Posted on 08/23/2005 7:44:04 AM PDT by mac_truck
MEXICO CITY — Wanted: millions of pre-owned vehicles. Inquire south of the border.
The Mexican government Monday cleared the way for older cars from the United States and Canada to be imported here, opening a potentially vast new market for U.S. vehicle merchants looking to unload old Detroit iron.
The move, part of an amnesty to register as many as 3 million scofflaws tooling around Mexico in illegally imported cars, could provide a boon to Mexican consumers who are expected to benefit from lower prices and a better selection.
It's also a godsend for a U.S. market glutted with second-hand cars and trucks. Used-vehicle prices in the United States have slid in recent years because manufacturers keep offering fat incentives for Americans to buy new wheels, forcing sellers to swallow deep discounts even on vehicles a few years old.
Mexico's decision could bring a crowd of new buyers for some of the dustiest inventory.
"When the Mexican public and Mexican dealers start coming up here to buy, it's going to raise used-car prices dramatically," said Louie Quezada, owner of Lotaner Motors in Costa Mesa and Stanton. "Even now, [Mexican] buyers pay my retail price on used trucks, take them down there and sell them for double."
But not everyone in Mexico is happy about the prospect of a stampede of heavy metal from the United States.
Some new-car merchants are fuming over potential cut-rate competition that they say could harm Mexico's domestic industry. They accuse Mexican President Vicente Fox of rewarding lawbreakers and caving in to pressure groups before next year's presidential elections. Environmentalists say an influx of smoky clunkers would be a huge blow to Mexico, where big cities, particularly the capital, are beset with some of the foulest air in the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
"They accuse Mexican President Vicente Fox of rewarding lawbreakers and caving in to pressure groups before next year's presidential elections"
Hey, it happens south of the border, too!
That scene in the movie "Used Cars" comes to mind, with the convoy of old cars coming up from Mexico -- except in this case they'll be going the other direction.
Many having been STOLEN from people of San Diego and many points north...
This is so we can give them more reliable transportation to the US border, right?
I've heard of local Mexican police targeting vehicles with US tags, hoping they don't have foreign coverage on their auto insurance policies, but I don't think local Mexican politicians there are involved in carjacking.
Plenty of U.S. used cars have always been sold in Mexico. Trouble is, the're stolen here and then taken across for resale.
I remember when i went to college in Long Beach, I had to leave my car behind, as it needed too much work at the time, so I brought a pricey but beloved mountain bike, which had cost me over $400 the year before (this was around 86-87). I rode that bike all over Long Beach for a semester, down to the beach on weekends, it got lots of use, I loved that bike. But, the first week I moved into the dorms, it was stolen along with about 50 other bikes, they cut the much vaunted aircraft cable I used to lock it. The cops, when they bothered to show up, simply shrugged and said "Your bike is in Mexico by now" and only offered to fill out a report for insurance. I was INCENSED. I learned later that it happened every semester, the thieves targeted campus at the beginning and at theend, because there was so much confusion.
That was my first taste of the crime that comes over the border, and this just legalizes what's been going on anyway. The only people that will suffer (beyond the poor owners of stolen cars) is the chop shops, who's services will be in less demand now. It will be too easy to fake or file VIN numbers and resell stolen cars now, without having to dismantle them.
I'll bet it'll be a buyer's market for SUVs, too, all the dealers will dump their inventory across the border, and there will be many great deals for coyotes and drug runners, they'll have lots of new, shiny Explorers and Expeditions to run around in. (/sarcasm)
From what I understand Vincente Fox simply accelerated a process that was agreed to under NAFTA, and threw in the amnesty on the illegal US cars as a sweetener prior to the elections next year.
[From the article] North American Free Trade Agreement rules require Mexico to begin opening its market to used automobiles from the U.S. and Canada by 2009, so Monday's decree accelerated that action. The U.S. is home to nearly 100 million vehicles at least 10 years old and could provide a huge pool of imports into Mexico, according to Adesa Inc., an Indiana-based operator of used-car auctions.
They were moving from the jail to the courthouse the man who assassinated Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio in 1994. The San Diego viewer saw what he knew was his stolen vehicle and he knew it because it still had his California license plates.
He called the local TV station and reported what he had seen. They went south to investigate and the feds told them they had bought the vehicle at a local Mexican auction. Without any papers!?
Around here it's a given that if your car is not reported stolen within the first half-hour you'll probably never see it again, unless, of course, you should be lucky enough to see the Mexican authorities driving it it on the news.
No doubt, a defensive move !
Me too!. Most of the cars I've seen do NOT look stolen. I often wondered how they make it all the way back to Mexico in those heaps. Always one really old car towing another really old car, and several of these in a convoy.
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