Buying a used car in Guadalajara

Since we will become Permanente within the next year we needed to dispose of our US plated car and buy a MX plated replacement. After reaching an agreement with Playaboy for our US car we decided to look in Guadalajara for its replacement. We decided on a 2012 Toyota Rav4. We decided to do this now since a year from now our US car would be worth less and any 2012 Rav we found would likely have more miles on it than what we might find now.
We visited Dalton Toyota who have two Toyota stores, one on Patria and one on Lopez Mateo. The Patria store didn’t have what we were seeking but the Lopez Mateo store did. In fact, we found a near perfect 2012 with only 12,100 Km on it. The sales person we met spoke no English, so I apologized for our limited Spanish and pressed on. I had already done my research on car prices in Jalisco. After I was told the price of the car I asked if there was a discount for cash. The reply was, “Si!” In a moment she returned with a price that represented a substantial discount. I enquired if that was “toto” and was assured that all taxes, fees, etc. were included in the price. I accepted the deal and we shook hands. Then the sales lady introduced us to the Sales Manager who spoke excellent English and he reviewed the deal to be sure that we understood everything. Within a few days we’d transferred $ from the US to our Mexican bank and subsequently to Dalton and we drove out in our “new”car.
Subsequent research showed that I bought the car for $2,000 - $3,000 LESS than I could have in Texas or Arizona. BTW, our car came with a 3 year Warranty from Toyota!
I highly recommend Dalton Toyota and their professional staff. I’m sure that the staff at other major brands would be good as well. My point in posting this is twofold; first it’s very easy to buy a car from a major dealer in Guadalajara. This is my second experience and I found both to be very professional, no-hassle transactions. In each case the dealer had English speaking staff that took care to be sure that I was comfortable and understood everything. The second reason to debunk the myth that cars cost more here, they don’t

Good to know David, gracias

David wrote:Since we will become Permanente within the next year we needed to dispose of our US plated car and buy a MX plated replacement.  After reaching an agreement with Playaboy  for our US car we decided to look in Guadalajara for its replacement.  We decided on a 2012 Toyota Rav4.  We decided to do this now since a year from now our US car would be worth less and any 2012 Rav we found would likely have more miles on it than what we might find now.
We visited Dalton Toyota who have two Toyota stores, one on Patria and one on Lopez Mateo.  The Patria store didn’t have what we were seeking but the Lopez Mateo store did.  In fact, we found a near perfect 2012 with only 12,100 Km on it.   The sales person we met spoke no English, so I apologized for our limited Spanish and pressed on.  I had already done my research on car prices in Jalisco.  After I was told the price of the car I asked if there was a discount for cash.  The reply was, “Si!”  In a moment she returned with a price that represented a substantial discount.  I enquired if that was “toto” and was assured that all taxes, fees, etc. were included in the price.  I accepted the deal and we shook hands.  Then the sales lady introduced us to the Sales Manager who spoke excellent English and he reviewed the deal to be sure that we understood everything.  Within a few days we’d transferred $ from the US to our Mexican bank and subsequently to Dalton and we drove out in our “new”car.
Subsequent research showed that I bought the car for $2,000 - $3,000 LESS than I could have in Texas or Arizona.  BTW, our car came with a 3 year Warranty from Toyota!
I highly recommend Dalton Toyota and their professional staff.  I’m sure that the staff at other major brands would be good as well.  My point in posting this is twofold; first it’s very easy to buy a car from a major dealer in Guadalajara.  This is my second experience and I found both to be very professional, no-hassle transactions.  In each case the dealer had English speaking staff that took care to be sure that I was comfortable and understood everything.  The second reason to debunk the myth that cars cost more here, they don’t

Did you keep your Smartcar?

David....
I bought new from Dalton Chrysler on Lopez Mateos.  Same experience, both with purchase and subsequent service. Plated, paperwork, one year full coverage of insurance, Michelin tires I requested, a few other bells and whistles, for about the same price as sold in US...delivered to lakeside.
I recommend them very highly.

Yes, my SmartCar was purchased new here from Eurostern. It's MX plated.

Thank you. This will be very help when we move down permanently.

I've been meaning to write a similar "great experience" report about the Vanguardía Honda dealers. (See their website for locations, search their inventory of used cars, etc.)

The closest one is on González Gallo. They had about twelve used vehicles for sell when we were there. What stood out there was how clean the service area was. My wife remarked that one could eat off the floor :).

The other one is across from the Gallerías. Take the same access road for Costo, etc., Rafeal Sanzio, but instead of making the left turn, go straight just a little further. They had a huge showroom. There could have been one hundred used cars there.

In both locations, the showroom was enclosed, so it was clean and shaded - a big plus. All the makes, models, mileage, and prices were clearly marked. The salespersons were there to help. We didn't experience any "hard sell" tactics at all. We were very impressed.

At Gonzalez Gallo, we spoke Spanish, mostly, without any problems. They found a bilingual mechanic to help once or twice when necessary. We drove several cars, asked about policies, payment, etc.

At Gallerías, José Castellanos met us at the door, but called over Mario García (045-331-241-8378) who spoke excellent English with us. We had gone there on a Sunday and found that due to insurance reasons, there are no test drives on Sunday. Interestingly, they volunteered to bring two cars out to our house the following day for us to drive on familiar roads. They did, we chose one, and bought it. They delivered it freshly cleaned and registered in our name, by the end of the week.

Vanguardía's listed price is the price, as far as we can tell, but they throw in a twelve month extended warranty and the registration and delivery as the "negotiation". We prefer it this way, as we just detest bargaining and trying to guess the real price. By contrast, when we went to Dalton Toyota, the cars were outside in the sun and heat, unmarked, and the price, after inquiry, was written freehand on a slip of paper - not our cup of tea.

José and Mario specifically asked me to spread the word. It seems that one of the local facilitators takes people to their showroom but always works with the same agent. Obviously, they know a lot of us need to buy cars and would like an opportunity to help and earn some commission as well.

If you want to look at used cars, I recommend calling Mario and setting up a time to meet.

Yes, when we were at Dalton Toyota the price was written on a piece of paper. Then when I enquired about a possible discount for paying cash there was a substantial reduction. I found that to be very much "my cup of tea!"

During the past several years I have purchased three new cars at dealers in Guadalajara.  Each time it was possible to negotiate a better price than that first stated, and each experience was positive and without pressure, except for some minor language issues.