Mr. Frederik Shelton published a highly valuable piece of information about moving to Mexico on the Expats moving to Mexico – A complete guide for the move Facebook page. If you’re thinking about making the move south, you need to check it out.
When we first came here, we crossed the border in our shiny red Tesla (You would not BELIEVE how many gringos were too stupid to understand that Americans bring their cars to Mexico, in my previous post!).
That was when we discovered the real enemy we were about to face: the roads. Cobblestones. Topes that range from what feels like a brick to two-foot-tall launch ramps that, if hit at more than 20 mph, will send you airborne. Potholes deep enough to baptize a toddler. A low-slung sports suspension and Mexico’s wonderfully “textured” streets are not soulmates.
Add to that the discovery that it would cost about 100,000 pesos, roughly $5,000 USD, just to import our Tesla into Mexico. It got worse. Musk had big plans for expansion into Mexico, but after publicly becoming BFF’s with Trump, two things happened. First, he alienated his liberal, EV-driving base, and sales plummeted. Second, the rest of the world also decided they weren’t as enthused about him as they used to be. Is that Tesla project slated to take place in our city? Canceled. So, service or dealership for 200 miles. We loved the car,r but it was time to say goodbye and get something new.
Also, bombing around Mexico at 50 percent over the speed limit in a bright red car with no front plate and a US rear plate was probably pressing our luck. We dumped the Apartheid Auto just in time. Right after we sold it to CarMax, its value dropped about 20 percent, and some of the dealers emailed back saying they would not even take Teslas in. Phew!
Staying green without getting stranded
President Claudia Sheinbaum is an actual green liberal with degrees in physics and energy engineering, and she was mentored by Obrador, who was touted as the “Mexican Bernie Sanders” by the local press. Sheinbaum even passed an infrastructure bill (Not the concept of an infrastructure bill) that included thousands of new charging stations. However, government projects take years, so we decided on a hybrid.
The first way you save money here
We checked the brands we’ve always owned first. Mercedes. BMW. Lexus. Prices looked similar to the US until the punchline landed. If the sticker says $1,200,000 pesos(about $60,000 USD) t, that is what you pay. Period. No additional sales tax! No mystery fees. No last-minute math gymnastics. In the US, that same car walks out the door closer to $70K. Immediate savings. No haggling required.
Enter the dragon
After looking at what we knew, we looked at the Chinese brands. GWC. Chirey. BYD. They dominate the roads here.
The BYD was genuinely shocking in the best way. It looked great. It was quiet. Plush. It floated smoothly over the same metal speed bumps that used to rattle our dental work in the Tesla. Acceleration was more than respectable. The tech was fantastic. And the warranty did not hurt either. Six years. 150,000 kilometers (90,000 miles) – Bumper to Bumper!
BYD earned our respect. And our business!
It cost HOW much
This car costs the amount of a down payment.
Read that again.
The amount. Of. A. Down. Payment.
We started with the BYD Song, which is the most popular SUV here. We ended up with a sedan instead. The King. A full-size hybrid that lines up with a BMW 5 Series, MercedesE-Classs or Lexus ES.
The difference.
The King retails for about $25,000 USD. Yes, you read that right. $25K including taxes and fees! Less than half of the other cars we were considering. I want comfort. Silence. Tech. I do not need a logo. Another easy decision.
Mexicans can finance without a driver’s license. Expats pay cash.
If you are a gringo with temporary residence, financing is brutal. Even if you make 100 times the price of the car, US credit does nothing for you. It is possible, but the term will probably be shorter than your visa.
Meanwhile, my wife, who is a Mexican citizen, got offered financing with no credit history and no driver’s license!!! Put $10K (200K pesos) down and boom. Approved. Cash is king here, and honestly, it is more equitable in a lot of ways.
The first year of insurance was included for about $700 USD. When I asked about the fact that my lovely bride had no driver’s license, the salesman shrugged and said, “She’s from Texas. Maybe she just wants to park it on her lawn like people in the South.” Touche’ senor salesman, touche’.
Car dealers are the same everywhere.
Right on schedule,e they tried to quietly fold paint protection, wheel and tire protection, pet protection, tope protection, clothing protection, and so on. When I ran the numbers, we were about to pay $5,000 in interest on $12,500 financed.
No thanks.
The salespeople were lovely. Truly. But car dealers are universal. Charming. Smiling. Sales managerswhot are sketchy as hell. We paid cash and moved on.
Click play and enjoy
Just like when we bought the Tesla, we are now enrolled in BYD University, aka YouTube. Two weeks in, and we still do not know everything the car can do. But we have learned the important parts! Like how I can watch Netflix and Prime while my wife shops at the mall.
Most importantly, the ride is fantastic. The teeth clattering is over. The streets can keep their texture. We will glide over it. We’ve had the car for eight months, we still absolutely love it, and thus far, we’ve used about seven gallons of gas. I’d say that’s pretty green!
BTW, for the haters and propagandists, the cars are as high in quality as any manufacturer out there. Ours has 6 airbags, ESC, traction control, and an ADAS suite with features like forward collision warning, AEB, lane-keeping,g and adaptive cruise. Parts were hard to get for about a year, but that was because they went from selling 5,000 cars in 2023 to OVER 80,000 cars in 2025! They’ve since corrected that,t and parts are now as accessible as any other manufacturer here. The Market doesn’t lie, people. If the US Whackjobs spreading doom and gloom were right, people wouldn’t be buying so many of these cars.
Oh, and yes, the Chinese government keeps the price of these cars low. Lots of people say that like it’s a BAD thing! Their view is “Hey! The Government is making life more affordable for common people! Cut that out!” I would not object to the US government doing that, instead of bloated military budgets and billionaire tax breaks!
Source: Expats moving to Mexico
