Cross border purchase ??
 

I am interested in upgrading my '05 3GT to a MS 3. There is an $8000.00 difference in msrp between Canada $32,000 and USA $24,650. For practically the indentical car this is a rediculous over charge or is the term gouge.

Has anyone purchased a Mazda in the USA and imported to Canada? I am led to believe there is a 6% duty on cars not manufactured in N. America and wonder if this applies to only new cars or demo's /low milage used? I know that there are no changes to be made to the vehicle as it meets Canadian saftey regulations. If you did import did you use the services of a professional auto importer or d.i.y. ?

Other than the cost savings the Canadian speed3 is not available in the colour silver which I want , nor do the seats have the leather bolsters.

I would really appreciate any info from someone who has done this. I live in Vancouver so would likely be dealing with Washington State dealers.

Here you go.

http://www.riv.ca/

no love for my '92 DX HAHA

What a hassle... I may still need to start shopping soon, stupid shop still hasn't let me know the fate of my car...

Changes DO need to be made to the car. It doesn't have daytime running lights. The odometer and speedometer will of course be in MPH as their primary measurement. Buying a new gauge cluster would fix the needles, there might be a way to swap the odometer readings to KM though. I'm pretty sure there's a button combo to change from F to C on the temperature readout so I would imagine you could do something about the odometer.

One time when I was stuck at the border with them strip searching my car looking for what I have no idea.. there was an Ontario resident who bought an Audi A6 and was trying to bring it to Canada, and he really underestimated how long of a process it was. He thought you could just go to the border, pay a tax, and be done. He was told it would take 4-6 weeks of paperwork shuffling at minimum.

Another thing you need to look at is warranty coverage. BMW is pretty bad about it, keeping some of the normal warranty but ditching the 'free scheduled maintenance' part.

This very lengthy and detailed guide actually mentions the B.C. - Washington exchange stuff so it's quite applicable for you: http://www.mr2.com/TEXT/Import.html

good luck with the whole process! It's a LOT of headache, but until car companies come to their senses and stop basing car prices on the USD to CAD ratio as it stood decades ago, it's still worthwhile it seems.

It's very common even here in Rochester (an hour from the Niagara Falls border). I always see canadian plates when I'm at a dealership.

Very true, dealerships here still want $12995 for a P5 with just under 60000 miles (100,000 kms).

I can buy 2 Protege's in the US for 13k!

I still see dealerships try to sell Protege5s for 10-12k here..

but you'll only get like 6k if you turn right around and try to trade that used P5 in. It seems like they know the car is in demand used so they really want to buy low sell high.

You get what you pay for when it comes to used. Price is irrelevant.

maybe that $8k difference is the current exchange rate?

:P

http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi?Am...rom=CAD&To=USD