Is it true you can get another Mexico vehicle permit using a different document?

Question

I am in a very strange situation and Mexican bureaucracy has done nothing to help. In 2006 I got a vehicle permit issued to me on a Pontiac Grand-Am that I owned. Unfortunately I got into a (not at-fault) crash just north of Mazatlan. The car was totaled. The permit itself could not be extracted from the window seeing as it was in a million pieces. I tried to explain to the Banjercito office but they refused to cancel the vehicle, claiming the vehicle had to be there for them to cancel the permit, even though the vehicle had been totaled and no longer existed! As a result I have a permit I have no hope of ever cancelling, and the Mexican consulates have been no help either. However, I had been told that if you can still withdraw a permit if you do it with a different document, since they go by the document number. For example, to get the other permit I used my passport. So does this mean for example that if I use my birth certificate, I can get another permit?

Answer 1

There is one other thought that occured to me...you had to give them your credit card so they could take an imprint of it when you entered Mexico.  That as so that if you left without the vehicle they could charge you a fine of up to $400.00 depending on how new the car was.  You may just have to let them charge you that fine and be done with it.  It is not fair, but if nothing else works...it may be the only way to get this over with.  I hope you can find a better way, but if you cannot, just go with your other car and if they question you, tell them the other one was wrecked in Mexico, give them the short version of the story...and tel lthem to go ahead and charge you the fine as there is no way you can remove the car from Mexico.  Oh, also...I presume you had ins. on the car in Mexico...call the company you had the ins. with and see if they can be any help.

Answer 2

You Know this really incenses me that the Federal Government can be that stupid.

You are a victim of their stupidity.

I would be livid and looking for a media outlet to embarrass them internationally.

This is the very essense of what gives Mexico their reputation.

There is one other option and that is to file a complaint with the Federal "Secretaria Turistica" de Mexico.

They will deal with your case.

If you are interested I can help you further as they helped me when my pocket was picked

You Know if it were me I would tow the wreckage to the border and drop it in the lot and say 'orale aqui tiene"

There is one other possibility  is that your vehicle was sold as salvage and "Pepe" and "Jose fixed it and found a way to register it and the v.i.n. # is showing on the system.

If that happened it should take a few more years to fall off their computers.

As you know repairs can be done for a fraction of the costs in the U.S