Not even for ME?

Well, as it turns out, it looks like I may be able to use my empeg again after all.

The Mexican government has made a few changes to the immigration rules. Up until a few months ago, I could remain a Mexican immigrant on "non-inmigrante" status indefinitely. Now they have restricted that to four years, and after that I have to change my status to "permanente", which is advantageous in many areas, such as not having to renew my non-inmigrante status every year, I can legally be employed, a few other things.

The down side is that a permanente resident is not allowed to own a foreign-plated automobile. My particular car cannot be "nationalized" to Mexican license plates, because (1) only cars that are 2007 models or older can be nationalized; and (2) my car was not assembled in a NAFTA country (VIN number starting with a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5). So, sometime before December of this year I have to drive my car (a 2009 Honda Fit with Navigation) back to the U.S., sell it, fly back to Mexico and purchase a Mexican plated car.

To purchase a comparable car in Mexico will cost me three to five thousand dollars more than I can sell my car for in the U.S., plus the expense of taking my car out of the country and flying back. This is so the Mexican government can protect the Mexican car dealers.

What all this means is this: My "new" Mexican car (it will be about a five year old Honda CRV, I think) will NOT have navigation, but a DIN-sized AM-FM radio which will be replaced by my empeg. I won't bother with a tuner kit. I had one in my last empeg-equipped car and to the best of my memory I tested it to see that it worked, then never used it after that.

So, in another six months or so I will be empeg enabled again. I am really looking forward to that!

tanstaafl.