Simple canadian import question

Has anyone here ever bought a car from Canada? I'm just wondering how much you have to pay to bring a car over the border when you hire a customs broker.

I've done it the other way (US to Canada) without a broker. Where in Canada is the car? How old is the car?

It's a 89 and in Vernon BC, not "legal" yet to register but I want to bring it over the border and put it in storage until it is. If not I can store it up there then bring it down after, doesn't make a difference to me. It's at my cousins house right now.

I would think that would be no problem, but I'd suggest getting it titled in your name ASAP so all appears legit when you try to register it. You don't want to deal with unpaid taxes.

Shipping can be pretty reasonable from Canada, but I've never actually shipped a whole car.

I'll have to check out on shipping, might be better than driving it from there to Nevada with no plates or temp Washington plates lol.

The title was mailed to me so that part is not a problem.

It's a Skyline GTS-T and some people here have Pulsar GTIRs registered in Nevada already despite being a 90s car so i'm going to attempt to register it before the date of manufacture (iirc July 1989) to see what happens. I'll post what happens when I attempt that, if there is some weird loophole i'm going to bring something else down later.

Since you live in Las Vegas, good luck getting it smogged, even when it's 25 years old.

But if you do, call me up and give me a ride. I'm off Sundays :)

I shipped a truck down there once. It was pretty easy. They told me I was allowed one personal export after which I had to use a broker. So see about doing it yourself and save some cash.

I have a neighbor from Wisconsin who moved up here and never did "import" his car. He just drove it across and no one asked any questions. He eventually sold it on with no problems.

I've got an RB20 sitting in a E36 M3ty S13 chassis. I got it from Nagasaki JDM up in BC. $350 (engine and transmission) shipped to St Louis.

In reply to N Sperlo:

Sell me the RB for treefiddy

If it's already registered in Canada, just drive it across. Done it several times. You can deal with the importation process later.

The broker fee is pretty cheap. You can always do it yourself, but it's so cheap it's worth it. You never HAVE to use one.

Well...

Is there a sticker on the car (check the doorjamb) saying that it "conforms to all applicible CMVSS" or was it brought in under the canadian 15 year exemption?

Under the 15 year exemption (no cmvss sticker), its illegal and technically smuggling. (not to say there aren'y shady ways to bring one in, but that they are shady and could bite you)

It is not that its not legal to register, its not legal to import.

If the car DOES have the CMVSS sticker (look for a maple leaf on it) then you can import it legally.

How: http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/import/VIG%20Canada10102012.pdf

Who has to do it: http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/import/Active%20RI%20listDecember42013.pdf

Either way, you will save money to wait until its 25 years old. (go to the sticker on the car and see what the manufactured date is, they go by that, not the model year)

Addressing what Keith said... are you a Canadian citizen? Is it currently in your name?

yamaha wrote: In reply to N Sperlo: Sell me the RB for treefiddy

SHIPPING was tree fiddy...

This thread is very relevant to my interests. Living where I do I can literally get to Canada easier than I could get to another state.

I have seen some interesting stuff (cars & motorcycles) for sale up there, some sold stateside and some not. I have been wondering what is involved in bringing a vehicle down.

A Skyline isn't a Canadian market car. It's like importing a JDM car straight from Japan from a paperwork standpoint, you don't get the Canadian market shortcuts. The Canadian part just makes it physically easier to get into the US.

I must admit I don't know about it being illegal to bring into the country even if it's just for storage, both cars I brought across were 25 years old and fully legal for import. My citizenship was never questioned.

The last time i did it was in the early 90s. I bought the car, took the title the DMV in Michigan, got plates and drove it home. They never asked about anything else. They just processed it like an out of state title. YMMV

I was going to attempt this once. I found a Cosmo sitting in Vancouver? (I think it was Vancouver, makes sense when I consider the rest of my plan). Canadian owner. My plan was- have owner drive car into US under premise of "going for coffee" or something. Buy car somewhere outside of Seattle. I live in MN, so it's possible (or was) to title damn near anything without so much as an inspection. SO- the plan was get it into Seattle, get an MN 21 day permit on it, and haul ass back to MN on a paper tag before anyone was the wiser as to what I had. The laws changed shortly before I could attempt it, and a buddy of mine got caught in a giant mess involving a 1997 STi that came over as "parts", and I elected not to.

I'll just give my brief experience in hell with this process.

