early_grayce

That's what I did. Second place I called, got a nice guy on the phone, explained my predicament. Asked him to look up the VIN for recalls. Asked him to "print screen" the screen saying no recalls. And asked him to fax it to me.
All done. $0.

early_grayce

Yup, I built my own and I'm not much of an electrical type. Do a search it will pop up somewhere; "DRL fix"

JasonKM

on a 997, if it has Sports Chrono you can turn the DRL yourself through the settings on the screen (directions in the manual). If the car does not have Sports Chrono, the dealer must activate. Get this done at the dealer doing the PPI

DHI

Not to hijack this thread...
But you must be thrilled to bits with this new purchase?
Congratulations.

acadian_dad

sure am !

logistics all coming together - closing with the shipper tomorrow - wonder if it will be here by Xmas ?!?!?

fbgh2o

Fingers crossed for the pre-Christmas delivery,

Can you not just jumper the relays - like I did in my 996.... I am sure that our local indie on Woodward can tell you....

acadian_dad

Just to close out this thread. The import process was dead easy - definitely possible to DIY but DYH (do your homework) first.

I would have certainly had less things to worry about if I had arranged for the PPI to be done at a dealer rather than an independent - then the recall printout and DRL mod would have been done at same time.

Turns out, in point of fact, that I didn't need the recall letter at all.

Normally process goes along the lines of :

- get your docs to the US Customs guys 72 hrs in advance (call them first to find out what they want - mine wanted original signed over title and copies of bill of sale and payment receipts - I understand this varies crossing to crossing)
- export the car at US Customs (they stamp the title saying that car has been exported)
- import the car at Canadian Customs - they make you fill out Form 1, pay taxes, etc.
- they send Form 1 to RIV, sometimes they will facilitate payment but I paid online myself when I got home with car
- send in your recall letter
- wait for them to process it and issue you form 2 (can be accessed online and downloaded - no more snail mail)
- take form 1 and form 2 to the Cdn Tire inspection
- get your Form 1, safety and etest certs and Cdn Tire sends completed Form 2 to RIV

In my case, as soon as I had processed the payment, I got an email saying my Form2 was available for download ... very cool ... but I was skeptical so called RIV and asked, "Don't you need a recall clearance letter ?" She checked and said, your file indicates recall clearance completed ... Wow ! So all that concern about a recall letter turned out to be a non-issue.

So, two possibilities I can think of - seems most likely there just aren't any recalls on this model ('07 GT3) and RIV has that info on file from previous transactions - alternately they can get recall info directly from Mfr (seems much less likely). I suppose a third option is RIV just messed up in my favor. Ok, I'll take it.

In terms of DRL on 997.1 without PCM ... a DurametricPro can turn them on if you know someone. Or you can go the dealer route ($ouch$). Or you can do some HW hacks.

Thanks BioBanker for the airbag stickers - anyone need some, I have "extras".

So my car is now an official citizen of Canada - all licensed, insured and street legal like (just in time for the freezing rain...). Look out ...

FFaust

Congratulations Dave, and thanks for taking the time to post the process. I will cut and paste when I get home in case I need it some day.

BioBanker

Yeah!

Awesome re the RCL development.

Christien

Congrats! Glad you didn't have any problems.

Never heard of this happening before, but wow, that's awesome news. Really, the whole thing is kind of stupid anyway, and sometimes the recall letter can be the biggest hassle of the process (esp. with BMW).

Turbodan

I have never changed the airbag stickers...Cdn tire doesn't seem to care about this.
glad to hear that you got the car home...congrats.

acadian_dad

Yeah - seems you just need to have the sticker present for the inspection - doesn't need to be installed. Hence I now have "extras" I can provide should someone else be importing a vehicle.

wabbit636

Thanks for documenting this! I am currently living in the US and will be moving back to Ottawa next summer. I have 2 Porsches to import so I will be going through this process soon!

Congrats on the GT3! I am still debating on whether or not to get one before moving back. Ever since I made the mistake of test driving a 2010 GT3 I can't get the idea of needing one out of my head.

acadian_dad

Agreed - and its nuts that they have this requirement for imports but not for private sales within the country. And then they allow dealers to charge exhorbitant fees for generating the documentation that takes about 30 secs to provide. I can't really think of any reason why this requirement should exist at all. Caveat emptor.

Couple of key points :

- all other things being equal, PPI at a dealer in the US eliminates some hassles - get the DRL turned on and the recall letter at same time

- bring documentation of the purchase transactions - I ended up bringing printouts of my bank transactions showing the deposit and balance payments - they DID ask to see them

- declare the transport costs (if you had the car trucked) even if completely in the US

Just as I was about to leave, they asked how I got the car from CA to NY

"By truck." I said.

"Oh, yeah ? How much did that cost ?"

"About 2k ... here's the receipt"

Stern look ... "You should have declared that in addition to the value of the car." he says.

WTF ? Really ? (I thought - didn't say anything)

He claimed they generally don't charge tax on it but they can. I need to go look that up ... He let me go but said, "declare it next time" ...

Turbodan

when I imported one of my pcars they asked about ppi and allowed my personal exemption to cover that.