BajaNomad

Mexico city to La Paz and north

honda tom - 11-27-2010 at 12:05 PM

My friend gets a notice that hes won a car from a random drawing of Bancomer accounts. We flew to Mexico City, (one way), and it was legit. We pick up a 2011 VW Clasico (jetta here), and drive off to Guadalajara, after a 1/2 day of MX City sightseeing of course.

Stay in Guadalajara and sightsee, then to Tequila (the town)... really cool! Then off to Mazatlan to catch the ferry for La Paz. 12 hour night cruise across the SOC and we land and unload. Ferry trip was cool! Full bar, cafeteria, resturant, gift shop, met many people with some great travel stories, many on their first ever trip to Baja. Baja Ferries is a well run operation.

Extreme inspection at La Paz. The military and Puerto authorities were diligent in inspecting everything. 1hour plus wait for us. A couple tacos in La Paz and we are off to the north. Hwy was in great shape, and we had an early lunch at Loreto. Our goal was to make El Crucero to watch the trophy trucks come through (baja 1000 started at 6am on this day). made El Crucero around 6... stayed in the desert a few hours then on to Catavina and got a room at the inn.

Fri we headed into San Quintin for breakfast and tried to get some plates for the car. We thought we would have a easier border crossing if the car had plates. No luck, we try again DMV at Ensenada.... everything is in order... just a 5 day wait until some paperwork is verified, so we just head to the border to see what will happen??????

One dilema... this car has no airbags. no catalytic convertor, and no CA emisions. We have no idea what red tape could await us at the crossing. Border guard looked at passports and asked for vehicle registration, showed him our papers and he said have a nice day. I guess it is his job to verify residency not vehicl legality.

Fun trip with great sights... MX City and Guadalajara are both incredible cities that I will visit again. No safety issues. First time in 15 years I have been South of Loreto, boy is Baja changing, Mostly access to areas I guess.

[Edited on 11-27-2010 by honda tom]

DENNIS - 11-27-2010 at 12:38 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by honda tom
One dilema... this car has no airbags. no catalytic convertor, and no CA emisions. We have no idea what red tape could await us at the crossing. Border guard looked at passports and asked for vehicle registration, showed him our papers and he said have a nice day. I guess it is his job to verify residency not vehicl legality.



Arn't those regs only for Cal plated cars? Did you have US insurance?

Woooosh - 11-27-2010 at 12:51 PM

Wow! I only got a set of dinner plates from Bancomer and they are ready to re-gift. Where do you plan to register this new car? Seems it was not made to be imported into the USA. Maybe Mexico plates would have been better.

DENNIS - 11-27-2010 at 12:56 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by honda tom
Fri we headed into San Quintin for breakfast and tried to get some plates for the car.



Woooosh...mira.

Woooosh - 11-27-2010 at 01:21 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Quote:
Originally posted by honda tom
Fri we headed into San Quintin for breakfast and tried to get some plates for the car.



Woooosh...mira.

I thought they made it to Ensenada and decided not to wait the five days for them and just crossed without any. So the next step would to be to get it registered somewhere stateside or Canada? What did I miss?

DENNIS - 11-27-2010 at 02:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Woooosh
What did I miss?


Nothing as I see it. We just don't have their itinerary.

Bajahowodd - 11-27-2010 at 02:31 PM

Can't speak for Canada, but that car ain't going to get registered in the US.

Now, another issue. Insurance. What insurer will issue a policy without a valid registration? Just thinking that the minute this vehicle crossed the border, it became a ticket and tow waiting to happen.

[Edited on 11-27-2010 by Bajahowodd]

honda tom - 11-27-2010 at 09:31 PM

My friend has dual citizenship and both a us and a mexico drivers license. we were trying to get mexico plates cause the us dmv wont recognize this car. he owns a house in san felipe and the best we can figure is he can hand a us cop his mexico license (if stopped for some reason) and say he is a mexican traveling in the us. insurance co. already called back and said their computer did not recognize the VIN#.

woody with a view - 11-28-2010 at 09:37 AM

so he's driving w/out insurance?

honda tom - 11-28-2010 at 10:55 AM

no, us insurance co went ahead and called to verify the vin because their computer didnt recognize it....... after verification that this was the # they covered it. Bancomer covered th car with a 30 day policy in mexico.

laketime - 11-29-2010 at 06:24 AM

Cool trip and he got a car on top of it. :bounce: