Car without a Country

My car is currently 8 years old, has been in Mexico for 2 years, and has long-expired Texas license plates. I'd like to drive the car to Virginia to give it to a relative. What is the best way to get the car to Virginia? Must I nationalize the car in Mexico first? (I have a Jalisco driver's license.) Should I get S.D. plates? Are there problems driving in the U.S. with S.D. plates and a Texas or Jalisco driver's license?

Probably easiest to get SD plates.

I think that you can get a temp permit for the car at the boarder, then drive the car to Virginia.

SD plates are cheap, apart from Fedex maybe $50US. Why hassle at the border and paying in another state when you can do it all from Mexico and then not worry for a year?

I also support the idea of SD plates.

Martygraw has the right idea, Why hassle with getting SD plates for a year when the car will be given away. Get a trip permit at the border.

So far haven’t heard of hassles unless you didn’t originally pay some kind of state sales tax and didn’t keep your receipt. Inquire your choice.

In all curiosity how much did this “temp permit” cost? Always open to new and cheaper ideas.

The VA DMV is online...I'm a newbie on here, so I can post the link, but you can google VA DMV and it is pretty self explanatory.

Use your relative's address...or I have one you can use. You can look through all the plates and purchase online, have them shipped to your relative, and then ship them here (FedEx probably would charge around $40-$50) before you drive up. When you get to VA, just do a title transfer (requires a trip to the DMV, but you don't have to do anything other than sign the title). You could go ahead and put it in the other person's name to begin with, but I don't know how it works crossing the border.

DO NOT nationalize the car in Mexico! VA will harass you beyond belief about importing a foreign car. I've had to do it twice with Canadian cars and the extras add up! Plus, it can take months and months! It is even worse if you are taking it to northern VA. They also have the right to reject your importation.

If your Texas license is valid, while driving in the states use it. The areas you will be driving through may not exactly be Mexico friendly and some require that you pay tickets in person (found that out the hard way once in Alabama).

I don't know anything about the trip permit, though.