Importing a car from the US to Canada

[Christien]

hey all, I've drafted a document detailing the process of importation of a car from the US into Canada. I'll see if I can get the mods to post it as a sticky here.

I'd appreciate anyone who's been through the process proof-reading it for errors, omissions, etc. PM me with your email address if you're able to help. Once I'm fairly confident it's correct, I'll see if we can get it posted. If not, I'll email it to anyone who wants it.

Chris

[unclebilly]

Sure, send it to me.

[Christien]

For those who want a copy to proofread, I need your email address. (pm me) It's in MS Word form.

Thanks,
Chris

[TCB]

Chris
Hope all is well...
I'd enjoy having a read also.
basom@mountaincable.net

[unclebilly]

scott.sherman-at-telus.net

[Eldorado]

hey christien, talk to hpaulb over on the 944 board... he imported his late 924 from the states.. jersey, i think.. he'd be able to help i'm sure..

[Oracle]

jspr911sc at hotmail dot com

[Christien]

Hey all, sorry I haven't responded yet - there's a plethora of PMs in my inbox. I was at Mosport all day yesterday, and had a bit of a mishap, so my mind's in other areas right now.

Anyway, I'll get a copy out to everyone later today when I get back to my computer (on my wife's laptop right now).

Chris

[TCB]

Hey Chris
Hope it wasn't anything too bad at Mosport. I'm going to try to make the next one..
Terry

[Carrera Kid]

Is this for importing a used car or a new one? A friend I work with wants to buy a new Boxster in the US and then import it to Canada (Ontario). He said that it would save him 24% over the cost of buying a new one here. Has anyone imported a new car? Apparently it may not be easy as he was told that a Canadian citizen cannot buy a new car from a US dealer; there may be some companies that act as a "middle man" to arrange this and take a small cut in the process.

The one negative that he found is that you lose the warranty; that would be fairly major to me.

Rick

[Christien]

I can't think of any reason why you couldn't buy new, assuming you're paying for it all up front, and not financing it through the dealership. (If you're financing it through a CDN bank, that should be fine.) Once the car's paid for, the title will be signed over to you, and you can go through the importation process. Once the title's in your name and is clear, I don't see why either the US or CDN gov't would care who you bought it from.

You might look into getting the warranty transferred, but yeah, I would think you'd lose out on that. I agree, that would be fairly major - in fact, for me that would be a deal-breaker.

Hope to have the import process paper done tonight or tomorrow. Thanks everyone who's commented on it so far.

[jvestner]

I have a friend that has imported 2 new Toyota trucks from the US with no problems. They still have full warranty becuase Toyota honors it across the border.

[imcarthur]

For Porsche cross-border warranty info see this Rennlist post: PCNA CANCELS ALL WARRANTIES ON US IMPORTS EFFECTIVE JULY 1 and IT'S RETROACTIVE

Ian

[Christien]

Ok, corrections are done and I've pm'd Chris (moderator) about making it a sticky. Hopefully it'll be up there in a couple days! As we speak I'm in the process of my third import. Based on my experience with the first two, I said screw it and paid to have it brought to my door. The shipping company I used was dirt cheap ($1050 US to my door) but I'm starting to question them, as they said it'd be picked up within a day or 2 of my placing the order. That was June 6. As of yesterday, the seller still hadn't even got a phone call to arrange pickup...

[speedracer]

Originally posted by Christien
Ok, corrections are done and I've pm'd Chris (moderator) about making it a sticky. Hopefully it'll be up there in a couple days! As we speak I'm in the process of my third import. Based on my experience with the first two, I said screw it and paid to have it brought to my door. The shipping company I used was dirt cheap ($1050 US to my door) but I'm starting to question them, as they said it'd be picked up within a day or 2 of my placing the order. That was June 6. As of yesterday, the seller still hadn't even got a phone call to arrange pickup...

Did you use Searail?

[Carrera Kid]

Interesting link to the Rennlist post:

"US dealers will not be permitted to sell to Canadian clients"

That's what my friend told me. I suppose there are always ways aroung things like this, but if you run into trouble trying to get it across the border later, I think you could be SOL (for new cars anyways).

Rick

[Christien]

I just want to bump this to make sure everyone sees the link Ian posted a few posts up from here, about PCNA not honouring warranties for US cars brought into Canada. It seems a real brouhaha is coming over this. I also was refused a recall clearance letter from PCNA yesterday, as a commercial importer.

Here's the rennlist discussion link again:
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/showthread.php?t=279013

I just added a little addendum to the "importing" sticky at the top of this forum, so give that a quick read too. In short, because of the price discrepancy between CDN and US Porsches, the CDN Porsche dealerships seem to be doing everything they can to block the import of US Porsches into Canada, short of actually offering competetive prices. There's some interesting insight into the economics of it in the rennlist thread.

[Christien]

A little update here, I finally got my car federalized today. It was an absolute b!tch - PCNA and Pfaff and Downtown Porsche (Toronto dealerships, fyi for those outside Ont.) did everything they could to stop me from getting a recall letter, it seems. I ended getting a recall printout from a dealership near the seller in North Carolina, which indicated there had been an open recall on this particular model for a gas cap replacement. I tracked down the dealership that did the recall work (replaced it) but he said he was prohibited by state law (OH) from sending me a copy of the invoice or work order. The RIV inspector said 'just produce an invoice for a gas cap for me', so I ordered one from a dealership in Buffalo. He faxed me the invoice (I don't even care if they don't send the gas cap!) and it passed inspection.

In the meanwhile, I posted some comments about my experiences with PCNA, Pfaff and Downtown on the PCA UCR forum. A few guys responded to my comments, in agreement, and voicing frustration at the lack of regard shown to customers. Apparently someone at one of the dealership ***** their pants over the thread and threatened to pull their sponsorship of the UCR club race at Mosport later this month. "I'm taking my ball and going home!!" So in the interest of UCR, I removed some of my opinions from my posts. I notice a few other posts in that thread have curiously disappeared...

Anyway, it was a PITA of a process, but it's done, and she's now officially a canuck!

I suspect at some point in the near future one of three things may happen:
1. RIV modifies their policies re recall letters for Porsches, perhaps to accept Carfax reports, which include recall info.
2. One or more dealerships clue into the money to be made offering recall letters for outrageous costs of, say, $50 or $100 (which most commercial importers would pay happily) and a new cottage industry is spawned.
3. A class action lawsuit is launched against PCNA, perhaps including CDN dealerships as well. This was mentioned in one of the posts in the UCR thread that has now disappeared. I've in fact already discussed this with a lawyer (my father) who agrees there may be a case there. (and no, he's not an ambulance chaser!)

Again in the interest of UCR's relationship with the dealerships, I've kept some things to myself, but this is the gist of how things have shaken down over the last couple weeks.



(don't worry, there's still an air-cooled beauty in the garage! )

[imcarthur]

That threat is very interesting . . .

Ian

[Christien]

What's most interesting is what's no longer there... Wish I'd kept copies.