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.

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?

Legitimacy. A foreign concept to both of us.

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.

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

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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???

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?

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

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.

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.