Mexico’s motors
Outside North America, Mexico is not often mentioned in discussions about the motor industry.
In fact, though, that continent’s southernmost country has a long history of building cars, either indigenous models or, more frequently, ones designed by manufacturers based in other countries.
Here are 30 examples, all of them dating from the 20th century, presented in alphabetical order.
All pictures are of the correct model, but not necessarily of specific cars built in Mexican factories
1. BMW 3 Series
In the 1990s, BMW decided that it would be a good idea to enter the Mexican market, but was not permitted to export complete cars there either from Germany or from its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
However, if the cars were at least partly assembled inside Mexico, there wasn’t a problem.
BMW therefore applied to the Mexican Secretariat for Trade and Industrial development for a local assembly licence, and received it in April 1994.
As a result, from the following year it was able to sell cars put together from SKD (Semi Knocked Down) kits in a leased and converted factory, one of which was the then-current, E36-generation 3 Series.
2. BMW 5 Series
The same arrangement which allowed BMW to produce the 3 Series in Mexico also applied to the larger 5 Series, by then in its fourth generation.
The project was relatively short-lived, because assembly of both models came to an end in 2003.
BMW’s presence in the country has become much stronger since then.
Production of a much later 3 Series began in San Luis Potosí in 2019, and the all-electric New Class is scheduled to be built in Mexico from 2027.
3. Buick Century
The General Motors plant in Ramos Arizpe, which you’ll be reading about a lot here, opened in 1981 and immediately began producing Chevrolets, as it still does today.
Other brands have also been represented, including Buick, which has actually been in existence longer than GM itself.
Buicks built at Ramos Arizpe, in the north of Mexico, included the fifth-generation Century, a nameplate which had been used periodically for more than 50 years before this version was introduced.
4. Chevrolet Chevy
Despite its American name, the Chevy was the Mexican version of the European hatchback known in most other markets as the second Opel Corsa and, in the UK, as the first Vauxhall Corsa (its predecessor having been sold there as the Vauxhall Nova).
Production at Ramos Arizpe began in 1997, four years after its European launch, but continued until 2010, by which time its Vauxhall/Opel equivalent had been replaced twice.
To this day, the Chevy is still the model which has been built in a single generation at Ramos Arizpe for the longest time.
5. Chevrolet Malibu
As mentioned before, GM’s Ramos Arizpe initially built only Chevrolets after it opened in 1981.
Among them was the Malibu, a nameplate which was in its fourth generation overall, but now being applied for the first time to a stand-alone model, rather than to a sub-series of the Chevelle.
Ramos Arizpe also assembled the Celebrity, Citation and Monte Carlo during this period, and added to its portfolio in 1982 when it began manufacturing straight-six and V8 engines rather than importing them from elsewhere.
6. Chevrolet Suburban
GM’s Silao plant, in the state of Guanajuato in Mexico, opened in 1996, and currently produces the Chevrolet Silverado and the closely related GMC Sierra, along with transmissions and V8 engines.
In its earlier days, it also manufactured the eighth generation of the Chevrolet Suburban, a nameplate whose history dates back to the 1930s.
Mexican Suburbans of that period were built with right-hand drive and exported to Australia and New Zealand, where they were marketed briefly as Holdens.
7. Chrysler Neon
Toluca Car Assembly is the oldest Chrysler factory in Mexico, having been established back in 1968.
One of its more famous products is the Neon, which was built there in four-door saloon form and always sold locally as a Chrysler, though in other markets it was also branded as a Dodge or, as pictured here, a Plymouth.
Toluca, located south-west of Mexico City, also built the retro-styled PT Cruiser, which looked nothing like the Neon but was technically related to it.
8. Chrysler Sebring
The first of three Sebring generations, produced from 1995 to 2000, was the only one built at the Toluca plant.
Which country the Sebring of this era was built in determined its body style.
Coupés were all manufactured in the US, while the Mexican versions were convertibles.
From 2000 onwards, Sebrings were mostly built in the US, though latterly they were also produced in China.
9. Dinalpin
Although the Alpine A110 was a thoroughly French car with Renault mechanicals, it was built in several countries and marketed under different names, the Bulgarian version being known as the Bulgaralpine.
The Mexican equivalent was produced in Ciudad Sahagún, north-east of Mexico City, by DINA (Diesel Nacional), a manufacturer of trucks and buses which also built Renault cars for several years.
Its version of the A110 was known as the Dinalpin, an obvious combination of the names ‘DINA’ and ‘Alpine’, though the final ‘e’, without which ‘Alpine’ would be pronounced quite differently in French, was superfluous in Spanish.
10. Dodge Ram
The Chrysler (now Stellantis) Truck Assembly Plant in Saltillo, in the north-eastern Mexican state of Coahuila, opened in 1995, just as the second-generation Ram pick-up was being introduced, and several years before Ram was disengaged from Dodge and became a brand in its own right.
