Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Yucalandia, a very informative blog about living in Mexico, just published an article regarding the changes to Aduana's rules for permanently importing used cars from the U.S. into Mexico, which we thought might be useful to our readers:

The Mexican Federal Government recently put on a push to stop illegal imports of American used cars into Mexico. This new effort has taken several forms:

As of September 1, 2014, SAT has issued new rules for permanently importing used cars from the United States. The biggest change is that the individual importing the used NAFTA car into Mexico must first prove that the car has been formally EXPORTED from the USA following US CBP laws.

This means that the US title on every used car permanently imported into Mexico must be first stamped "EXPORTED" by US CBP. US Customs and Border Patrol have had this requirement on the books for over 20 years, but the rule has not been followed by most Americans who bring their cars into Mexico. If you used a licensed Customs Broker to permanently import your car into Mexico, with a CBP check at the US-Mexico border, then they likely did the formal export. We at Yucalandia have another article waiting for publication on how the process works with CBP, but need some final confirmatory details from CBP before publishing. We waited to post Mexico's new rules until there was confirmation in public media.

The second prong of the Mexican Federal Government’s actions to stop the illegal importation of used American cars into Mexico involved charging 17 Customs Brokers at the US-Mexico border, along with some Mexican Judges, Magistrates, Mexican Aduana border office managers, Aduana officers, et al. As a result, all permanent imports at the border were suspended last week, and there is no formal word yet on when they will begin again – this time following both US and Mexican laws.

Since the new laws for importing US cars into Mexico require having the US title formally stamped "EXPORTED," and since the only way to get your US title stamped this way REQUIRES taking the car to a US CBP border station, we really cannot see how "paper-only" imports can continue under these new laws.

We'll report more details as they become available.