I'm not sure I want to even consider this, but I might as well ask, because I don't want to be worrying about selling our car in the UK during the winter/spring of 2011 (when I expect we'll make the move) - has anyone transported a car from the UK to Canada?

Last time we tried to sell the thing we got no interest what so ever. This was just as the financial crisis started - so maybe better now. That despite dropping the price by £1500. Anyway enough of that.

Anyone know typical costs of transporting a car and any issues with using a right hand drive car in Canada. Even if it is a crazy thing to entertain. Happy to understand just how crazy. Let me have it.

If the vehicle you have in mind is LESS than 15 years old you cannot import it into Canada no matter what.

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publicati...48-eng.html#s4

If its less than 15 years old they wont let it in canada.

why not bang it on ebay or take it to an auction a couple of weeks before you go, with no reserve, If you still need a car for the last few weeks, just rent.

Okay, sounds like a non-starter.

Thanks.

Hi
What would be the point? You will cause more problems than it is worth , I suspect. Especially with insurance. Ex-pats get hammered enough as it is....god forbid you have an accident in a foreign car that they can't get the parts for?
Crazy is one word for it. I would sell and then buy out there
Good luck whatever you decide.......but you would be MAD to entertain the idea further......IMO
Stef

there's a guy in Calgary who is driving around in his ~2008 RHD Golf with UK plates. I guess he's only here for a while then.. but still, why would you bother!

The nothing-less-than-15-years-old rules are different for temporary imports, but he'll have to re-export it or destroy it when he leaves the country. I guess if he's here on a short-term expat posting and negotiated a decent relocation package, it would have been worth his while, although I can't quite see the point for something as ubiquitous as a Golf. I wouldn't have bothered for a regular daily driver, but the process wasn't too painful for a much-loved classic.

Even if it was a legal possibility, you would seriously need to have your head examined.

Why? There are very many reasons why one would want to import a car to Canada, and several posters on here (including myself) have done so. Would you care to explain why we need our heads examined, or was your post just groundlessly rude?

Calm down. The only reason I could ever imagine going through the hassle of importing, registering, taxing, insuring, etc a vehicle from the UK would be if it was a classic (in which case it's legal to do so anyway).

To import over your Ford Sierra (because you weren't getting much interest from buyers back home), paying an arm and a leg to ship, tax, and register the thing, to get totally shafted by the insurance companies to get the thing on the road, when you could just take a walk to a car dealership here and buy one, is beyond me.

And that's not even touching on the problems you'll encounter with servicing, parts, driving RHD in a LHD country etc

One last thing to the OP: Something is only worth what the market will pay for it. The car book may say it's worth 10000. You may think it's worth 11000. The bloke on the street is only prepared to pay 7000. Guess what the car is worth.

Really? You can buy a Ford Sierra here? Well, I never.

If it were legally feasible, it would likely not be as administratively difficult to import newer vehicles. Shipping, taxing and registering an import is not at all expensive in comparison to the cost of a new car. I know a few diplomatic and military types who have temporarily imported vehicles less than 15 years old - insurance isn't that difficult or expensive to find for a RHD either.

Each to their own, of course, but I maintain that to say people would need their head examined for considering the option was unnecessarily combative. We're the soul of Canadian apologetic politeness on this board, after all

Fair enough Oakvillian

To be honest, even with a clean driving record, and 12 years driving experience under my belt (including 2 years in LHD France), I had to pay $3200 per year insurance when I first got to Calgary. That has gone down somewhat in the last 2 years, but still, I can only imagine that would have doubled if I was trying to convince them to insure me on my imported RHD UK car

Experience in Canada tells us that type of car makes little difference in overall insurance cost. RHD import vs. LHD domestic import, insurance will still cost two limbs and your first-born.