Although Rams are also manufactured elsewhere, Saltillo specialises in them.
A Saltillo Ram 2500 built in August 2019 was the four millionth to leave the factory. The five millionth emerged from it almost exactly four years later, in August 2023.
11. Dodge Ramcharger
Related to the Ram pick-up, the Ramcharger was an SUV produced in three generations.
The second (pictured) was built at Chrysler’s Lago Alberto plant in north-western Mexico City until 1996, three years after it was withdrawn from the US and Canadian markets.
The third was never officially sold anywhere north of Mexico, and survived for only three model years around the turn of the century, shortly before Lago Alberto was shut down.
12. Ford Escort
Hermosillo Stamping and Assembly in Hermosillo, Sonora, north-west Mexico, which currently builds the Ford Maverick and Bronco Sport, was established in 1986 as a joint project with Mazda, then part-owned by Ford.
The first model built there was the Mercury Tracer, a close relative of the contemporary Mazda 323.
The North American Escort shared a platform with the Japanese car, and by 1990 it was also being manufactured at Hermosillo, to considerable effect.
Reportedly, the Ford Escort alone accounted for more than 60% of total Hermosillo production in the 1990s.
13. Ford F-150
Since 1964, Ford has been building cars and trucks at the Cuautitlán Stamping and Assembly Plant, which is currently dedicated to the Mustang Mach-E.
In the past, this factory in a northern district of Mexico City has also been one of the manufacturing locations for Ford’s immensely popular F-150 pick-up.
Starting in the 1990s (2002 model pictured), high-end examples built in Cuautitlán and sold to private buyers in Mexico were branded Lobo, the Spanish word for ‘wolf’, though the F-150 name was retained for versions intended largely for work use.
14. Ford Thunderbird
In the same decade that Cuautitlán began putting Lobo badges on the F-150, it also produced the 10th-generation Thunderbird.
This was the last 20th-century T-bird, and there was a half-decade gap between its discontinuation and the arrival of the final model of that name.
That car doesn’t feature in our list for two reasons – it arrived on the market after 2000, and it wasn’t built in Mexico.
15. GMC Caballero
The Caballero was the third in a series of three car-based GMC pick-ups, the first two both being named Sprint.
It was manufactured in several US factories, but also in Ramos Arizpe after the Mexican plant began building vehicles which did not wear Chevrolet badges.
In fact, the Caballero really was a Chevrolet, being simply a rebranded version of, and otherwise almost indistinguishable from, the fifth-generation Chevy El Camino.
The El Camino was produced at Ramos Arizpe, too, and in 1983 it became the first Mexican-built GM vehicle to be exported from Mexico to the United States.
16. Honda Accord
Honda de México, established in 1985, has both its headquarters and a factory in El Salto, in the state of Jalisco.
Motorcycle production began there in 1988, but the first car didn’t appear until 1995.
This was the Accord, which had recently gone into its fifth generation.
Specifically, it was the Accord intended for Japanese and North American customers, and not the smaller model built in the UK and sold throughout Europe.
17. Mazda 323
As we’ve already established, the American Ford Escort and the Mercury Tracer, both related to the 323 (or Familia as it was known in Japan), were built in Hermosillo, a facility established by Ford and Mazda.
You can probably see what’s coming next.
Sure enough, 323s were also produced at Hermosillo in the late 1990s, though the Mazda connection came to an end when Ford took full control of the factory.
18. Mercury Cougar
Mercury Cougars of the sixth and seventh generations, produced for most of the 1980s and 1990s, were counterparts to the Ford Thunderbirds of that era, and were built at the Cuautitlán plant as well as in the US.
The Mercury brand was not used in Mexico, so the Cuautitlán Cougars were instead badged as Fords.
They should not be confused with another Cougar – sold in Europe as a Ford and in North America as a Mercury – which was introduced later and had nothing to do with the Cuautitlán cars.
19. Mercury Grand Marquis
The Grand Marquis was popular in Mexico for several years, but not always built there.
This did, however, happen from 1982 to 1984, when the Grand Marquis was in its first generation as a stand-alone model, having previously been a sub-series of the Marquis.
As with the Thunderbird, it was sold in Mexico as a Ford, since the Mercury brand never had a presence in that part of the world.
20. Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera
In the 1980s, Oldsmobile used the well-established Cutlass name for several distinct models, the most popular being the front-wheel-drive Cutlass Ciera.
Examples of this car sold in Mexico were among the earliest non-Chevrolets built at the Ramos Arizpe plant.
Unlike those produced in the US, they were not known as Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, even though that’s exactly what they were.
The Ciera part of the name and the Oldsmobile branding were both dropped, so the car was referred to simply as the Cutlass by General Motors.
