USA car in Mexico

Thank you for both answer and additional question.
I’m trying to compare the situation to Canadian snowbirds driving their Canadian car or RV to Florida or Arizona for 6ish months every year. True that really few (none?) may have green cards so they are « tourists » in US per se.
But if I want to do the same from Canada to Mexico, would it be better to keep a temporary resident status instead of getting the permanent? Though I think that after 4 years you are automatically switched from temporary to permanent….
Or another option, having no Mexican residency status, being only a Canadian tourist driving his car, but with the 6 months limitation in this case…
In fact as of today we just don’t have a car in Zihua, we take taxi and buses. But as rentals are not easy nor cheap to get, I was wondering what my best option was.

But in this case, if you are technically a permanent resident but still live part time in another country (Canada for my concern), you are required to have a car plated in each country ?

The legality of vehicles in both Mexico and the US is very clear. IF you need to use your Mexico insurance, which you really need to have, you absolutely must have exactly the correct immigration status for the vehicle that is involved in an issue. The same is true for US insurance.

It is an interesting issue and the information is readily available.

TalleyHo, pardon me if I am being dense, but it appears that you did not answer the question. If both countries have the same rules, then you should not have driven the Mexican-plated vehicle in California and Arizona, correct? Toby's question was: "But in this case, if you are technically a permanent resident but still live part time in another country (Canada for my concern), you are required to have a car plated in each country?" Shouldn't you have driven a United States-plated vehicle while you were in California and Arizona?

Both countries do not have the same rules.

Although we are US citizens, when we return to the US we are considered tourists because we do not have a US residence or even address.

We were in California for almost three months, legally, because we were tourists who had returned to get rid of all of their stuff, had already cancelled our drivers licenses, owned no "real" property and had cancelled our voter registration.

As Mexicoman states, every countries laws are different.

Supposedly, according to some RV websites, Canadians cannot legally drive a non Canadian vehicle into or in Canada. We know Mexico permanent residents that drive their Guerrero plated vehicle to Canada for a month or two every summer. Legal? No, but they have not been caught, at least yet.

There is a 10 year TIP available in Mexico, but the vehicle registration must say RV on it. Then no deposit is charged. The legality of driving it with permanent residency status is unclear. We got two different legal opinions on it, and one said it was legal because the TIP was obtained before the permanent residency status was granted, and the other said that as soon as the residency status was granted the TIP was invalid.