Importing a car to Canada

[JettaSport]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

A guy at work here bought a new Honda and said that he had to buy the Canadian warranty in Canada. On the radio today I heard that VW and Audi USA will not sell to Canadians. Hope that helps

[Kor]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

I think there have been some incidents of dealers telling Canadians to go away, but I think it depends on the dealership and the salesman.

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

Well if the price variation continues to grow people may not care what the locals have to say. Lets say I buy a slightly used RS4 from the states for around 70,000, now for my estimated 20,000 in savings I may not care about warranty and fix as things happen, maybe even at a private shop or even try and go to a US dealer if needed. Now my local dealer has lost my sale and my service work, will companies let that happen??

[Kor]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

If Audi doesn't let Canadians buy in the US but BMW does, suddenly BMW US is selling a lot more cars than Audi. And BMW USA division is probably happy to screw the Canadian division, its all about the bottom line for them. The salespeople are on commissions and of course they want the extra sales.

Manufacturers will eventually realize that the only solution is to make cars in Canada sell on par with cars in the US. Otherwise customers will just keep going the "smarter" route.

Even if all car companies banded together and denied Canadians, I am sure you can easily work around it using a US Escrow company or even get a PO box etc etc.

Lastly I am pretty sure there is a legal obligation to honor the warranty, last I heard there were a few cases of this in the past that went to court and the warranty can't just be voided for no good reason?

[danno]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

i've also heard about people having troubles buying new cars from the US.
i would imagine the further south you go the easier it would be to buy a new car. worst case wait for a lease back and buy from them, or further yet if you know someone that lives down there get them to buy it and buy it off them.

i've also heard the nissan is going to void warranty on the new skyline if sold within the first year of purchase, to avoid people selling them for a profit.

[Speed Cat]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

I would be torn between Deep Blue and Candy White

That Deep blue is so sick. Thats the color of my next car.

[Kona Bear]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

Researching the warrenty thing is a must.

I've heard that what Subaru is doing (starting with the 2008 model year auto's) is you have to pay for the warrenty work done out of your pocket and submit a claim to Subaru of America.

I wonder how VW would handle it.

[Klobi-One-Kinobi]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

^^yea, you would want something in writing regarding warranty work before buying a new car in the us. Something else to consider is the extra duty on vehicles built outside of north america.

[N'Syncro]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

Well if the dealerships aren't going to sell to cdns, why not just buy a slightly used 2007 or 2008 car from a private sale down in the states? You're obviously not going to have the same selection as at a dealership, but there's bound to be ppl selling their basically new car for one reason or another.

What's VWoC going to do about that? There's no way they can deny you warrenty (like it was already mentioned I think Porsche owners already took dealerships to courts and they cannot legally deny warrenty work)

Or what if I bought a once american-sold VW from a Canadian in Canada and went to get warranty work done on it. The average person is going to have NO idea the difference between an american vw and a cdn vw. Joe Blow goes to get his warranty work done and the cdn dealership says "umm, sorry. That's an american car" That won't sit very well with Joe Blow and i'm pretty sure he'll raise hell about it.

[bart]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

i'm sure they can deny warranty. read the papers you get with the car and the owners manual. warranty only applies to something in the country you bought it in! this goes for EVERYTHING, not just cars. some companies let you transfer warranty, like DELL.

anyways who cares, you are saving a lot of money anyway. worst case your engine blows up, rent a budget trailer and drive to montana! otherwise be ready to fix stupid little problems.

[Khyron]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

That's not true, otherwise Americans visiting Canada would be screwed if their cars break down. They might have to pay out of pocket at first but there should be a way to claim it. Remember this was all happening for years before, it's just the Americans were the ones doing the importing.

More porsches have been US bought and brought into Alberta than sold in Alberta this year - I've heard rumors they will slash prices pretty quick - like 20% to make it not worth the effort.

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

I have also heard that Porsche is adjusting its 2008 Canadian prices to help ease the pain, and I think more companies may have to start reacting. I know they are all saying that they want to see some stability first but lets be honest the prices are all set for 20-30% exchange so I think a little change would not be so bad and they have also probably made some big money in this country so far this year from people who have bought.

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

Toyota has told it US dealers to not sell to Canadians and apparently Mercedes is fining its US dealers when they sell to Canadians

[Kor]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

Its sad that they will say this to their dealerships just to screw Canadians over. Obviously the dealership does want to make sales and so do the salespeople. They are being handcuffed from selling a vehicle at a fair price for no good reason. They are only going to lose business. If I went to buy a car and they said I won't sell to a Canadian, I would never buy another car from that manufacturer again. Would you?

[bart]

Re: Importing a car to Canada

if it was a toyota, then no. if a vw, probably figure out a way to get one