BajaNomad

Does anyone know...

bajajudy - 1-18-2005 at 05:25 PM

if Mexican authorities( i e Federales) know that there is a 30 day grace period in California for lic. plate stickers??
My mother in law did not get our registration before she left to visit us and my sister in law mailed it to us here.....that will probably take another week if we are lucky and we really wanted to get the book mobile on the road but our plates run out in Jan 2005.
Before anyone asks...it is a diesel which can't be imported and is also in my mother in law's name.

David K - 1-18-2005 at 05:40 PM

Probably Judy, as I (and others) drove my brand new Tacoma in before the license plates were even on it in Dec. 2000.

I think if you produce the registration that shows it is less than a month from expiring date, they will understand the beurocracy takes time!

Dave - 1-18-2005 at 05:50 PM

As long as you have valid title AND insurance you should be OK. The Mexican police don't have jurisdiction over licensing regulations in the States. They may hassle you about it but there's not much legally they can do about it.

The federales do know

flyfishinPam - 1-19-2005 at 06:12 AM

and I got nearly busted in Oct of 2002 with my truck that had expired CA plates. However I was in a very different situation, towing a Mexican panga each day across the highway to launch in the marina and allowing my Mexican husband to drive while I held our three week old baby. We were blantantly in the wrong but what the hey? Well we were pulled over and threatened by the federale- he told us that he was going to impound the vehicle, the boat and all contents. We were scared, but Francisco cooly said "OK lets get out and take an inventory of all the contents and make sure we get signed duplicate copies of the report". That's what pretty much put the wheels into motion in our favour and made the federale change his mind. He let us go but warned us that if he saw us again we'd be busted for sure! Well we only drove under the cover of night after that and only for about a week. Then we drove the truck up to TJ and imported her. The federale did mention that he'd known about our work activity and that we need to have our truck imported while he was threatening us. He didn't ask for a mordida but Francisco was pretty sure that it was what the guy wanted. Of course I just played the dumb, non spanish speaking gringa with little tiny baby routine, which may have helped.

anyway, they do know but since your mom will be on the road for so little time you shouldn't worry about it. Make sure that your Mex insurance will still cover you if the plates are expired, that's the important part. Generally the federales leave us gringos alone as they don't want to make any problems, now that Christmas holiday is over they won't be asking for mordidas as much either.

And as for the federales not having jurisdiction...wrong Dave they do. We were driving from CSL to LTO and stopped in constitucion to get cokes. I stayed in the car while my husband shopped. I noticed a police truck pull up behind us but didn't think anything of it. then another pulled up in front of us, then another next to us. I was getting worried at this point. the police questioned me and started making calls on his cell phone. Later I found out that a truck just like mine was reported stolen a couple of hours before. It took us about an hour to straighten things out because I was not used to driving around with the title to the vehicle (it was in my home in Loreto). they called California DMV and traced the ownership to me as it was my truck. They do have a handle on things and they do have jurisdiction and the means to check.

Dave - 1-19-2005 at 09:14 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by flyfishinPam
And as for the federales not having jurisdiction...wrong Dave they do. We were driving from CSL to LTO and stopped in constitucion to get cokes. I stayed in the car while my husband shopped. I noticed a police truck pull up behind us but didn't think anything of it. then another pulled up in front of us, then another next to us. I was getting worried at this point. the police questioned me and started making calls on his cell phone. Later I found out that a truck just like mine was reported stolen a couple of hours before. It took us about an hour to straighten things out because I was not used to driving around with the title to the vehicle (it was in my home in Loreto). they called California DMV and traced the ownership to me as it was my truck. They do have a handle on things and they do have jurisdiction and the means to check.


I was speaking of jurisdiction over enforcing whether registration is current.

As evidenced by the above quoted paragraph, the police wanted to know if you were the legal owner.

Jurisdiction

MrBillM - 1-19-2005 at 09:47 AM

I was stopped and ticketed in Mexicali for towing a trailer with expired tags back in 1984. At present, the police in San Felipe are ticketing U.S. vehicles with expired tags. Since I have a couple of Vehicles that I rarely use on the highways, I've had to go to the great expense of using my Scanner and copier to get current tags.
In addition, I believe that most (if not all) Mexican insurance policies specify that the vehicle must be currently registered.

wilderone - 1-19-2005 at 09:53 AM

This is interesting, since so many cars with expired California plates in Tijuana and Mexicali are stolen. Do they follow through with all that checking and confiscate stolen vehicles and get them to their owners and prosecute the thieves? Now that we know they have the technology to do so, why isn't the stolen car problem addressed?