Going to U.S. to buy a car

For many makes of new cars, the price differential between Canada and the U.S. does not reflect the recent strength of the loonie to the point where a car may cost 25% or more in Canada. So, I'm considering going to the U.S. to buy one.

In the case of the make I'm considering, there's more than the base cost involved - U.S. consumers are provided with much more flexibility. For instance, wood trim is a no cost option in the U.S. for the car I'm after while in Canada you need to pay $585 *AND* need to choose the $2400 leather option!

Anyone have experience buying a new car in the U.S.?

try Consumer Reports. They have the best advice about buying a car.Also go on line and look. Call ahead and work out a deal.

Also check the warranty clauses. I have heard that in some instances, manufacturers' warranties are null and void if the vehicle is purchased out of country. In other cases you would have to go back to the U.S. for maintenance issues. Just recently I read an interesting article about this very same scenario. I think that in last weekend's Toronto Star there was an article about how to purchase a vehicle in the U.S.

Dori

mamiecarter said:

try Consumer Reports. They have the best advice about buying a car.Also go on line and look. Call ahead and work out a deal.

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Consumer Reports is a fraud. CR bases their ratings on reader returned responses. It is not a truely objective and scientfic report of reliabilty.

I would suggest you use a number of resources, CR, MSN Auto, EDMUNDS and KBB.COM. Once you narrow it down to 4 or 5 choices, go take a test drive before you come south.

I can't tell you how much it drives me nuts that people think CR is the Bible of car driving. CR routinely rates European cars very high even though in general Euro cars have lower reliability than US and Asian makes.....why then does CR do this....because and unusaully high number of CR readers live in coastal states where Euro cars are driven and Euro cars are more within the income level of CR subscribers.

The June 17 issue of the Toronto Star Wheels section (www.thestar.com) had an article on this and even an article on the buying process. I tried to paste the link here but didn't work. I can PM you the link if you want.

Liz

I looked into buying a car from US as well a couple of month ago. I was looking into Scion which is not yet available widely in Canada.

There is a standard procedure for this and apparently is done a lot. There is a fee you pay, around $900 I think and there is a way around the warranty issue. I lost the link to the process and can't remember how I got it, but I suggest you post this question on http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=9 I am sure someone there will be able to help you out?

Steel5Rings,
Finally, someone agrees with me concerning Consumer Reports.
What is an "electrical problem?" Burned out bulb or did the car burn up?
We've had some reallygood cars that they have black dotted. Never knew why, really. CR is pretty good with some things, but cars I have always questioned.

And as with many magazines, they do what I feel is a small rip-off. "Free Issue" ... but only if one cancels. Let subscription continue and one pays full price for a set no. of issues.

But back to Canadians buying U.S. cars. Do you have emission problems to overcome? In California, it's difficult to bring in a new, non-CA certified car.
Are there additional taxes the Government wants to recover from a non-Canadian purchase? CA collects the CA "Use Tax" or differential if paid in another state. One time, they tried to charge $300 "smog charge" for any out-of-state car to be registered, but the courts tossed it. Then they tried to keep the monies already collected with this illegal scheme.

Keep in mind that you should be looking at a North American made vehicle unless you are prepared to pay the duties. (ie. German is in the 8-9% range I think... just going from memory)

Cheers

Thanks for your feedback folks, I'm still pursuing this.

The more I learn the more I'm bummed by some Canadian practises. For instance where the U.S. dealer wants $695 as a 'destination charge', the Canadian dealer wants

- $1,895 for dealer prep
- a $250 'Admin' charge
- a $75 fuel tax charge (perhaps unavoidable)
- a $199 theft registration charge (turns out to be optional, if you ask)
- and a $$ ?? lien registration charge (if buying on credit).

There is no duty on cars made in U.S. or Mexico but there is a 6.1% duty on cars made elsewhere for the U.S. market.

Liz, please PM with the link. TIA

Make sure it is apples to apples.

Certain makes/models/trim lines can be configured differently in Canada versus US.

As just one example, a Toyota Sienna 2006 LE FWD 7 passenger comes with Dual Sliding Rear Doors as standard equipment.

In the US, the Sienna LE 7 passenger, with Package #1, only includes a Passenger-Side Power Sliding Door.

In Canada the LE doesn't really have any options, while in the US the option packages range from $630 to $4810.

Perhaps these differences can be managed with different options, but bear in mind that a particular model may have different equipment on either side of the border.

I've taken the plunge

and ordered my car from a dealer in the U.S. I'll be picking it up when I visit my sister in July.

Even after including 6.1% duty because of manufacture in Germany, I will be getting exactly the car I had in mind and saving a total of C$ 8,606!

This saving will easily cover our flights to Rome and Mediterranean cruise in October-November.

Re: Make sure it is apples to apples.

BondGuy said:

bear in mind that a particular model may have different equipment on either side of the border.

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Quite right, and some differences can be very subtle. In my case

- the US model comes with power sunroof as standard; here it's a $1500 option

- the CDN model has fold-down 60/40 rear seats and auto-dimming interior mirror as standard; the US model has the fold-down seats as a $500 option and the self-dimming mirror available only through a $2100 package.

I'll take the free sunroof and manually flick the mirror myself at dusk, thank you!

Way to go, X-ring! We fell in love with the Scion while we were in Florida, but they are very hard to find here in Canada. I think there is a dealer in London, but I'm not sure.
This is something that we may check into. Thanks for keeping us posted.

