T4T

We're thinking of buying a 2008/9 Honda Pilot or Nissan Murano from the US and with driving it in ourself or shipping it to Ontario but not sure if it'll be cost effective or not.

Has anyone bought a car from the US recently and if so, did it work out cheeaper than buying it in Canada?


Please can anyone help?

Thanks
T4T

cxx

We saved at least 30% and got a better spec than the Canadian equivalent too

It was very straightforward and most of the US dealers we spoke to knew the requirements and were happy to help with paperwork etc., however one or two did refuse to do business

Steve_

www.riv.ca - all the requirements are on there.

Usually it's just a case of taking it to CT and they change a fuse or two and get the daytime running lights working, so really you factor into the price the cost of driving it up plus the GST/HST and duty.

I'm definitely buying my next car in the US, even if they were the same price, the advantage of having a US-spec car is that you can sell it here or in the US, but a Canadian-spec car doesn't usually appeal to Americans, metric speedo etc.

But of course you cannot lease or finance a US acquired car as you are not resident there, unless you get a loan from a Canadian bank to buy it.

I have to say even in Calgary where the nearest US dealer is 200 miles away I don't half hear some crap from dealers about buying a car in the US or getting it serviced there or getting parts there. I understand they have to protect their business but full-on lying to me doesn't endear me to them.

"The tires they sell won't cope with a Canadian winter". Utter bollocks, exactly the same in every respect as the tires I could get here, the only difference was a very small marking to do with US DOT compliance.

"They can't service your car in the US, that model wasn't sold there." True (in my case) it wasn't sold there, but without question the servicing was vastly superior to the services I have had here, they were even able to run the Canadian VIN and bring up all the details about the car.

"The US warranty won't cover a car you buy there here." Okay this one is true, but not all the time, depends on what make of car you buy, some manufacturers/importers are very awkward about warranty issues and/or giving you the compliance letter for import.

However at the end of the day, if you have a major warranty issue, you can take the car to a US dealer, surely? It's a problem but not a show-stopper.

R I C H

That would be a huge show stopper for me.

Here's why - I had a vehicle that broke down, with fuel pump failure. I got towed to the nearest dealer, in accordance with my warranty. What would I have done if I'd have needed to be towed to the US? The cost could potentially be astronomical, never mind the time issues having to drive to and fro, worry about rental car drop off and costs etc.

Steve_

If you're saving 10%+ on the cost of the car, surely you can afford the top level CAA membership with all the towing benefits?

It's more an issue with things like recalls or if there some genuine defect, yes if you live in Edmonton then this could be a problem, but if you live in White Rock it probably won't be.

This assumes that a Canadian dealer can't or won't do it, depends on the warranty coverage, some manufacturers will do it, some won't - if you're buying a crap make of car or live a long way from the border, you should consider whether this will be a major problem for you.

Honestly I wish I lived close enough that I could get my car serviced there routinely.

What I find in the US is that they're more open to haggling about the price on the car, I suspect because the market is bigger. In Alberta for example there are only going to be a handful of dealerships, if you're buying something like an Audi I think there are only two, so they know you have little latitude to go somewhere else.

R I C H

Haggling 10% off sticker price is perfectly achievable here, I've done it with all my purchases/leases. A warranty offers towing as standard, so having to effectively purchase cover twice makes little sense to me.

All makes of cars can potentially suffer breakdown or warranty issues, I've had them on Mercedes, Subaru and Ford vehicles here, so crap or otherwise, there are no guarantees.

If I lived an hour or less from the US I might consider it as a viable option, but the potential hassle being 4hrs away isn't worth it, IMO. If a Canadian dealer will honor warranty issues, that's a different matter, but I don't believe your assertion that there's any advantage to owning a US spec car here, especially if you're not located close to the border.

Mdunny

Is buying a car from the US cost effective for used cars too? The reason I ask is cos Im looking to buy a beater and any savings would help... is there a limit at what price its cost effective? Ie go to US if your paying more than $10K ? (we can afford 6-7K)

the undutchables

A friend of mine here in Calgary had a major accident in his Chevy truck, and the insurance shipped the truck to the US for repair.

It was going to cost them about $20,000 to repair it in Canada, but to ship it to the US for repair worked out to about $11,000.

I think it was about $500 or $600 for Transportation costs, so it isn't exactly atronomical. And that was a Canadian truck, repaired at a US dealer.

Steve_

Yeah but as the OP pointed out, you can get more than 10% off in the US, I was just using that figure as an example. I remember talking to a girl at Sweet Grass who had bought a Ford Escape I think it was in the US and she reckoned she had paid about 40% less than what she could have gotten it for here. And that was a year or so ago, the Canadian dollar has gone up since then. The other thing is that US dealers have (or had) usually more stock, so there's more room to negotiate on price because it's sat there on their lot, they don't have to have it shipped in.

True, like I said it's something you have to take into consideration, the more money you save the less you'll be worried about that.

But the potential hassle has to be viewed in light of how much money you're saving. If it's even an issue, depends on the make of car. Like I said, definitely buying my next car in the US, even if they were pretty close in price, but yeah I might have second thoughts if I liked a make of car where there is going to be a hassle with the warranty - which is exactly why they make it a hassle with the warranty, to stop people doing it. So in that scenario I'm likely to avoid that brand. (So much for NAFTA - they tried this crap in the EU and the ECJ decided it violated free trade rules, iirc).

What I find interesting in Calgary is that Ford is one of the few brands of car where there are lots of dealers in Alberta, but yet if you look at the taxis there are loads and loads of Mercury Grand Marquis' on the roads, even though they haven't been sold in Canada since 2007 AFAIK. I asked a cab driver and he said his company went down to Salt Lake to buy them.