Driving one way from the U.S. to Mexico

November 3, 2018 7:47 PM

I've got a) a carload of stuff that I need to get from San Antonio, Texas to Merida, Yucatan and b) a yen to drive down the gulf coast of Mexico. The complication is that I don't have a car and I don't want to buy one. If this was in a single country I'd just do a one way rental. I'm looking for suggestions.
posted by Tell Me No Lies to Travel & Transportation (4 answers total)

Alamo's website (the first one google gave up) suggests a one way US to Mexico is possible, although at some cost. Certainly worth asking with them and the other major chains.

Otherwise, you could probably do a one way to a border town, say Brownsville, then a one way in Mexico with overlapping rentals. For example, drive across with your stuff in the morning to the agency in Matamoros where you have a car booked for 10 AM, then transfer your stuff to the Mexican car and leave it there or nearby (perhaps a hotel nearby?) Then drive the US car back to Brownsville and drop it off at the rental place at 4 PM, then take a taxi back to the other car. Obviously allowing plenty of time for border crossing.

In any case, depending on what you need to do in Merida it's possible that continuing on to Cancun could be cheaper for both of the car rental (dropping in a higher demand location) and the flight home, so consider that.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 9:37 PM on November 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: As far as I can find the major U.S. chains that allow driving into Mexico limit you to 250 miles from the border.

I like your border switching plan. I had this image of myself wheeling a cart of belongings across the border by hand, but you're quite right there's no reason to.

For Hertz Mexico renting and returning in Reynosa is USD 400 for two weeks. Renting in Reynosa and dropping in Merida is USD 1600. (slightly higher in Cancun for some reason). Starts to make shipping look competitive.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:10 AM on November 4, 2018

Does this fall on a trucking route at all? My first thought was backloading (pay a cheap shipping amount to fill a truck that is already going in that direction but isn't full). *I have no idea if this works across borders or is a thing in that region. This does not scratch the drive itch, but may get your stuff there.
posted by cholly at 6:49 PM on November 4, 2018

One million years ago, I did a similar thing in a driveaway car (which is not a getaway car). You can look up auto transporters in your area and see if any work from the US to Mexico.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:40 PM on November 7, 2018