My brother is a BMW tech. Your HPFP is given a goodwill warranty until 180k km. If you have questions I could put you in touch. I'm on my 3rd one (under warranty) and found out about this policy when I asked him a few questions before buying out the car after the lease.

 

this has been explicitly denied by my dealer.

 

....my experiences , was looking into lotus buy in USA got all the specs, ck'd with RIV & noted that newer used lotus are not on approved list.....wrote to RIV asked why as specs for the cars were same & rec'd very prompt reply that Lotus have not confirmed acceptable to Cdn market....so wrote to lotus UK (same car in Canada as in the USA, WTF?)

here's cut & paste of their e mail back
........................................................................ ......................................


----- Forwarded Message ----
From: "Turner, Neil" <NESTurner@lotuscars.co.uk>
To: okinchiba@yahoo.com
Sent: Wed, September 30, 2009 7:52:08 AM
Subject: Lotus in Canada

Dear Mr and Mrs

Thank you for your letter that we received today and for your interest in Lotus Cars.

We regard Canada is an important, separate market and thus our products are certified, uniquely identified and sold as such. You are correct that other than some labelling, lighting and clutch start inhibit system, the Canadian specification Elise/Exige is very similar to US specification cars.

Regardless, we would recommend that you contact our official dealer in Vancouver:

Kai Hensler
Weissach Performance
604-738-3911

We sure that Kai will be only to pleased to assist you further.

Thank you again for contacting us.

Yours sincerely,

Neil E.S. Turner
Customer Services Manager
Lotus Cars Ltd.
........................................................................ .......................................

when he says very similar make that identical (other than speedo convert).

now on the other side of the coin....my son-in-law just bought a few yrs. old lexus SUV fresh out of the USA, from a broker .....on the test trip stopped by toyota dealership (encouraged by the broker).
Q. any issues with servicing, warranty work on this car?
A. (service mgr.) none

have since returned to dealer to confirm all factory callbacks have been done....handled promptly.

 

Not to steal the post. But I have to say that out of every new car buying experience I've had, Budd's has been the worst. My wife had previously purchased from Budd's Subaru, then we purchased a Xi wagon. Egregious displays of a failed customer service model.

 

Just want to clarify so there are no misunderstandings.

We (Canadian Tire) don't have anything to do with recall letters. We go over the form 1 and 2 and there's never any mention of recall letters. I believe the federal gov't is who wants the recall letter and it has to be submitted in order to receive the form 2 (which IS required by us to check the car).

You've obviously done this a lot Christien so it was probably just a typo.

 

As I understand it, the primary function of RIV is to keep a registry of imported vehicles and to ensure those vehicles are safe on our roadways.

How does an instrument cluster change, when the original already reads KMs, make a car safer?!?!

My disdain lies with the manufacturers and not RIV. I know it is not RIV but the manufacturers setting these requirements. The discrepancies between manufacturers is also concerning.

But as we can see with the Lotus example above, if they don't feel like getting involved and helping you out, there is no chance. I think in the case of the Lotus, they probably feel they are protecting the Canadian dealer.... but I doubt you are shopping a used US Lotus against a new Canadian one.

 

BMW Canada also made it onto my sh**list, but for different reasons. I took part in a BMW innovation drive a few months ago. The event itself was pretty good: interesting information on the 5 series GT, the X6 hybrid, etc, then test drove a few of the cars.

The problem started about a week later. I received a first follow-up call from BMW, which is good marketing practice. Only problem is that I received 6 more of those calls in the following weeks. I kept telling them not to call me back, and apparently they kept NOT noting that down. I got nastier and nastier with them. It finally seems to have stopped...

No bimmer for me!

 

...and I bet the dealers can't figure out why there are so many successful indies around?

 

RIV in my discussions has also been responsive & open in respect to their positions....must meet canada standards BUT (specifically as in the case of Lotus above) they do require a letter from the manufacturer that the cars going into USA are same standard as are going into Can. (bumpers, 3rd brakelight etc) which in the case of lotus they are - so imo this is case of pure dealer protectionism & e-mail & discussions with RIV would so confirm.

will never deal with overpriced mutts at weissach, vanc.

 

To the extent that RIV and provincial inspections (like Alberta's) operate to keep the roads safe by only allowing good, safe cars on the road, I support these inspections.

However, if these requirements are being used as a manner for local dealers to "regulate the marketplace", then that is not right. Here in Canada we have been ripped off for too long by people that wrap themselves in the flag and ask us to "buy Canadian". What a crock.

 

Good safe cars in Ontario due to inspections? Cars need a safety to initially get licensed.

What about the tens of thousands of Piece of **** jalopies on the road that haven't had a safety in years and years and years???

Manufacturers requiring a runaround hindering importation of otherwise perfectly acceptable vehicles are acting as a barrier to trade and this is contrary to NAFTA. Those responsible are just doing it because they can and to fight them is expensive. Perhaps some legal visionary could draw up a class action lawsuit?

 

Exactly! Maybe they should leave the responsibility of operating a safe car with the driver (which it already is) and have their insurance rates go up drastically if they (for example) drive with near bald tires and end up in a collision.

And if they really wanted to get serious about safety they would get tough on cell phone use and texting while driving...like confiscating the car or massive monetary fines.

Don't even get me going on the Cracker Jacks style of obtaining a licence here. It is quite obvious that the average driver on this continent is hardly a car enthusiast.

 

This is exactly what needs to happen. On an individual base, it's far too costly and time-consuming to be even slightly worth it. On this BMW/Mini issue my business partner was really pissed off and suggested we sue BMW Canada. As much as I hate rolling over, and as much as I have access to excellent legal counsel (my father has been a very successful litigator for almost 40 years), it's just simply not worth the time and cost.

It would take a lawyer who really wants to take on a high-profile case to start the class action suit. No doubt my name would be at the top of the list, but it isn't going to be me that starts the ball rolling.

 

Crazy Canuck, no matter what you write, I am happy to see it - you have the best avatar on here by far!

 

There already IS a class action suit currently going through the Ontario court system for something very close to what these guy's are doing but I highly doubt it will change anything as the lawyers usually settle outside the courtroom and the people who signed on to the suit get $25.00 off their next new car while the lawfirm holds their next staff getaway in the Bahama's.

As someone else said here and I fully agree; a trade barrier is still a barrier. But the bottom line is that you'll never get the general public on board (and hence the guy's who need their votes) on a 'problem' of importing Bimmers, Porsche,s, Merc's, Lotus's, Ferrari's etc. You know the headline in the Sun will be, 'rich guy's want breaks on exotic cars'.