I am currently spending Winters in Mexico, living full time in my AWD 99 SAFARI MICRO MOTORHOME ( RUGGEDIZED TIGER CLONE), and driving back to Canada for my Summers. Just call me a SNOBIRD!

My SAFARI MICRO MOTORHOME is mostly parked in a gated lot, being used as my MEXICAN Winter Casita. At 70 years of age, I do not do much actual overlanding these days. I absolutely Love the minimalistic/RV lifestyle, parking is unbelievably cheap, and I have been thinking about leaving my RV down here permanently. I have a TEN YEAR valid Mexican Temporary Import Permit on my Safari, so it can legally stay in Mexico.

Air fare back to Canada is also quite cheap, so plan A is to fly back to the West coast of Canada, and pick up another cheap/beater van to leave up there for the Summers. Have a camper van at each end of the SNOBIRD life, and fly back and forth instead of driving.

HOWEVER,
the WET COAST vans get wet, and they get rusty and moldy.

So,
PLAN B,
is to pick up a cheap/beater van in Arizona, with a decent RUST FREE BODY, anything good enough mechanically to make it 2000 miles before imploding would do. Then repair and camperise for my SUMMER home on Van Isle.

BUT,
How hard is it to LEGALLY buy and register an Arizona vehicle?
With a CANADIAN DRIVERS LICENSE?
What about insurance for the US?
While I have previously purchased and impoirted vehicles from the US in to Canada, and have imported my RV into Mexico, is it naive to think that Canadian and Mexican import and insurance should be relatively easy with a valid AZ registration and bill of sale in my name??????

If anyone can provide SOLID info on the legal requirements, it would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
LAZ 1

As an alien you can own a Montana LLC and then buy a US vehicle in any state you want and then the LLC registers it in Montana. No sales tax, no safety or smog checks and if the vehicle is more than ten years old you can get permanent tags. Insurance - we obtained from progressive. Australian License and passport wasn't an issue for us but of course we don't get any noclaim bonus because driving history isn't available.

A couple of other states have similar arrangement

How that would translate into your situation where you want to leave it in Canada permanently is unknown. I do know that Montana won't care because one of our vehicles spent its life in South America, and the other vehicle hasn't been in Montana more than once in 7 years, but I suspect Canada would have something to say about it.

BTW you might need to check up on leaving your US vehicle in Mexico while you fly out as Mexico is getting stricter. Recent posts on the woodalls forum, Mexico section and elsewhere (Bajabound perhaps) said that some were getting into trouble unless they got special permission from Mexican Aduana to leave the vehicle behind as that is a basic requirement of the TVIP

__________________
Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

A friend of mine who is also a Brit has both a bike and an rv registered in Arizona, an address is obviously required but it also depends on which DMV office you go into, he tried both Prescott and Flagstaff, one required a social security number the other did not but I cannot remember which way around it was. The other good thing is he is able to pay 5 years registration in advance but this is only available on certain vehicles.