AboutEllen Fields Expertise I can answer questions about Merida and the state of Yucatan regarding travel and moving there to live, as well as real estate practices and conventions, computer and internet availability and communications to the US from the Yucatan.
Experience My husband and I have lived in the Yucatan for over five years. We publish the www.yucatanliving.com website.
Question QUESTION: We go to Ajijic Mexico for three months every year. We would like to take one of our cars down and leave it there for our personal use while we visit. Can you tell me the correct procedure for doing this? Also, since it would be off the road for nine months of the year, is insurance required during that time? Many thanks for your help.
ANSWER: In order to keep a car in Mexico, you need an FM3 visa. The car basically shares the visa. Without that, you need to import the car officially, which you can read how to do here:
I believe insurance is required... but you'd have to ask an insurance agent that for sure.
You can talk to this gentleman on the phone or in email. He speaks/reads english:
Ricardo Castilla Sosa, CARSA
Merida Phone: 999-944-4999
Email: ricardo [dot] castilla [at] segucarsa [dot] com
Ricardo speaks some English and sells Car, House, Health and Life insurance. He provided much of the background information for this article.
QUESTION: The article you sent me to implies that you also need an FM3 visa to import a car as well. Is that correct? And again, many thanks for your help.
Answer Yes, I'm pretty sure you need some sort of a visa or to be a citizen to import a car here. There are now (since we wrote the article) some rules about what cars CAN be imported. I think I understand that they can only be ten years old... no more, no less. Best to talk to Ricardo about that... he'll know the rules.
