts the sight. Most of these cars were (are) badly kept, smelt awful, and are terribly driven. People who didn’t have cars didn’t have any choice but to use them, until Uber came along. Uber is relatively new here, and as in all the world, it has caused a lot of controversy, including having their vehicles destroyed by taxi drivers.

So, are there actual care lovers?

Yes, people who really like cars, such as myself and a few friends, we take care of our cars, and hoon responsibly, which isn’t very difficult. The difficult part comes when you want to modify your cars. Very few mods come to Mexico, and the ones that do get here are stupidly expensive. Most of the parts you want/need have to come from the USA, and import fees are about 34% of the original value. And since here in Mexico we get about the same cars as India, if you want an awesome car, you have to import them from the USA, which isn’t cheap either. Also, we have somewhat strict emissions laws, which make it even more difficult to modify them. So yeah, unless you have a lot of money and want to have problems with the government, you can’t mod your car in terms of performance.

*EDIT 2: While most of the modders are taxies, private drivers also mod their cars. These are the least common.

And what about car clubs?

There are very very few car clubs, and most of them are very very exclusive, some of which you have to be recommended by members. I am not part of any car clubs even though I’ve tried really really hard.

Uhh, and what about taking care of the cars?

Well, people who can afford it, have their cars serviced with the dealerships. Not because it’s good, but because it isn’t bad. Garages in Mexico usually are used to people who don’t care about their cars, and their job quality is really poor. There are however, a few workshops where you can expect an excelent job (obviously accompained by a hefty repair bill). However, recent statistics from the Center of Security and Experiment of Vehicles of Mexico about 65% of the repaired vehicles are left with unrepaired structural damage.

And police?

Police here are very corrupt and try to get money out of you in every possible way. It’s terrible, and people are afraid of police arriving to an accident, because they will want to get money out of everything.

Insurance costs

I have heard you complain about insurance costs, and that baffles me. Here in Mexico we have fairly low quotas for every type of driver. For young drivers such as myself, a yearly insurance goes by about ￡470-￡560. It doesn’t matter if you have had accidents before, very few companies raise your quota, and as you get older you can get a full insurance for as little as ￡270. Although we have low insurance costs and a law requiring cars to be insured, many drive without insurance.

Extras:

While I was making this post I came to a CT copy named “Nippon Power“, apparently it is a Mexican ripoff of this page, but focused to Japanese cars.

Extra 2: Cars are not the best here, but there is no other country as this one. If you have the opportunity to come here, don’t doubt it. And if you casually come to Mexico city, don’t doubt to hit me up. I will gladly show you the place (No joke!)

If anything of this post is unclear, please do tell me, and I will do my best to explain it.
Cheers!