Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Our daughter has been a student in Toronto for 5 years...used her US licenced car for the last 3.5 years. Now she is working she's been told by Canadian Immigration that the car must be imported and registered in Canada.

Just wondered if anyone has done this? I've Googled and know there's quite a bit of fiddly work involved but financially is it worth it or would it be best to buy a car in Canada?

Thanks.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

dbd33? cant remember if he's actually done it or if his YAL is still driving around on US plates after several years here....

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

I think Piff Poff and her other half have done this a number of times.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

One of each. We put the Honda on ON plates while the Land Cruiser is still on CO ones. The mechanics will be edited in here in a moment:

- check with www.riv.ca that the vehicle is acceptable for Canada
- get instructions from www.riv.ca, they tell you what you need from the manufacturer, basically a list of all safety recalls and a letter stating that they have been applied.
- go to the manufacturer, get the documents. Honda were utter arseholes about this, they wanted proof that the car was currently insured in Colorado, something that was none of their business. (It was insured with a US carrier but with a Toronto address, that's legal if the owner is a student, diplomat or certain other sort of long term temporary resident but that wasn't good enough for them, we had to take out a second policy with a CO address). It took several months to get the letter from them.
- take the car to Canadian Tire to have the light switch disabled and the speedometer labelled in French ($850 for the Honda). Note that CT have the franchise, if you go elsewhere they send the car to CT and mark up the bill.
- take the car and the documents to a customs hall for inspection, there's one in Brampton if not nearer to downtown.
- take a form the customs people issue to the Ministry of Transport, get plates.

Not difficult at the Canadian end. There is a suggestion in the riv instructions that one declare the car "exported" to US customs but we couldn't see any merit in doing that and didn't.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Isn't it illegal for a Canadian citizen or resident to drive a US plated car in Canada? That's what the Canadian immigration officer told my daughter...said she wouldn't be allowed to take it into Canada again. Gave her 30 days to either import it or take it out of Canada. Presumably the Land Cruiser is insured by an US insurance company...our insurance company will no longer insure the car in Canada now she is a resident and no longer a student.

I know you have to pay approx 6% GST...is there also an Ontario tax levied?

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Yes but it's not common to be prosecuted. My daughter has been driving on MN plates for three or four years and even got a speeding ticket without this technicality being mentioned. We don't put many miles on the LC and most of those are off the beaten track so we haven't fussed about it. We don't try taking it across the border though.

USAA. They haven't asked about the owner's status. She was a student when we drove it up here.

I don't remember, sorry. I don't recall the overall cost being about $2,000 so maybe $1150 in taxes.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

The GST is 5% now. I am less sure about ON provincial sales tax. In BC PST is only applied on a change of ownership, so if you are just registering a car you already own then you are in the clear.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

We have done - older cars but it was pretty simple. I let hubby deal with all the paperwork and stuff but from what I remember (in Alberta) you fax a form and title (and I think the receipt?) to say your bringing a car across the border 72 hours in advance. I believe that is to the US side of things and then you bring the car accross - stopping US side to do some paperwork to sday your taking a car out of the country, then you stop at the Canadian side to pay whatever taxes you may owe. Be careful here, one car we brought accross had a valuation of $22,000 but we only paid $14,000 - they taxed us at the higher amount and we didn't realise until we got home, but a phone call and a fax later sorted that out and we had the refund within the week.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Until last week's budget that would have been the case in ON as well. Now (or at some announced future date which I don't know off the top of my head), we have a harmonized sales tax (13% total).

OP needs to check the small print of the budget or ask an expert.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

I believe the HST will start in July 2010 in Ontario.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

What is the advantage of doing this?

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

There you go. The top of your head is fuller than mine. (Not, of course, when considering hair issues).

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Do you have insurance with an US insurance company? Ours have refused to insure the car if it's not garaged in NJ now my daughter is no longer student. I find it odd that they insured it whilst she was student in TO...but refuse to now. :unsure:

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

From what I understand you have to tell the US side that you are exporting a vehicle and the Canadian side that you are importing a vehicle.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Yes that's how I understand it. You have to send in the required paperwork to the customs office where you will be crossing...then allow 3 days before you cross. Before leaving the US you go to the customs office...you are given paperwork which you hand in to Canadian customs when you enter Canada.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

The car with the MN plates belongs to my daughter's "boyfriend", he's a PhD candidate in Toronto but is usually gone doing field work leaving her the car, I assume it's insured with a US company with him listed as a student in Canada.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Yes, I know what you tell them and that you need an appointment to tell them. My question is "why tell them?", what is gained by telling them?

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Legitimacy. A foreign concept to both of us.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Hassle. I suppose if you later want to sell the car in the US, a better plan I think than trying to sell it Canada, you then have to import it into the US.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Ah that's the same as when my daughter was a student there.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

So it's all above board and legal if and when you decide to sell said car - for instance we bought a car from Florida, hubby didn't like it so he sold it - to New Jersey, had we not done the right paperwork at the right time all hell would have probably broken loose.

