HankdaCrank

Hi y’all
Up here in Canada trying to get my 2012 Porsche Cayman R to clear US Customs. I’m selling to an American and hired a register importer to take care of everything. The problem I’m having is the brake light. On the Canadian version of then Cayman R, the brake light is a icon or red lit picture of 2 brake shoes. I’m told that you HAVE to have the word “BRAKE” light up instead. Has anyone imported a 🇨🇦 model to 🇺🇸 and needed to do this ? Dealers won’t help and Porsche customer service also says just to get a compliance letter and that’s it. I’ve heard horror stories of cars sitting for months while this somehow gets figured out. Can anyone shed any “light” on this !?! (see what I did there ?) 😆

Canadian version


US version

cstyles

Find a better broker, this one doesn't know what they're doing. Literally thousands of late model Porsches have been exported from Canada to the United States, and it's a very simple and straightforward process provided you're working with someone who knows what they're doing.

I sold my 997 911 Turbo to a buyer in Seattle, and TFX transport was used to handle the move as well as the cross-border paperwork. The only thing required for customs, other than a bill of sale, is the letter from Porsche stating that no open recalls are associated with the VIN number.

KriskoBG

I just bought a Spyder that was Canadian a few months ago. The seller had to have a certification / compliance letter from Porsche NA, which he did. He then had to go to Customs and Border Protection and fill out a "entry summary" form. He went to the customs office in Tampa somwhere. I'm not sure if he took the car with him but they just looked at the Porsche NA certification letter and then applied the 2.5% or whatever it is tax to the value of the vehicle and that was it. No mention of a silly brake light, as the cars are exactly the same otherwise in both markets and the letter from Porsche should handle that issue.

HankdaCrank

An importer in NY just had 14 cars from Canada rejected by the NHTSA because the word BRAKE did not appear on the dash when the emergency brake was pulled. I don’t know wtf is going on but this is impossible. Most Porsche dealers will not touch this.

BWJones

This seems simple... A little adhesive black mylar sticker with "BRAKE" lithographed through and stuck over the top of the internationally recognized symbol for brakes should do it.

Turbodan

you are dealing with morons. I would start over and even take it to another border crossing. TFX, Car haulers. I have sold multiple cars to the US and nobody even looked at the dashboard.
there currently is a trade war forming between Canada and US courtesy of our idiot frat boy, so maybe this is fallout?