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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2008 
Drivers Head Into Mexico for Fill-Ups
 Omar Millán González - San Diego Union-Tribune
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| Jim Taylor of Irvine filled up at a Pemex station in Rosarito Beach. Taylor visits Baja California frequently and prefers to buy low-priced gasoline south of the border. (David Maung/Enlace)
Buying gas in Tijuana
If you go to Tijuana to fill up your tank, here are some tips:
• Look for pumps that have the holographic seal of the Consumer Protection Office, which is intended to ensure that you get the quantity you pay for.
• Fuel is sold in liters. There are 3.8 liters in one gallon.
• Most gas stations are open 24 hours.
• All gas stations take dollars, although the exchange rate is always worse than in currency exchange houses.
• There are two grades of gasoline: Magna, in the green pumps, is 87 octane, and Premium, in the red pumps, is 91 octane. | | |
Tijuana – At the Pemex gas station on Boulevard Bellas Artes, just a few blocks from the Otay Mesa border crossing, a gallon of Magna gasoline costs $2.54. Or slightly less, if you pay in pesos.
A comparable gallon of unleaded regular gasoline is selling in San Diego County at an average price of $4.61, according to the Utility Consumers' Action Network.
Lower gas prices mean American motorists could save almost $54 filling up a two-year-old Ford F150 pickup with a 26-gallon fuel tank in Mexico, or more than $38 to fill a 2006 Toyota Camry with an 18.5-gallon tank.
Gasoline prices are lower in Mexico because of a government subsidy. Pemex, Mexico's government-owned oil monopoly, supplies all gasoline throughout the country to its station franchises.
Last month, President Felipe Calderón announced a $20 billion subsidy as an emergency measure intended to keep inflationary forces in check.
Whether it is worthwhile for San Diego County residents to drive to Tijuana to buy lower-priced gasoline is another question.
Motorists crossing into Tijuana are occasionally delayed 15 to 30 minutes, but the return trip into the United States can take more than two hours during peak times.
Experts estimate a car can burn up to a gallon of gasoline for every hour spent idling, which can vary depending on such factors as engine size and whether the air conditioner is running.
U.S. residents are not currently required to show their passport to U.S. border guards, but they are required to show a valid identity card and original birth certificate or proof of citizenship.
While fuel sales in Tijuana jumped 25 percent in the first five months of 2008, most of that increase was attributed to Tijuana residents who work in San Diego County, according to the Association of Gasoline Station Owners of Tijuana. The residents are filling their tanks in Tijuana instead of paying record prices at U.S. stations, said Olga Fierro, a spokeswoman for the trade group, which represents 157 gas stations.
“I used to buy exclusively in the U.S. before gas (prices) started really going up,” said Patrick Garcia, a drama teacher at Valencia Park Elementary School who lives in Tijuana.
As gas prices in San Diego County approached $4 a gallon last month, Garcia said he decided to refuel in Tijuana and was shocked that premium gasoline in Mexico was more than a dollar per gallon cheaper than in San Diego.
“At first I was worried because I didn't think the quality would be as good,” Garcia said. “Since then, I've been buying all my gas in Tijuana.”
No data are available on gasoline purchases in Tijuana by U.S. residents, but there are plenty of indications that San Diego-area residents are making border runs to buy gasoline.
San Diego resident Juan Ponce said he crosses into Mexico just to refuel at least once a week, a practice he started about six months ago.
“I didn't use Mexican gas because I didn't trust it. I just bought some occasionally when it was absolutely necessary,” said Ponce, 46, a construction worker. “But now, with the prices where they are, I fill up the tank and put some additive in every once in a while.”
Many motorists believe Mexican fuel is inferior to gasoline refined in the United States. Also, there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction in Mexico about Pemex and how it has managed the nation's petroleum resources.
Such views stem at least partly from a gasoline-quality scandal that erupted eight years ago.
About 90 percent of Mexico's gas stations were adulterating fuel or selling it illegally outside government standards, according to data from Mexico's Federal Office for Consumer Protection, the Federal Department for the Public and Pemex.
The quality of Mexican gasoline has improved since then, said Alejandro Díaz Bautista, who has studied Mexican fuel for years as a researcher at the College of the Northern Border, an academic center south of Tijuana.
In 2005, federal authorities began placing holographic seals on pumps at every gas station in Mexico to assure consumers that they were getting the correct quality and quantity of fuel.
Di'az said Mexican gasoline has higher concentrations of sulfur than U.S. fuel. That doesn't mean that American cars won't run well on Mexican fuel, but it could affect the life span of catalytic converters used in motor vehicle exhaust systems to reduce harmful emissions.
“It's possible that after many years of using Mexican gasoline, a car could fail the California smog test,” Di'az said.
Di'az cautioned that there still is no government agency in Mexico responsible for verifying fuel sales.
“Some gas stations alter their equipment and pump from 5 (percent) to 20 percent less fuel than they should,” he said, estimating that one station out of 10 in Baja California bilks customers by rigging its pumps.
The president of the Association of Gasoline Station Owners, Joaquín Aviña Sánchez, calls this contention an urban myth. To be authorized, every pump must have an embedded encryption system so it can be audited, he said. He asked, “Who wouldn't notice that they are getting that much less gasoline?”
Such concerns did not deter Paul Covarrubias, 26, who lives in Chula Vista and works in construction in San Diego.
Diesel fuel that sells at an average price of $5.04 a gallon in San Diego County costs $2.20 in Tijuana. That's 56 percent cheaper, and enough incentive for Covarrubias to cross the border every week just to refuel his dual-cab Ford F-250 pickup.
“I fill it up with diesel in Tijuana for $60,” he said. “It would be almost twice that in San Diego.”
Staff writer Bruce V. Bigelow contributed to this report.
Freelance journalist Omar Millán González is a contributor to The Union-Tribune's Latino newspaper, Enlace. |
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