I love our Element. The fact that it has Sonoran plates presents a bit of a problem. Normally it is not difficult for us to import it. US Customs let’s us do this for free. The problem is that we lost all of our titles in the move. So we need to get back to HMO and find out how we can get that reissued, OR find the box of super important documents that has somehow disappeared.
We still use it on occasion here (like when we buy furniture on craigslist). It still has Mexican insurance which applies in the US, but I really don’t want to have to explain that or justify why I am driving a foreign vehicle if I were to get pulled over. Even so, we still use it at times.
A few weeks ago the clutch began to go out. I called for a quote to the dealership: $1500 parts and labor. I called Matt and Dana’s mechanic that works out of his home and he wanted the same ($600 for an aftermarket clutch kit which I could buy myself for $98 and $900 in labor). Honda parts and labor always seem more expensive, but those prices are just stupidly absurd.
So I ordered a clutch kit for $98 and a new slave cylinder for $60 (the old one had a tiny leak). Yun then took it to Mexico and we paid $2000 pesos to have the clutch and slave work done. That’s like $80 US in labor. So the clutch replacement itself was under $200….versus $1500 in the US. That is one enormous benefit of living close to the border.