Happy driving!

Dori

Dori said:

This is something that we may check into.

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Keep me in mind if and when you do. By the time I'm finished, I'll have the complete step-by-step process documented which you may find useeful.

Re: Going to U.S. to buy a USED car

The thread so far is based on buying a new car. We are flying down to California shortly and my husband is looking at buying a used Lexus down there and driving it up. I was hoping that a fellow Canadian would be able to share some information regarding what we would need to do to make this happen? Thanks...

Re: Going to U.S. to buy a USED car

travel bug said:

The thread so far is based on buying a new car. ... and my husband is looking at buying a used Lexus down there and driving it up. I was hoping that a fellow Canadian would be able to share some information regarding what we would need to do to make this happen? Thanks...

Click to expand...

The process for a used car is no different - the info at the Registrar of Imported Vehicles's (RIV) web site is very comprehensive.

http://www.riv.ca

Thanks you - we'll check out the link you attached.

Not wanting to burst anyone's bubble but please keep in mind that any Canadian Auto Dealer can/will loose their license if they knowingly sell any car to a non-Canadian resident (ie; an American) and visa versa. When we were in Ft.Lauderdale in Dec.'04 we needed some routine maintenance work done on our Hyundai. (I think the dealership was called Rick Case Hyundai). DH was amazed at how much cheaper all the models were down there and while talking to a salesman found out that they have the same rule there as our dealerships have up here -in other words they would not sell us (Canadians) a new car. There may be ways of getting around this (such as registering the car in a family member's name who lives there) but sounds like it might be a PIA -although if the price difference is a lot it may be worth it.
~Diane

moonstone said:

Not wanting to burst anyone's bubble

Click to expand...

Well my bubble is still intact though every dealer except one, has said they can't sell a new car to a Canadian due to their franchise agreement with the manufacturer. An acquaintance who bought a Subaru said U.S. Subaru dealers don't seem to have that constraint.

I have been very upfront with my dealer (not Subaru) - I even insisted on including the statement "Dealer to provide temporary registration and tags so purchaser can drive the car to Canada" to make sure that there cannot be any misunderstanding about who I am (Canadian citizen and resident) and what I intend to do with the car (drive it home).

The car with my specs is in production at the factory. I expect to take possession mid-August and will provide an update at that time.

We live in the US and the last car we bought we went to Canada to buy; with the exchange rate we saved two or three thousand. The car we bought was not a US product but german so maybe that was the reason.

Any restrictions on whom a dealer can sell to are not matters of licence or law, but of franchise restrictions. So each company has its own deal.

Here is something to ponder. A situation similar to what the original poster inquired about, e.g. buying a US car and taking it into Canada for permanent use, occured about five or six years ago, except in the reverse order.

The Canadian currency was very low compared to the US dollar. Americans who lived in upper Michigan found they could go to Canada and buy Lincoln Continentals in Canada and take them back to the US permanently for use. The currency spread was so wide they could save easily $7,000.

After a lot of Canadian manufactured cars started showing up at US dealers for maintenance and repairs there was a big stink by Ford who claimed the warranties weren't valid since the cars were Canadian cars. I guess depending on how adamant an owner of a Canadian car was, one could get service from a US dealer. I suspect the more expensive warranty items were disallowed. One solution to the problem suggested by buyers back then was to buy warranties from third party sellers to cover the expensive problems.

buying used US car, bringing into Canada

We did this about 1.5 years ago - found a car we knew we liked (had test-driven a similar model here but couldn't afford it), had someone test-drive it for us, and had it shipped to our city. We did the driving around to clear it through customs, etc., and are quite happy with the deal. Probably saved $5-$7K doing it this way, maybe a little more.

The RIV link is a great place to start - make sure the make/model you want is allowed to be brought into Canada, and what (if any) modifications are needed to bring it in line with Canadian standards. In our case we needed a child seat tether anchor dealie ($200) and daytime running lights ($100) to get the car approved to stay in the country.

I'd be happy to answer other questions - feel free to PM or e-mail me!

Bart
barto@nerdshack.com

The Bimmer has landed!

Crossed the border with my new car yesterday - total savings was over $7,600 even *after* factoring currency conversion, $209 RIV fee, 6.1% duty, excise tax, GST and PST.

The only complication was US Customs. The web site of my selected port to export stated that it offered "a full range of services" and was open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. As required, I got my document to the border 72 hours in advance of presenting the vehicle for export.

What was not stated was that the U.S. export control people work only 9-5, Monday-Friday. Combined with mail being received at a central mail room that screens and delivers to each section once a day, this meant that my document delivered by Friday noon did not reach the export control people until Monday morning.

So when I showed up Monday noon (after the mandatory 72 hours) I was told to come back two days later on Wednesday. Some diplomatic negotiating and invocation of a family emergency (true) convinced the officer to relent and he processed my form immediately.

This singular and simple process (verifying and stamping my ownership document) took him 5 minutes yet he had been prepared to have us waste 2 days waiting around because of "rules"! What a crock!!!

Fortunately things then went like clockwork at Canadian Customs (who perform 6-8 tasks and require 0 hours of lead time) and we were soon on our way home.

Yes, it was definately worth it!

Congratulations with your new car and it certainly was worth it. Now you can start looking forward to your vacation that you have planned.