Picking up sometime after the Trans-France Race, Pete Stancheck has inherited Herbie from his uncle, Jim Douglas, and travels to
Puerto Vallarta,
Mexico with his friend Davy "D.J." Johns to retrieve the car. They get directions from Paco, a comically mischievous, orphaned pickpocket to the car lot. Unable to pay the holding fee due to Paco taking their wallets, the pair quickly leave in Herbie to find him. Elsewhere, Paco pickpockets one of the members of a trio of three
villains who are planning to steal gold from some forgotten Inca ruins. The trio chase Paco after realizing the film showing the location of the gold is in the stolen wallet, but Pete and DJ catch him first. Paco hides in Herbie's hood and is consequently loaded on the
Sun Princess cruise ship, bound for
Rio de Janeiro, where Pete and DJ plan to enter Herbie in the Brazil Grand Prêmio.
En route, they meet an
anthropology student named Melissa and her extravagant, eccentric aunt Louise, who is trying to find a husband for her niece. When Herbie wreaks havoc on board, Pete pretends to court Melissa, intending that her Aunt Louise will sponsor their race. Meanwhile, Paco is discovered by the crew and locked in the hold by Captain Blythe. Herbie (whom Paco calls "Ocho") helps Paco escape, and they ruin the ship's costume party while trying to escape the crew. Captain Blythe has his men
drop Herbie into the ocean as punishment for his actions, while Pete, DJ, Melissa and Aunt Louise are ordered off at the next port,
Panama. At the dock, Paco evades the ship crew and the gold thieves, who are waiting for him. Soon after, the now rusty Herbie resurfaces from the ocean at the
Panama Canal, and Paco rescues Herbie as he is about to drown in a nearby inlet. After Herbie is resuscitated, Paco and Herbie go into the
taxi business. The gold thieves soon find Paco and threaten to use an acetylene torch to cut up Herbie if Paco doesn't give them the film, which Paco put in Pete's wallet by mistake. Paco manages to get Pete's wallet, but as he and Herbie escape the men they are hailed by both Louise and Blythe. Melissa quickly commandeers a dilapidated bus so she, Pete, and DJ can go after them. Herbie tries to hide from the men at a
bullfighting arena, only for them to end up in the ring. After Herbie defeats the bull, he and Paco leave without Louise and Blythe, who are soon picked up by Pete, DJ and Melissa. Later at a café, Paco is grabbed by the men and taken aboard their plane. After failing to stop it from taking off, Herbie goes to find Pete and the others, who are stuck in a small village after the bus finally broke down. As a rainstorm hits, the men retrieve a large gold disc from the ruins, planning to melt it down so they can hire equipment to get the rest. They abandon Paco to fend for himself, but Herbie finds him. After Paco explains the thieves' plans to Pete, Herbie chases after the men, catching the gold in his trunk. Herbie and the group travel to the next major town (using bananas as camouflage) where Blythe and Louise go to get help while the others take the disc to the local university, where they are overpowered by the men. Paco is outside selling the bananas to locals when he and Herbie see the men loading the disc into their plane. Herbie throws the bananas at them before chasing the plane and 'biting' its tail off. After Herbie wrecks the rest of the plane, the villains are defeated by Herbie and Paco and arrested by the police. The group reunite on the
Sun Princess, where Pete and DJ resume their plans to enter a repainted and restored Herbie in the Brazil Grand Prêmio, albeit with Paco as the driver (Pete conceding that Paco and Herbie have a better connection than Pete would have if he drove Herbie himself). Aunt Louise once again tries to get Blythe to notice her, but he is more interested in a passing
schooner. DJ finally asks Paco why he keeps referring to Herbie as "Ocho", since that is Spanish for eight. Paco looks at Herbie's "53" and remarks that 5 + 3 = 8. After that, Pete, Davy, Aunt Louise, and Melissa have a toast for Herbie to win the Brazil Grand Prêmio, with Paco giving a thumbs up. ==Cast==