Bringing in a car from the USA

[BaggedGLI]

Re: Bringing in a car from the USA

Is there supposed to be that massive gap around the trunk? Seems like it is popped out to me :/

EDIT: Wait, the whole rear quarter is massively crumpled....you can see it running all the way up to the roof. No way is that going to be $2k to fix.
EDIT EDIT: I'm still looking at it, it looks like they are going to have to pull and/or replace nearly that entire side of the car. This is going to be more around that $9k mark that the US dealership was quoting i bet....

I think the trunk is popped, the gap is consistent all the way around.

That looks like $2000 in parts...... Not to mention repair the under metal, then new door and quarter, a replacement quarter is almost $700 on its own, door is probably more. I'd hate to know what the jam looks like.

That is going to be a can of worms.....

[firestarter]

Re: Bringing in a car from the USA

If it is a write of title in the states, DO NOT EVEN ATTEMPT TO BRING IT TO CANADA TO REPAIR and re certify. Back in the day we tried that with a Red 04.5 GLI from the states. We were flat out told that "It can not happen!" by the registeries authorita! haha. If you can get it repaired, and re certified in the states as a rebuilt title and then bring it up. Then it may be worth it, but remember that a rebuilt title car from the states is worth significantly less up here than a Canadian, clean titled car. If you are keeping it forever, then I guess it wouldnt matter.
Cheers
Bill

[syncrovan]

Re: Bringing in a car from the USA

The quote for repair was $9k from the dealership. The car in USA is priced at $24k. No idea why even at that point it was let go instead of being fixed.

I understand I'm taking a gamble here, could be $20,000 in hidden problems, one thing in my favour is the bodyshop quote is from a friend's brother, which reduces the price a bit.

Pictures in photobucket of the car with damage (click picture to open).

Ok, make a lot of more sense now. Thanks for your answer.
Hopefully it works for you and I am pretty sure if this one doesn't, they are more to choose from anyway.

[witchcraftz]

Re: Bringing in a car from the USA

Will be picking it up Thursday and will have a better idea of what I've gotten myself into.

[witchcraftz]

Re: Bringing in a car from the USA

Picking it up was an interesting experience last Thursday.

I picked up the rental truck and trailer to go to the USA. drove to the border, got across.
Called the storage company and waited for them to send someone to open the gates.
Had to move the car out of the storage area as the guy who came had to leave again right away.
So I started it and drove it out (confirmed runs and drives!)
Guy left and I proceeded to lign up the truck and trailer to load it up. Put the handbrake on the truck, turned on 4 ways.
At this point I was alone so the process got a lot slower.
Turns out the car has H&R lowering springs (yay lowered, crap how am I going to load this thing????)
With the lowered stance and the short ramps of the trailer (you can get trailers with longer ramps but mine was the older short style) the car's front bumper didn't come close to clearing.
Ended up borrowing some large planks and pieces of wood from the shipping store next door (Thanks Dave!).
Ligned up the car and drove her very gently up the ramp.
Aaaaaaaand up comes the trailer..... Aaaaand we start rolling, the golf, balanced on the trailer and the truck, the backend being pulled sideways by the safety chains.
Luckily I was going slowly so I threw it into reverse and the whole gig only moved about 2 feet before coming back down (golf's driver seat may have gotten a brown spot at this point)
I went to check and somehow, nothing was hit, damaged or broken, and no one was nearby so no one injured.
Turns out that the clamp to attach the hitch was all the way up in the open position, aka I'd been driving the trailer without it being attached at all... Good thing it didn't come off while I was going down the highway at 80 km/h in traffic.
Moved everything back together, attached the hitch this time, and had no problems loading it up.
Washed it off at a wand wash, drove to the border, exported it and imported it. Everyone at customs on both sides was very nice and friendly. It did help that I had all my documentation already filled out and copies of all papers in nice little packages for each process.
Getting it off once home was a bit tricky too as I had to borrow some pieces of wood so the belly pan wouldn't scrape.
So far I have sourced the quarter panel but am still looking for a door skin or entire door.
Door frame is ok. Found out the spare tire is missing so need to get a spare tire and triangle and whatnot.
Found a ton of spare change in the car, also parts of house door knobs and pieces of what seems to be from another car.

Moral of the story: before leaving uHaul ALWAYS double check they have actually attached the trailer.

[dJ]

Re: Bringing in a car from the USA

Sounds like an adventure. I wonder how hard its going to be to recertify that car in Canada?