After living in Zihuatanejo for a year we purchased an ATV. I’ve written about that previously, so won’t touch on it here. But buying an ATV at Sam’s Club is just like buying a TV or a toaster oven. You pay for the product and leave with it. So, after two years of driving around on an ATV we decided to step up to an actual car.
We purchased the car through a private sale. We found it in the Facebook Marketplace, and the seller and I had mutual friends. One of my main concerns was making sure that the purchase was legally binding and there wasn’t some loophole where I pay someone and two days later the police show up and take the car back, since I don’t legally own it. Or the other concern which was the guy pumping steroids into the car where it appears to run great and two days later it falls apart.
One of our mutual friends came with me to check the car out, and all seemed legit. To transfer ownership, there is a simple one sheet form, very similar to transferring a car in the United States. We both signed the sheet, then went to my bank to transfer the money to his account.
The next day I went to the Secretaria de Finanzas y Admistracion. This is the vehicle licensing office. You have to also do the transfer there, just like in the United States. The fee to transfer over and receive new tabs cost 552 pesos. The father of the seller worked in that office, so he did it for free. A perk of living in Mexico, I guess. It’s always who you know!
We had one immediate expense on the “new” 2013 Renault Duster. We purchased new tires at the local tire place where we’ve also purchased ATV tires. Four Cooper Tires cost 1,600MXN each. These were the cheapest of our options. The most expensive were 2,100MXN each. A few months later we bought a new key fob for the car. The one they gave us with the car didn’t work, so the new fob cost 2,000MXN. We’ve had trouble getting it to work consistently as well. And lastly we ended up changing the oil at a cost of 720MXN. We’re told that we need to come back in within 20,000km for another oil change.
Insurance is quite different here versus the US. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of options. And the deductibles don’t work the same as well. For this past year we paid $282 USD for the ATV and $268 USD for the car. This is around 5,500 pesos each. And our insurance is with Qualitas. I have no idea if there is another insurer in the area.
The insurance deductible is based on the value of the vehicle. The ATV is valued at 31,000 pesos, and the deductible is 10% for damage and 20% if it’s stolen. The car is valued at 87,000 pesos, and the deductible is 5% for damage and 10% if it’s stolen. We know someone that had a nice truck stolen. It was recovered, but she ended up spending about $3,000 in deductibles to get it out of storage, repaired and returned.
If I run the car into a tree, my deductible will be 4,350 pesos. If you are in an accident with another vehicle, then you are not supposed to move the vehicle until the police or someone from the insurance company authorizes you to get it off the road. With Qualitas there is a phone number to call for an English speaking person. In the event of an accident they’ll send someone out to assess fault and damage.
So, if you buy a vehicle, keep that in mind. Obviously your insurance will be higher if you have a nice 500,000 peso car, but the deductible will be much higher as well. And you’ll call more attention to yourself, too. But I guess that’s the point of a nice car.