Saying that the paperwork is one side of A4 sized paperwork to complete - a couple of tick boxes. Your with the US customs for about five minutes while they check it over and your on your way - why would you not do it?

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

And the same as the LC and the Honda were. And the insurer assumes the LC still is.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Because it requires an appointment and it's not at all clear to me that there's any potential for hell breaking loose.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

If you don't get clearance from US customs the car won't be accepted by Canadian customs. There is no way around it I'm afraid.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Not so. We never exported the Honda from the US. Canada Customs didn't care. I asked them about that specifically as it would have meant taking the car to the US in order to export it.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

No appointment needed, you just turn up on the day you want to bring the car accross - they just need the paperwork 72 hours in advance so they can check the details. We have brought a car accross in the early afternoon, once in the early evening and once we refused to take delivery of a heap so we just popped back into the US Customs area to let them know we were not going ahead with the export. It really is no hassle at all. And selling a US car that is registered in Canada but hadn't been exported would surely cause problems to the new US owner trying to import the car back into the US??????

Why not keep everything above board and do what your supposed to do???

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Sorry I'm not with you. If you didn't export it from the US into Canada there would be no need for US customs to approve it...have I got that right? :confused:

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

If you need a detailed blueprint, research on "Milo Minderbender".

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Supplying paperwork a fixed period in advance of arrival is a similar trouble to having an appointment. For what I want to send them forms, drive three hours to the border, hand in the forms and drive back again? The Canadian authorities aren't interested in the status of the car in the US.

If it's never been exported there's no need to import it. You're just layering on bureaucracy.

I guess I'm insufficiently Canadian, my dog even has expired tags.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Correct. The Honda, like your daughter's car, was in Toronto. Canada Customs is in Brampton. America is not conveniently placed between Toronto and Brampton so we didn't go and export the car from the US, we just took it to Brampton and explained that it came as a tourist and decided to stay.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Interesting so we could take the car into Canada...then go to customs in Brampton.

Just thought as American citizens we would have to hand in the licence plates and explain the whereabouts of the car...I think. :unsure:

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

That'll be a state matter, not a federal one. The OH (an American) still has the CO plates for the Honda (and for that matter UT, MN and NC plates that once hung on it and other vehicles). Other states may want the plates back.

What happened with the Honda was that it'd been here for a couple of years on the CO plates, then the OH became a resident and we then took it to Brampton. The car has since been in and out of the US without drama. The LC we went and fetched intending to keep it here but because the insurance on US plates is about a tenth of the price of the same cover on Canadian plates we're not inspired to legalize it.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Thanks...I'm with you now. You may have problems with the LC if you need to make an insurance claim.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Lord, give her strength :D

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Oh I know, however it's a 1987 model mostly used to drive on fields, and I'm quite risk tolerant.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Yes, boyfriend in quotes. They've been an item for three or more years, some months ago she announced that she'd given up on him as he was never going to finish his doctorate, was only using it as an excuse to spend months in exotic locales and she couldn't stand his mother who expected her to have lots of children while living on the family money. However, she's still driving the car and they've recently been in the Bahamas so what's happening there is anyone's guess. I suspect she thinks she may as well have wheels while she looks for someone more, er, driven.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

We're in a similar position, brought up our US lease car, with the intention of keeping it here temporarily (with permission) then hit an issue (because VW were very slow with their paperwork) and ended up having to buy it out. So now it has become an import rather than a visitor. My OH thinks that we'll have to take it down to the border, and then hang about for 72 hours before we can bring it back. Given that it is a good two days drive to the boarder, and nothing much exiting on the other side this seems like a colossal waste of time, when we have a Canadian customs post in town. I don't see why it physically has to cross the border (again).

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Again, taking it to the US and formally exporting it is a nicety for the US authorities, the Canadians don't care. If you can get the recall notice paperwork sorted you need only go to CT for the conversions and then to the nearest customs office and then to the plate issuing authority.

That said, I don't think you'd have to hang around for 72 hours; just tell them you'll be crossing 72 hours in advance and drive to the border at that time. Alternatively, you could have perfectly aligned ducks if you registered the car in Canada and then, next time you happened to be going to the US, called the US customs and formally exported the car.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Hubby said one reason the US customs like 72 hours is so they can check that the car you are exporting from the States has not been stolen, they check the State the car comes from and the neighbouring States.

He also thinks that you need some sort of paperwork to be able to register an Out of Province Car but he is not sure it's been a few months since th last car came accross - this also could be an Alberta thing too.

Re: Has anyone imported a US car to Canada?
 

Yes that would be the ideal. Well we'll see what Canadian Customs say once we get the paperwork through from VW. We won't actually have the the transfer approved by New York for a few months apparently (they are apparently incredibly slow, and will require the plates to be sent back), but we will have the deed of sale, which hopefully will be enough for customs and ICBC. Too complicated by far, but there we go. No more leases for us!