Driving my furniture from Toronto to Mexico City

I know, I'm crazy.. However I'm the same guy who once took a greyhound from here to Mexico City (3.5 days each way) so I fit right in.

If I wanted to pack up my stuff and drive to Mexico, how would I do that? I'm guessing...

- I'd need to rent a truck. Who would let me drive to Mexico in their truck is anbody's guess.

- I'd need to pull my car behind the truck if I can get one. Fun stuff.

- I'd probably end up sending my furniture by boat or train and just driving my family right?

- And how do I even get my car into Mexico? I know they have strict rules about importing foreign cars. I have a 1999 Mazda Millenia S, it's a sedan. Maybe I need to get some paperwork before I go?

Any other help is appreciated, I don't have a TON of stuff, but baby furniture, bed, couple desks, oven, fridge, TV... etc.

-- Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:36 pm --

OK Some more info.

I called U-Haul and asked about a one-way trip from Toronto to Brownsville Texas.

I would drop the truck off there near the border, as you're not allowed to bring a U-Haul truck into Mexico.

This includes a 17 foot truck, plus a trailer to bring my car (car sits on top of it, none of my car wheels would touch the road) for a total of 9 days and a nearly 4,000km mileage allowance.

I was quoted roughly $2,300 in Canadian dollars for the rental. I would then need to hire a second company and transfer all my stuff into their truck, and then continue on through the border and to Mexico City.

Using the gas calculator at Upack tells me my trip would cost roughly $600 in gasoline for a rental truck to get me to Brownsville.

Ryder apparently doesn't allow one-way trips, so I'd need to drive the truck back to Toronto.. Not happening.

To store some of my furniture here and not rent a truck would cost about $150-250 a month for a self-storage unit.

Soooo to drive I'm looking at:

$2,300 truck rental
$ 600 gas
$1,000 guesstimate for a truck in Mexico

So probably $4,500 all said and done when you include gas, food, and a few motels along the way.

Hrmmmmm. Liquidate?

Hey Socks,
You got it, liquidate, save your money for a new life in Mexico.
You can buy what you need here for much less then it costs in Canada.
Just bring down the realy important things in duffle bags and plastic totes the kind you use for camping and zip tie them, it's amazing how much you can haul down per person.
The items you can't move store them at a realy good friend's place or family and take it on the next trip back from that Canadian holiday in a few years.
It took me a few trips over the past few years and you actualy find yourself saying "what did I need this for"? and giving it to a young bachelore back home or charity.
Is it worth spending all that money on things you can buy here or realy don't need, you could be making that $40.00 blender cost $120.00 with shipping but those old pictures and things close to hart come in handy living in a new country.
Good luck,
Tom

Completely agree with Tom above...

Some things in Mexico will cost a lot more to replace, such as electronics. You can replace the HD big screen here but it will be pricey. Then again, shipping it and paying duty on it (which I guarantee you will have to pay) will also be costly.

Furniture, fridge, stove, all that can be replaced here easily and cheaply.

Hey all,
If you give up trying to haul your own stuff, consider using an online store that specializes in Mexico likes the one I am associated with. It was founded by a Canadian frustrated by the whole furniture moving / Mexico buying experience. Best resource for this is to search google for 'furnishing from afar' -- there's a NY Times article on the subject. We're the one whose name starts with 'Gringo.'

Another good article about the requirements and regulations for taking your furniture with you is the Mexico Retirement blog. Search google for a good recent article using the two search terms moneysavingmexico and furniture.

Sorry can't post the URLs, but we're new here and the policy prohibits it for now.

Thanks
Ken

Hi all who are reading these older posts. I wanted to let you know also from my experience three years ago in looking for furniture for our new place in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. My father and I were buying a place at the North end of the bay called Punta Esmeralda. We actually looked around for furniture at the time and realized the furniture was really pricey as well as the designers. My business mind kicked in and thought about starting a business selling furniture on-line and other things like appliances, black out and solar blinds and now we have started a concierge business. We have also been dealing with the expenses of shipping in Mexico which are really expensive a lot more than most people think for example I just shipped a truck of furniture from Guadalajara area to Puerto Vallarta it is about 4 hours if you take the toll roads and about 6 to 7 hrs if you are driving a truck full of furniture and not taking the toll roads. My shipping costs on that order was around $800 US plus we took stuff back for a client as well. I would highly recommend anyone looking for furniture to check out our website you can search for it on google just type in mr-vallarta furniture store in the search engine and you should find our site on the first page about 5 or 6 down from the top. We are honest, hard working and have fair prices. We have helped many Canadian's and American's furnish their homes and condos over the past 3 years. If you do need shipping we can also help with that as well. We are now expanding to other areas of Mexico as well. Hope this helps.