Car insurance @ Matamoros border crossing

[p_a_m_i_e 0]

Does anyone know if it's possible to get insurance on Saturday & Sunday at the Brownsville/Matamoros border crossing or are the insurance offices closed on the weekend?

Thanks!

[TBoneTX 45,209]

Do you mean Mexican insurance, for the purpose of taking a U.S. car into Mexico? If you're renting your car on the Saturday or Sunday, the car-rental agency can probably sell you the insurance at that time -- but only at that time, si man. Some non-car-rental insurance places may have Saturday hours, but you'd have to check around (and maybe drive around) to find one. In December, when I last inquired (regarding a rental car for which I had NOT bought Mexican insurance at time of rental), an insurance agency said that there was a certain minimum period of days for which they could sell insurance (3 or 5 days; I don't recall at this moment), but for an extra charge they could sell it for fewer days than that minimum. It was convoluted.

If you own the car that you want to take into Mexico, talk to your own auto-insurance agent.

Finally, you could take your chances and drive into Mexico without the insurance, but that violates Mexican law, si man. No Mexican authority might check your insurance unless you drive past the 20-mile (?) buffer, but who knows what would happen to you or your car if you're stopped anywhere. Whenever I've been to Matamoros, I've seen at least as many cars with Texas plates as with Mexican plates, and certainly not all of the Texas cars have current Mexican insurance, but cuidado, si man.