The Cars of Mexico City

Last week, I traveled to Mexico City and stayed for a week. My girlfriend and I soaked in the hustle and bustle of city life, ate delicious foods, and explored the country’s rich history and culture. At times, I wish I could turn off my car gawking – at the very least for vacation – but unfortunately I could not hold out. The curse came with me everywhere I went, and I was forced to gawk at some really boring cars. If Los Angeles is a car mecca of the world, then surely Mexico City is a car enthusiast’s purgatory. Read on for observations of Mexico’s best and worst rides.

One of the first cars I saw coming out of the airport was a full size Chevy Suburban. Gasoline is nationalized in Mexico, so prices were all the same at different stations with a few exceptions. I worked out the conversion to be $2.86 per gallon, which sounded like a smoking deal until I walked by a food stand that would sell me close to nine delicious tacos for that price. Would you rather travel nine miles in a Suburban in the city, or eat nine tacos? Without hesitation, I would choose the latter because the street food is amazing.

Taking the ultra cheap, and ultra convenient metro ($0.25 takes you anywhere), it quickly became clear that the Suburban is not this city’s most common car. There were many A and B segment cars, tiny subcompacts contributing to one of the most polluted cities in the world. Most of them were nothing to write home about. A Ford Ka here, a Chevy Matiz there. Every once in a while, a Audi A1 might make your head turn, but even that’s less exciting than even most compacts in the US.

Overwhelmingly, the car du jour in the gridlocked city was the mid 90’s 3rd generation Nissan Sentra, named the unpronounceable Tsuru locally. Nissan has a strong showing in the Mexican market, and I would not be surprised if the redesigned 2012 Versa sells well here.

The other popular manufacturer in the country is VW. There are many 4th generation Jettas out on the street, but the real surprise is the number of original VW Beetles. The popular fleet Taxi used to be the original Beetle until the government banned 2-door vehicles in a successful attempt to phase out the air cooled pollution menace. It’s a shame because it’s still fun to see and hear them drive down the street, even though if they are miserable cars compared to modern alternatives.

So there you have it. Mexico City’s a great place to visit, but has one of the most boring car cultures.