Importing Cars from the States?

[Kor]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

Has anyone imported a car without any participation by a Canadian dealership? E.g. no inspections, no help getting DRL's enabled, etc etc?

Does anyone know if you can import a BMW and have a 3rd party mechanic help instead of the stealership?

Anyone know a good source to figure out which if any manufacturers will honor a US warranty in Canada?

I'd consider bringing up an M3 but I have heard BMW can hold you hostage for 5,000$+

[Jim]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

Man, i love this forum.

[P Arkus]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

Has anyone imported a car without any participation by a Canadian dealership? E.g. no inspections, no help getting DRL's enabled, etc etc?

Does anyone know if you can import a BMW and have a 3rd party mechanic help instead of the stealership?

Anyone know a good source to figure out which if any manufacturers will honor a US warranty in Canada?

I'd consider bringing up an M3 but I have heard BMW can hold you hostage for 5,000$+

Only dealership participation I got was the recall clearance letter from VW of Canada when importing my .:R32. Everything else was done by Lawrence at CAW (before Chris owned it) and everything was good.

When it comes to BMW's however, I heard they have some stipulations that only the dealerships can perform the work to bring it up to Canadian standards, and thats why people are weary of importing BMW's. Would love to have a solid answer for this question however regarding importing Bimmers

[asp gti]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

When it comes to BMW's however, I heard they have some stipulations that only the dealerships can perform the work to bring it up to Canadian standards, and thats why people are weary of importing BMW's. Would love to have a solid answer for this question however regarding importing Bimmers

I have heard this about bimmers as well. iirc the dealership needs to be the one to install drl's and so some other things. When they do this work they charge an arm and a leg so it almost becomes pointless to bring a bmw in from the states because in the end it will cost you about the same as a Canadian car

[CGY_GTI]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

Has anyone imported a car without any participation by a Canadian dealership? E.g. no inspections, no help getting DRL's enabled, etc etc?

Does anyone know if you can import a BMW and have a 3rd party mechanic help instead of the stealership?

Anyone know a good source to figure out which if any manufacturers will honor a US warranty in Canada?

I'd consider bringing up an M3 but I have heard BMW can hold you hostage for 5,000$+

http://www.apa.ca/CanadianWarrantyin...ghtintheUS.asp

[nismodrifter]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

here is the worksheet that you will fax to the border along with copy of the title and bill of sale

http://www.ucanimport.com/docs/CBPGe...tWorksheet.pdf

[Deuce]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

Has anyone imported a car without any participation by a Canadian dealership? E.g. no inspections, no help getting DRL's enabled, etc etc?

Yes. Go to Stampede Toyota for your RIV Inspection. Get you OOP Inspection done wherever you want. As for DRL's, you can do this outside of the dealer if you can find somebody to do it for you. If you go to a dealership, It's maybe an hour of programming on their GT1 computer or whatever. It's up to you. If you go the non-dealership route, I'd make sure you get a printout from the BMW US vehicle service database before crossing over into Canada so BMW Canada doesn't hold you hostage to get that letter.

Does anyone know if you can import a BMW and have a 3rd party mechanic help instead of the stealership?

Yes you can. You can do the DRL's outside of the stealership however, I'm assuming the car you're after is off warranty anyways. If the car is still on warranty, I'm sure the dealership would piss in your cornflakes if they find out.

Anyone know a good source to figure out which if any manufacturers will honor a US warranty in Canada?

Imported Car Warranty Information

I'd consider bringing up an M3 but I have heard BMW can hold you hostage for 5,000$+

Not true. Well... it used to be true, but a class-action lawsuit ended all that.

Happy Importing! Rob

[Natty54]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

Nothing really special. Helped a friend import a M6. Got all the paper work in order. Recall clearance letter from dealer. Enabled drl on idrive. Took car to Canadian Tire and then registered it.

[dave335]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

Previously obtaining a warranty inquiry report from a US dealer was manageable. However, it is now nearly impossible to obtain as any dealer who provides this report for export purposes is in violation of their franchise agreement. They always find a way to make it hard to import. Without the warranty inquiry report, you are forced to get the warranty recall letter from the dealer which will require you to have all modifications performed by a Canadian BMW dealer.

David

[Kor]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

Hey some conflicting information here about BMW, can anyone link to a source about the lawsuit etc?