21. Plymouth Valiant
The original Valiant, introduced in the 1960 model year, was briefly marketed as the sole model in a separate brand, but soon became known as a Plymouth.
The Plymouth name was used only sporadically in Mexico (’65 model shown), and ads show that Valiants sold there were often marketed as Chryslers.
They were assembled by Chrysler’s Mexican subsidiary which, at the time, was known as Automex, though the name was later changed to Chrysler de México.
22. Pontiac Sunbird
In all its generations, the Pontiac Sunbird was manufactured at GM’s Lordstown Assembly facility in Ohio.
Latterly, however, it was also built at Ramos Arizpe in Mexico.
In what must now be starting to feel like a familiar story, it was sold in that country not as a Pontiac but as a Chevrolet.
The Mexican Sunbirds, and most of the US ones, were based on the J-body platform, also used for a great many other GM vehicles of the time including the Chevrolet Cavalier, Holden Camira, Opel Ascona and Vauxhall Cavalier.
23. Pontiac Sunfire
The Pontiac Sunbird was replaced in the 1995 model year by the Sunfire, which was based on an updated version of the J-body platform and was therefore related to the Sunbird, though the styling was wildly different.
Lordstown, Ohio was once again partly responsible for its production, and so was Ramos Arizpe.
The Sunfire was discontinued after 2005, five years before the nearly century-long history of Pontiac itself came to an end.
24. Renault 4
As mentioned in the context of the Dinalpin, the bus and truck manufacturer formerly known as Diesel Nacional (now DINA) manufactured Renaults under licence, as many other companies around the world also did.
In a 1974 ad, DINA boldly assured potential customers that a test drive of one of its models would leave them ‘convinced that having a Renault is being one step ahead of the others’.
There was also talk of a step forward in technology, though in fact one of the cars it built in Ciudad Sahagún at that time was already 13 years old, and powered by an engine which had been around for 27.
This was the Renault 4, the French company’s first front-wheel-drive passenger car, which was so successful that it had saved Renault from financial disaster in the early 1960s, and was still only around halfway through its production run in 1974.
25. Renault 8
DINA also assembled the Renault 8, which had been launched a year after the 4 in 1962 but was, as we would see it now, more anachronistic.
Having just introduced its first front-wheel-drive passenger car, Renault had reverted to the rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive layout it had been using since the 4CV of 1947.
Within a decade, the 8 had become old-fashioned for exactly this reason, and it did not survive for long after the publication of the 1974 DINA ad we mentioned previously.
26. Renault 12
The most expensive Renault assembled by DINA in 1974 was the 12 which, like other models from the French marque, was produced in many countries.
Larger and usually more powerful than either the 4 or the 8, it was manufactured throughout the 1970s, and spawned the 15 and 17 coupés.
In its original form, it was offered as a saloon and an estate, and DINA built examples of both.
27. VAM Lerma
Unlike the other cars mentioned here, the Lerma was designed in Mexico as well as being built there for a brief period in the early 1980s.
There was, however, a lot of foreign influence, since Vehículos Automotores Mexicanos was associated with American Motors Corporation (AMC) and built several of its models under licence.
The Lerma, named after the city where VAM had an engine plant, was technically similar to AMC’s Concord, though from the rear it more closely resembled the AMC Spirit hatchback.
28. Volkswagen Beetle
Mexico plays a very significant role in the history of the Volkswagen Beetle.
All three generations were built at VW’s Puebla factory, in east-central Mexico, but the one we’re most interested in here is the original Type 1, which was the first model to be built there in 1967.
A Beetle manufactured in 1980 was the millionth car to emerge from Puebla, and the last Type 1 of all was built there in July 2003.
Puebla was also responsible for what is to date (and, unless Volkswagen has a change of policy, will probably remain) the last-ever Beetle of any generation, which left the factory in 2019.
29. Volkswagen Golf
When it wasn’t building Beetles, Volkswagen’s Puebla factory turned its hand to manufacturing Golfs of the first generation.
Well, we say ‘Golf’, but this was another car sold in Mexico with a name unfamiliar to people in other countries.
In the same way that the Mk1 Golf was known in the US as the Rabbit, it was rechristened Caribe for the Mexican market.
30. Volkswagen Jetta
Along with Bora and Vento, Jetta is one of several names used by Volkswagen for three-box saloon versions of the Golf.
The first-generation Jetta was manufactured at Puebla, among other factories, which became the principal production location for future versions sold, but not built, in western Europe.
After saloons fell out of favour in Europe, but while they remained popular in North America, it became good business practice to build Jettas on the same continent where most of its customers were and ship only a small proportion of them to less-responsive nations across the Atlantic, rather than the other way round.
We hope you enjoyed this gallery. Please click the ‘Follow’ button above for more super stories from Classic & Sports Car.