My guy lives in Mexico so I have heard about this. There is a steady market / flow of new/used GM parts all throughout mexico, some are cheap reproduction parts that get imported from China but most are good parts, and there are still lots of old GM car parts in storeage down there that never made it up here for production that people are selling to this day. Since owning a GM is very cheap to get parts / maintain and there is always the availability of those substandard Chinese parts to skimp on maintenance special edition cars like the Monte SS/ 442's/ Fleetwoods and step-side pick ups are highly desireable vehicles to the cartels over there. My friend said his father ( a mexican mechanic) once visited a warehouse and a fellow mechanic had stowed away some old white box caprices that never became taxis in the early 90s because the bubble
caprice came out that year, and they were just sitting under plastic hidden in a dank warehouse with a bunch of spare 0 mile 305 engines and 700R4's there too! There are many people holding on to obscure stuff like that in warehouses down there because the market was flooded w/ an overload of that stuff for such a long time that back then it wasn't worth anything, and some stuff like that is just now finally finding itself installed in newer cars
What does it cost a criminal to repair his vehicle when mechanics are part of his gang - on standby basically, and he has access to stolen parts, low price on the ones he can't find junked... almost nothing! Then the only cost of ownership becomes strictly gas/oil/coolant! Don't visit mexico driving a G in good condition or you will definitely get jacked! Definitely don't bring the silverado step-side or 80s blazer down there either