That is great news though because the M3 in particular on the used market is WAY less in the US. I don't find VW/Audi to be so far off but the BMW is like 25% more here based on my research. Second worst only compared to Porsche which is also hugely different across the border.

[dave335]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

Here is the response from a dealer in the US (California) that I received about a month ago:" I wouldn’t be able to provide the warrant report no matter what anyway. Nowadays in huge red lettering they forbid using the reports for export. One thing I can say for sure is that you are likely to have a hell of a time getting a letter from a dealer nowadays as sharing this info for export is now a violation of their franchise agreement with BMW and getting caught would have serious penalties."

Way back in 2008 (I think), BMW introduced a requirement to have a Letter of Admissibility when importing. This was quietly scrapped. Trust me. I paid over $350 to obtain one and then a deal went sour before it got scrapped. BMW will issue a Warranty Clearance Letter but it will cost $500 and the modifications probably must be performed at the dealer or verified at a dealer at least. RIV started accepting a warranty inquiry report from a manufacturer instead of the Recall Clearance Letter. This is what I used when importing back in 2009. However, I think BMW released that individuals could import using that report and have now told the dealers that they should not be giving out this information.

David

[RONDAL]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

Yes. Go to Stampede Toyota for your RIV Inspection. Get you OOP Inspection done wherever you want. :

you cant do RIV anywhere else but Cdn Tire. As far as I know, and looked into it a lot, they are the ONLY place nation wide that has the account for RIV inspections

[gheron]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

How to import a car

Step 1. Check admissability of the car in question on the RIV website.
Step 2. Do your due diligence before purchasing car
Step 3. Purchase car, I found wiring money direct to sellers account worked well as there was paper trail
Step 4. Fill out bill of sale document, and email/fax to seller. Both of you must SIGN document
Step 5. Have seller email/fax you back completed bill of sale, along with a COPY of the title of the car in their name
Step 6. Email the Dept of Homeland Security Vehicle Exportation team at the border crossing you plan to cross at, they will send you a package of information.
Step 7. Fill out the required worksheet from the border, and attach COPY of bill of sale and title in prev owners name. SEND THIS TO BORDER 72 BUSINESS HOURS BEFORE YOU PLAN TO CROSS. Note the Borders are only open 8am-330pm Monday to Friday excluding weekends and holidays.
Step 8. Using RIV website locate the manufacturers recall HQ. Call the number the RIV provides and ask for a recall clearance letter. They will give you a case # and a fax#. Fax them a copy of the title and bill of sale.
Step 9. You should receive a confirmation email from the border stating the date you may cross once they have received documentation. If you have not heard from them in 24 hours email asking for confirmation.
Step 10. Call insurance company and get insurance sorted out. All they need is VIN#
Step 11. Take insurance and Bill of Sale to the Registry (Alberta) and ask for an in transit permit ($25)
Step 12. Take in transit permit and all copies of documentation down and pick up car. Sign all ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS including ORIGINAL TITLE with seller. These must come to the border.
Step 13. Go to DMV in US and get a transit permit to get you to the border. You can't use your in transit permit from Canada in the US
Step 14. Drive to border. Cross at US side, present the original title, bill of sale, and worksheet. They will sign you through
Step 15. Get to Canadian border, they will get you to fill out a "FORM 1", as well as pay RIV costs. I think its 11.1% of the total price
Step 16. Within 45 days you must take car to Canadian Tire for an RIV inspection, they are the only place that can do it. You need recall letter for the RIV inspection. It takes 30 mins.
Step 17: Go to registry and get a Out of Province Inspection form request ($10)
Step 18; get OOP inspection done within 14 days of RIV
Step 19: take bill of sale, RIV Form1 which will now be stamped both sides, one by border one by inspection, insurance, old title, OOP inspection form to Registry and have car registered in province.
Step 20: build car
Step 21: enjoy car.

fixed it??

[Kor]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

For sure its different for new vs used cars as well... VW US won't sell you a new car, nevermind warranties... at least thats the experience I had trying to buy a new Mk6 GTi at like 5 or 6 different dealerships on the west coast :( But they told me used cars were no problem, they'd do anything to make a used car sale.

[Deuce]

Re: Importing Cars from the States?

you cant do RIV anywhere else but Cdn Tire. As far as I know, and looked into it a lot, they are the ONLY place nation wide that has the account for RIV inspections

Wrong. Check RIV's own website. You didn't look into it enough.
http://www.riv.ca/RIVInspection.aspx