Importing across the border warranty questions??

[jazzgtivr6]

Ive been looking across the border at the prices of a Used MK5 GTi, and there appears to be a huge difference in price(read:$10K cheaper)

I was wondering, if any dealers in town would do warranty work on a US ported car?

or

Is it pretty much SOL?

[R-Audi]

Re: Importing across the border warranty questions??

As of right now there are no restrictions that a dealer can place regarding warranty.. there may be soon,, but not as we speak

[Chris]

Re: Importing across the border warranty questions??

Interesting you bring this up as I've been doing a lot of research on this subject after being told by the Porsche salesman that they will not honour warranties on US cars as of July 1st. Basically it is all a load of bull....

Dealers are pissed off that they are losing sales (it's estimated that 800 P-cars have been brought in to Canada from the US since January alone!) and they have all gotten together and decided to make up a rule that no warranty work will be honoured on those cars. However, PCNA says that their warranty is valid throughout NORTH AMERICA (a Porsche customer is a Porsche customer no matter where they live...)

I'm not sure on the legalities of all this, but someone on the Rennlist forums has done a lot more investigation into it than I have, and has discovered that a dealership could potentially lose their franchise if they tried this stunt. I'm just waiting for the day a rich lawyer brings in a US 997 turbo for warranty work and has to pay for it.

In reality, if you were charged for warranty work, you could always try to process it through the US dealer you purchased it from (not sure how easy that'll be) and get your money back. But more than likely I think we'll see the US cars being accepted but with extremely shitty service (30 day waits for any service work, lowest priority, etc...)

I can understand why dealers are upset about all this - they're losing sales and sitting on a bunch of unmovable inventory. However, I do not agree with their tactics in how to deal with this. It is disgusting. Remember 5 years ago when the situation was the opposite!? They were loving all the Yanks buying their cars and importing them to the States. So now things aren't going their way and they decide to act like a petulant child!? Again, it's disgusting.

You would think that rather than piss off Porsche customers and potential customers, they would use their brains to come up with a solution - I dunno, maybe offer some incentives to buyers? Or perhaps try a little marketing?....

Anyway, this post turned into more of a rant than anything.... but back to your original question:

Be careful - the hassle you get when tryiing to service it and get warranty work might not be worth the $10K you save.

[Stonewall]

Re: Importing across the border warranty questions??

Plus the fact that the speedo will be in miles...

[veedublub]

Re: Importing across the border warranty questions??

Its funny they do that. When I used to work at south centre, there were quite a few us guys that drove up here for the major service intervals as it is cheaper here because of the dollar value.

[Chris]

Re: Importing across the border warranty questions??

Plus the fact that the speedo will be in miles...

That reminds me, I forgot to mention that sometimes you need to "prepare" a car so that it meets Canadian standards. So installing DRL's, changing the speedo (although I'm not sure if that's necessary) and making sure the bumpers are 5mph.

[jazzgtivr6]

Re: Importing across the border warranty questions??

Plus the fact that the speedo will be in miles...

I see Kms ??!

[jazzgtivr6]

Re: Importing across the border warranty questions??

Looks like the list is quite short

1) Recall letter from VW
2) VAG-COm to change the Cluster from Miles to Kms
3) Possibly Child restraint anchors

As long as the Car is on the admisible list, it will meet all other requirements

[Stonewall]

Re: Importing across the border warranty questions??

Yes of course you can see the speedo in km, but not all cars are that way and personally I don't like it.