Ientre, that's good to hear. Some of the guides I'd been reading had suggested that paying the duties and excise was quite difficult, and that clearing the US can take days. I think the guy that wrote the guide went to the wrong crossing though.

Alon: The Pony is on hold till spring, with no real progress yet, sadly. The 626 was free, so... once I clean it up and unload it I'll probably look into a 323. I've been hearing good stuff about their engines, and I want something I can track without being too concerned about bodywork.

In regards to eastern Canadian cars, I would prefer to buy in Canada to avoid imperial guages and border complexities, but I hear alot of car cancer stories from your direction. Also, as Ientre said, prices tend to skew cheaper in the US lately, although I admittedly have only looked on Autotrader for Canadian cars. If you know better websites I would definately appreciate the links; if I can keep the money in Canada it'd be great, although for the right price and the right car I'd go anywhere.

 

What Porsche are you looking to get, a 993 wide body?

 

I'm looking for an SC or 3.2 Coupe, although I like Targas in certain colours also. I'm planning on buying in February. Widebody or not, I like both body styles. Considering importing a 928 from Europe as an alternative. They're all really nice; I'll go for whichever I find at a great price in great condition. I'm not in a hurry.

 

I an confirm that I had the same experience at the truck border crossing bringing my car in. I actually drove it all the way from Texas so I got a very confused Canadian Customs officer asking kind of weird questions but that's all she wrote. Once I was in the building it was all over in 20 minutes. I did drive the car with the US plates till I passed through all the safety inspections. I was told to make sure that I have all the customs documents with me just in case I get stopped by a cop.
One important thing is that you have to fax a copy of the tittle to the US customs office at that border crossing 2 weeks before you bring the car in. I was old that this is very important as it gives them time to check the tittle out. True enough the procedure at the US side was very quick and they did check my VIN ( it was not raining ). Finally when they stamp your tittle you have to be really carefull and make sure that the stamp has the correct date on!!! I was told by the canadian side that if the tittle is stamped with the wrong date then there are complications!!!

 

DJF1, thanks! If I buy in the US I'd like to drive it in, so details like that are important.

 

If a Canadian buys a car in the US and wants to drive it back, there are a few things you have to do. You need insurance, I know you can get it through ICBC specifically to cover you driving it from the point of purchase back to Canada. Don't know if US insurance companies would cover.

You also need to arrange for a temporary license to drive the car in the states you are driving the car through. Some states' temporary license are valid in other states, some aren't. You need to find that out. DFJ1 didn't have to do that because he was living in the US.

You need to send a copy of the title and maybe bill of sale to US Customs 3 days (not 2 weeks) for them to do a search and confirm that the car isn't stolen and doesn't have a lien on it. At the border, the process shouldn't take more than 5 minutes plus whatever wait there is.

On the Canadian side, the process takes about 20 minutes plus whatever wait there is.

I mention the wait because if there are lots of people clearing stuff through customs, the wait might be significant. For me it was 10 minutes at US Customs (went at 8 am when they opened) and nothing at Canada Customs.

 

In the last GrassRoots Motorsports magazine they wrote a small article about bringing US car into Canada. It was actually more geared towards a US owner selling a car to a Canadian. Pretty funny read...

-Patrick

 

I brought a 911 up from Florida in August. After investigating a buy & drive adventure, I opted for shipping.

2 reasons

In some states, you can get a temp driveout permit for a nominal amount. Other states charge you the retail tax on the sale price. Florida was 8%. With no refund. You pay again in your province. You avoid this if you ship or if you license in another state.

Insurance. I am using Silver Wheels from Lant and I could not get a temp insurance rider to drive it without a Canadian appraisal of its value. My normal insurer was of no use for different reasons.

So, I shipped via Hansen's.

Ian

 

Hmm, lots of food for thought. Whichever way I end up going, I'm sure it's going to be significantly smoother due to all this input! Thanks a bunch.

 

David

See The Hunt for my car search in the eastern half of the US. It took me a year & I had 3 cars fail PPIs along the way . . .

My advantage was that my travel costs were paid because I worked the car search around my frequent business trips (or was it the other way around????)

BTW the selection in Ontario was crap while I was looking. But if you ever need me to take a look at a car in Greater Toronto, I'd be glad to.

Ian

 

Just wondering, did you have to pay any import tax? or is that a myth?

 

No myth. Canada charges 6.1% duty on German-made vehicles. Payable at the border crossing. At 25 years (or maybe 30) this is waived.

And don't forget GST & PST.

Ian

 

Strange? When I went on the web site -forget the URL-but a Canadian Customs site -it stated that any car imported into Canada from the U.S had to have been manufactured in North America. Obviously that wasn't the case wrt your import.

Have you seen any info. about this stipulation

 

Hey there-

FYI, I just recently imported a 1982 935 DP from San Diego into Vancouver, and found that I did have to pay the 6.1% duty on it as well as the GST at the border. I also had to pay the PST when I registered it (which was a fun time because there weren't any 935 VIN numbers in the ICBC system so they had to validate them with Porsche and make a new entry... joy and delays).

Because it was over 15 years old, however, I didn't have to register it with the Registrar of Imported Vehicles (RIV), but I did need the letter of recall clearance from the original manufacturer, etc. I also had to pay the $109 or so because it had air conditioning.

I faxed the required info to the US Border crossing, but they were closed when I went across so didn't get anything stamped or anything, but Canada didn't seem to care, and I never heard anything back from the US Customs guys.

The web site that I followed was: http://www.riv.ca/english/html/how_to_import.html

It was really good.


My wife and I flew to SD to pick it up and drive it back (along the Big Sur coast, no less!), and I was really lucky in that I had the previous owners California plates on it that looked valid, but he'd cancelled the coverage. I got a travel "binder" from ICBC which basically insured me for 11 days for the trip up to Canada. It was specifically meant for transport straight from the place of purchase to my garage here in Vancvouer where it had to be inspected. This included the US portion of the trip. The only requirement for the insurance binder was that the car had to be licensed (not necessarily insured) in the States. As to the drive up, I couldn't find any special temporary licensing requirements for the states I was going through. I was pretty lucky in that I had what looked like valid California plates and tags.

All in all, the binder was for a vehicle valued at $100,000, for 11 days, with reasonable insurance coverage (comprehensive, collision, 3rd party, uninsured driver, etc), and ended up being $110 or so.

As to the inspections, because it was over 15 years old, it didn't have to have the Federal inspection (just the Customs-stamped Form 1), but it DID have to have the Provincial inspection/safety. (that was fun, as the car had to be raised 2.5" in order to be street legal, as in BC here no part of the car is allowed to be lower than the lowest part of the rims). The Provincial inspection was $70 or so, if I remember correctly.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me and I can further relate my experience to you... just be aware that I'm _NOT_ a pro, and your mileage may vary.


...jeff

 

Oh... one more thing. I got a _REALLY_ good deal on the car, and when I was at the border, they questioned how we arrived at the price, so I told them that it was fair market value.

The guy then spent 10 minutes using Google to find the value of the car, and couldn't find anything, so I had to tell him to look for a 1982 911, as it was very similar. In the end he seemed satisfied and agreed to process the paperwork.

All in all, the entire procedure took about 25 minutes from when we pulled in until we pulled out.

Oh, FYI, we also had to pay all duty and GST on the CDN value of what we paid in $US.

Hope this helps.


...jeff