Autos chocolate are cars brought into Mexico from the United States without legal import papers. On January 19, 2022, the federal government published a decree to regularize them. The procedure cost 2,500 pesos and was to be open “hasta el 20 de julio de 2022” (until July 20, 2022). (Video in Spanish.)
The program went on well past that date. In January 2026, La Razón reported finance ministry figures: “se han legalizado un total de 2 millones 987 mil 839 vehículos” (a total of 2,987,839 vehicles have been legalized), with 7,302 million pesos collected.