Mexican Car Insurance
The first thing you should know about traveling in Mexico is that your American car insurance is not recognized by the authorities. Your U.S. carrier may or may not cover your car while in Mexico, but you at least need liability insurance from a Mexican car insurance company. The penalty for not doing so is pretty steep (a hefty fine and go directly to jail if you are in an accident without Mexican insurance).
There are several places in Calexico, CA at the border which sell the insurance you need. This is the best border crossing for most CA residents if you are traveling to San Felipe. Rather than wait until you get to the border to get your insurance, however, you can purchase a policy online in a few minutes and actually print it out.
I bought a year’s liability insurance for just under one hundred and forty dollars. If you are certain you will be driving in Mexico several times a year, this is the best and cheapest way to go. I used Adventure Mexican Insurance Services, and the purchase went very smoothly. If you do a search for Mexican car insurance, you will find several other providers. I found the prices to be extremely similar, so I went with the one that I thought had the best website and ranked the best in Google.
Don’t drive in Mexico without insurance! Chances are, you will not be in an accident during your Mexico trip. But if you are one of the unlucky ones and you don’t have insurance, you’ll go directly to jail without collecting two hundred dollars or passing go.