Bringing an American car to Canada
 

Is there any advantage to this? Can you drive a car on American plates insure it Canada etc...?
I'm just thinking that I could stay at my cousins in California while I look for a car, then drive it North.
The weather being drier, the population higher, would the cars be cheaper, and in better condition?
Any knowledge shared on this subject appreciated.

Bozo

Re: Bringing an American car to Canada
 

You can only drive on foreign plates as a visitor. You cannot insure in Canada on foreign plates. You can import cars, but they have to meet Canadian specs. Unless you are going to CA anyway, probably more hassle than it's worth.

http://www.canadiandriver.com/2003/0...a-used-car.htm

Re: Bringing an American car to Canada
 

There are a few exceptions to this though none of them obviously apply. What you can do quite easily as a Canadian is to drive a US plated car to Canada and formally import it. The cost is around $1000. Whether or not that works for you depends on the car. My guess is that, as a UK citizen with papers for Canada, you'd have a hard time plating and insuring the car in the US so the Canadian procedures might be a moot point.

Re: Bringing an American car to Canada
 

It's so long ago that I'd almost forgotten it, but in 1982 I drove an American plated Plymouth (Mitsubishi) Colt from California to Toronto. I had US insurance and plates for a while and then changed both to Canadian, as far as I recall with no special fee. That was 1982 so it's likely irrelevant now of course.

But what was amusing was that while it was still US insured a bough of a tree fell on it during a storm: I got it fixed at considerable expense and sent off the bill to the insurance company in California, stressing that the dollars were Canadian dollars.

Despite that I got a cheque in the mail for the repair amount in US dollars, so I actually made a tidy profit on the event.

Just thought I'd share that with the BE world as an example of irony surviving on this benighted continent.

Re: Bringing an American car to Canada
 

The $1000 was based on converting the Element a couple of years ago. I still have a car on CO plates but I don't suggest that it's quite kosher.

Re: Bringing an American car to Canada
 

I'm sure my anecdote is way dated and moreover my memory is likely questionable anyhow.

But I love the phrase "converting the element"; Isaac Newton would've died to be able to do that.

Re: Bringing an American car to Canada
 

One compelling reason for keeping a car on US plates for as long as you dare is the cost of the insurance. The LC in the driveway costs about $100/year to insure (and the insurer knows where it is) put ON plates on it and it's a $1000/year.

Re: Bringing an American car to Canada
 

We did it a couple of months ago. Our car was from California but we had to hire a shipping company to move the car out of state or we would have had to had to pay another 8% California tax on the vehicle. You cannot just buy it and drive off the lot without paying it. We sent ours to Portland and flew down to pick it up.

Worth the effort though and saved a few K too.

PM me if you need more info

Re: Bringing an American car to Canada
 

Oh and no you can't drive it here on US plates if you live in Canada

Re: Bringing an American car to Canada
 

I did something similar to what you are talking about, my father in Law lives in the states, he bought the car, put me on the insurance, I drove it into Ontario, he gifted it to me, I got the statutory modifications done on the car and registered it in my name in Ontario, still had to pay the duty as it was not admissable under NAFTA.

Right now the exchange rate is such that you can probably save a great deal by doing this if you have the time.

I think the price of the car and what you intend to do with it in the future should also influence your decision, if it is a US car, I hear the resale value will be knocked (I am not a car expert so I dont know if this is true) so if you are only saving $1000-$2000 then it is probably not worth it.

I managed to save about $7000 with mine.