Transportation

The Tarjeta Única Is More Than a Bus Pass and That Is the Point of It

The 11-peso fare decision in Jalisco, covered in our main piece, is administered partly through the Tarjeta Única al Estilo Jalisco, a platform that has expanded well beyond its original transit payment function. A bus fare announcement that mentions a multi-service government card requires some explanation of what that card actually is.

Why Mexicans Pay the Price of a Real Car for a Tiny Hot Wheels

When a die-cast model car measuring roughly five centimetres sells out in hours and reappears on resale platforms at four times its original price, the instinct is to call it a supply-and-demand story. But the Hot Wheels frenzy surrounding the limited-edition Nissan Tsuru taxi, 3,500 units, exclusive to Mexico, originally listed at 5,000 pesos and reselling for up to 20,000, points to something larger and more structurally interesting than a simple inventory shortage.

From Taxi to Icon: How the Nissan Tsuru Became the Most Mexican Car Ever Made

To understand why a limited-edition Hot Wheels model of a car that stopped being manufactured in 2017 can sell for the equivalent of a real used vehicle, you first need to understand what the Nissan Tsuru meant to Mexico, not as a product, but as a presence.

The Tsuru was not Mexico's fastest car, or its most luxurious, or its most technically advanced. It was its most everywhere. For more than three decades, it was the ambient backdrop of Mexican life: in driveways, in traffic, at taxi stands, outside schools, parked beneath market awnings in every city from the Sonoran desert to the Yucatan coast.

The Nissan Tsuru Returns as a Hot Wheels and Mexico Lost Its Mind Over It

For anyone who has spent time travelling through Mexico, the Nissan Tsuru requires no introduction. The compact, four-door sedan, manufactured from 1984 until 2017, became so thoroughly woven into the fabric of Mexican daily life that it is difficult to describe it without reaching for the word 'ubiquitous.' It was the taxi at the airport, the family car in the driveway, the neighbour's vehicle that had been running for twenty years and showed no intention of stopping. It was never sold in the United States under the Tsuru name, Nissan rebranded it as the Sentra for North American markets, which only deepened its identity as something distinctly, irreplaceably Mexican.