Im sure it is here somewhere but again needle in haystack jumps to mind.

Could someone give us a run down on what the procedure is to buy a second hand car on Ontario....

We are in only in the throws of buying so all info welcome...

Cheers

Choose car
Cry at cost of insurance for newcommer
Register it, cry at additional tax cost.




http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dan...cle/used.shtml

Yes, cry at the above. And once you do that then you wont have to cry again at things like the Road Tax or the MOT every year for the whole period of ownership. And petrol is dead cheap too unlike our (once) great country.

Although if you are used to a subcompact diesel the engine choices available here and the associated fuel consumption will have you weeping again...

You will need to pay eighty some bucks a year for your plate sticker, and if you buy an older car then it will have to be smog tested every other year in order to renew the sticker, but its not that expensive, not compared to MOT and Roadtax anyway.

Even with the cheap cost of fuel relative to the UK I suspect most people here pay more for fuel annually overall , due to the larger, less efficient engines that are the norm here, and the bigger distances between places.

Haven't they scrapped the tax on used cars with the introduction of HST?

My personal experience is that getting the car insurance is the bigger problem, because they want evidence of your DL and insurance history.

No, now you pay 13% instead of 8%.

Make sure if you were a company car driver that you get a letter stating you had no accidents....(if that were the case). That will save some money....take you from the thousands down to the hundreds....still a lot of money though...In Nova Scotia if you buy a car private you will still pay tax on it.....you pay when you get the plate....haggle the best deal.....it seems even something that is being held together with rust and good fortune cost big bucks...

I try to convince myself that my 4.2L costs the same to run as the 1.6L Zafiras my wife had....converting cost back into £....

Of course, the price you pay doesnt necessarily have anything to do with the tax you pay when you come to register it.

To get around false invoicing, (in Ontario at least) they tax you based on the black book value or what you paid for it, whichever is the higher.

Steve_ is correct for AB I believe - no GST on private sales of used cars.

According to the Excise Tax Act GST/HST can only be charged "in the course of business" so a private sale isn't taxable.

BC and ON did not have this restriction in their sales tax acts so could charge PST on private sales. However, they can't anymore. Which is a conundrum for them.

They have sorted it by charging a "levy" (well, a tax would be illegal) when you register the vehicle in your name. After all, a BC minister said, it's only fair to the Car Dealers who have to charge HST. Yeah, right.

oh, and check out the "Lemons" book series on the different models and years -- the public libraries have them, so no need to buy.

The above, including the crying at insurance, tax and the huge amount of fuel consumption is what I did. (7.5l/100km and I used to have a little less than 5l/100km) ah well. I suspect at some point in the future I will stop being exasperated at the unfairness of it all. Why don't they have small used cars here? -- my "small" car is larger than anything I ever owned in Europe.

Oh, and if you live in Toronto...

don't forget the $100 pa car tax and the $75 (approx) annual parking permit

It's following threads like this in the past, and esp listening again to Ian and Adrian, that's made me NOT want to get a car in Toronto for as long as possible ... that and the sh*t exchange rate of course!

Just don't buy anything American as they are crap cars and you'll look like a pikey.

I am in Edmonton,sent photocopies of uk driving licence to prove no endorsements,also brought a copy of proof of no claims from my uk insurance company,insured with Peace Hills insurance and got a great deal and they took my uk driving history in to account.

What exactly is an "American" car?

Is that a "big three" car made in the far east in a Daewoo plant, or is it an "import", like my Honda, made in Alliston Ontario, or my Japanese Subaru, which was "Team crafted in Indiana"