Any Import a car from Canada? What is needed???

01-13-2004, 05:20 PM

I am thinking of puchasing an '86 Porsche from a guy in British Columbia and bring it to California. Do any of you know if you can do this at all? If so, do you know what it takes to import it??? I keep calling the DMV and I gotten 4 days of busy signals!!!! Thanks for help and thanks for your response!!!

-CKKrause

farleyd · farleyd's Garage

Hi, i can say about importing FROM United States to Canada. Should be quite similar. Most important is the equivalent of your title. Here, its a bit different. The car is not tied to its title as it is in the States.
- Be sure that the car is free of debt - id ask for a notoried paper, better safe than sorry....
- You can check with the US Customs and give them the VIN, they can then check if its been report stolen or not. THAT would help you enter the States.
- US compliances: most Canada cars have been imported from US first by the dealer. And they should comply to your state law, except CA which are a bit more precaucious.
- If the same as here, youll have to have the car inspected by a DMV approved garage.

Good luck!

stealthn · 01-13-2004, 07:06 PM

CKK, There was a long thread about this before with a lot of links of whom to call, try doing a search.

andrew15 · 01-13-2004, 07:47 PM

So... You can't find an '86 in California and need to take one away from us? Man, thats just cold! Make sure you check for any modifications you need to do for California - Canadian cars tend to be US variations but sometimes we may have subtle differences.

Regards,
Andrew M

atr911 · 01-13-2004, 08:17 PM

In my experience these cars tend to command a higher price in Ontario due to their very limited numbers (compared to europe and US)

This being said, I imported a car TO canada aswell. I needed to have the ownership (title) at the border 3 days before I actually brought the car over. The DMV won't be much help until they actaully get the car into the state. You need to talk to Canadain Customs AND US Customs. In my experience the Americans are the toughest and us canadians are stereotypically relaxed at border crossings.

Get all the facts before you even think about importing as it can be quitea a headache.

Goodluck!
Adam

dvkk · 01-14-2004, 02:43 AM

I don't know why you guys think the laws governing importing a car into the US are similar. Its an independant country with their own laws. Nothing relates.
I don't think the US border will be any problems, the state of CA will since the CDN spec car will not meet CA emission standards. You should contact the CARB first.

tholyoak · 01-14-2004, 03:11 AM

All the info you should need is outlined here
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/
Todd