There's been threads here on RAMVA about Mexican Beetles forever. Check out this one on ebay and how it supposedly got in!
- posted
20 years ago
There's been threads here on RAMVA about Mexican Beetles forever. Check out this one on ebay and how it supposedly got in!
How about this one:
About the legality of either of these cars. I suggest that the owners give me them lest "someone" drops a dime on them.
They may be out of money on the deal, but they'll stay out of jail. LOL
-ANT
Stop that. To reply change my ISP to @hotmail.com
Agreed on taking a chance with ANY Mexican "new" classic Beetle.
I know why the guy didn't get any bids on the Ultima. $11,500 as a starting price? The only went for around $8,000 US. I suppose a collector would pay that, but I wouldn't for something I couldn't even drive.
I just bought a Mexican Beetle. It's a 2003 with 6000 miles. I called my BMV and title agency and explained the situation. They told me to get a notarized bill of sale with the VIN number on it and the notarized Mexican Registration Document when I picked up the car in El Paso. They verified the VIN number and gave me a title. I didn't even have to take the emissions test even though it has a catalytic converter and would pass no problem. My insurance company also had no problems with the VIN. It's insured as a 2003 Beetle even though the VIN didn't pop up in his computer. Some states are cool with this, some are not. I live in Ohio and made sure that I would be able to title and license the car before I bought it. Worked out for me!
Ben Boyle wrote:
True. These are known as "Grey Market" cars and don't meet NHTSA safety standards, most notably air bag and crash protection. The local state MDV may register them, but as was noted, if the feds get wind of it, they CAN seize the car and impose fines for illegally importing an unsafe/unapproved vehicle.
Just FYI, you can check out the Import Regulations here:
In digging further, I found that, according to NHTSA, the Mexican "old style" Beetle year model 2000 is even ineligible for importation, even just for show or display purposes. They don't mention other years, but I wonder why they singled out the 2000????
Every so often you see a conversion, though. I saw a BeetleMex VW a few months ago on Ebay - 1970's pan and every other component a new bug. went for 5-6K IIRC. Legal to drive in all 50 states.
I'm more interested in this part: "Because of the mountainous region it came from it has the 1800cc engine from Volkswagen."
The previous winner may have been a flake, he had registered with eBay within the same week as his bid on that car. Zero feedback too.
-ANT
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They came with an 1800 as an option, was even listed at Btlmex in it's time, i believe.
J.
I heard these were supplied by GEX
-ANT
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"skydivertu" wrote
Where in North Carolina and what was the name of the dealer?
-- Scott
They were also sold in New Mexico (if memory serves, maybe it was Arizona) by a different importer who got into a lot of trouble and customers and dealers actually got cars confiscated by the authorites.
-ANT
Stop that. To reply change my ISP to @hotmail.com
BeetleMex is legit, though. They take an old pan and replace every last complonent with new parts.
Does anyone else do simmilar conversions? I wondered because I could get a 2-5 year old Bug from mexico, ship it over, and - the question is - how much to do such a conversion. BeetleMex wants some ungodly amount to do it.
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