On BABE rally a team from canada brought over a 2000 Jetta, they were flying home from New Orleans so they sold it to me for a reasonable price, title was good all that.

It had the proper sticker under the hood saying it conformed to US emissions. The local customs office was willing to process the car through for me but required a letter from VW certifying the car met US standards (it did) VW would not issue the letter. They will only do so to the registered owner in canada and for whatever reason he was unable to help or to a registered importer. The RI wanted $1300 to basically just get me the letter, I had already done everything else. Not worth it to me, sold the car as parts.

So customs will require 2 things, proof that it meets emissions standards and proof that it meets DOT standards. That may be different due to the age of this car.

And yes it still pisses me off a bit because it was a 2000 Jetta VR6 5 speed with less than 100k on the odometer (and no it was not at all a proper BABE rally car) but they sold it to me for $500

The exact process is listed in Apexcarver's post. You need a letter from the manufacturer if it's a Canadian market car and under 25 years old. If it's not a Canadian car, you need to go through an RI and/or wait.

My experience? A 1990 Canadian market Miata built in April 1990 can't be imported because it doesn't have airbags. A 1990 Canadian market Miata built in April 1989 can be. So I could have imported my father's Miata, but not my own. I'm waiting for April 2015...

The NHTSA has a page that specifically talks about importing a Skyline: http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/import/faq%20site/pages/page10.html

Keith Tanner wrote: The exact process is listed in Apexcarver's post. You need a letter from the manufacturer if it's a Canadian market car and under 25 years old. If it's not a Canadian car, you need to go through an RI and/or wait.

Add that if its canadian market and not the same as US market, you still need an RI, or, if it is the same and you do not have the letter. (manufacturers differ on how difficult it is to get a letter out of them)

I have a friend who imported a Canadian Subaru into the US. No problem getting the letter. I've also received letters for Miatas without any trouble. I've never dealt with any manufacturers. I can imagine some of the smaller makers might be more difficult.

Even if the car is different for the Canadian market, it just has to meet particular safety and labeling criteria. No RI required unless the letter states that the car does not meet those criteria. At that point, it doesn't matter if it's a Canadian car or not, it goes through the same process as a non-Canadian one for import.

The reason the Miata couldn't come in was due to the requirement for airbags or mouse belts that started in the US in Sept 1989. A 1992 Canadian Miata would be allowed in as they had airbags, but the 1990-91 models don't. So half of the 1990 model year and all of 1991 are no-go until they turn 25.

Keith, what I am addressing is that CMVSS and FMVSS are different things. There are similarities, but they are not identical. Yes, you could have a car that meets both, but likely it may well meet CMVSS without meeting FMVSS and you will need an RI to conform it.

You are talking about HS7 box 2B, I am talking about Box 3 entries.

Box 2B you can DIY, if you get into Box 3 you need to hire an RI

I'm pretty sure Box 3 wasn't an option last time I looked, interesting. I'll bet that exists for the Miata although I'd have to pay for someone to retrofit the damn airbag system. That's not going to happen.

But that's basically what I described: If the letter says the car doesn't meet the criteria, then you go to an RI. Most vehicles will meet it, though, especially as the ones built before Sept 1989 fall off the list. I just didn't bother with the acronyms

EvanR wrote: Since you live in Las Vegas, good luck getting it smogged, even when it's 25 years old. But if you do, call me up and give me a ride. I'm off Sundays :)

You can registere a car over 25 years old as a classic and it doesn't need to be smogged so long as you stay under a certain mileage. If you live outside of clark county then there is no mileage limit.

The broker fee is pretty cheap. You can always do it yourself, but it's so cheap it's worth it. You never HAVE to use one.

Yeah this is pretty much what I was wondering. I didn't want to do the documentation myself if the fee was inexpensive. Thanks.

So customs will require 2 things, proof that it meets emissions standards and proof that it meets DOT standards.

Hmm, sounds like I should wait for july then when those standards no longer apply.

If they still consider a Canada registered car a "Japanese" car and I have to jump through those hoops I might just have him register it under his name in canada and just drive it over.

But if you do, call me up and give me a ride. I'm off Sundays :)

lol, i'll probably bring it to an autocross for fun since I bet it would be classed into something odd and uncompetitive. If you do that in Vegas you might see it. It's not a very fast car though like a GTR, it's like 210hp and 2800lbs so it would be like a BRZ but with torque. Car is stock aside from "stance" suspension which i plan on fixing.

There's an amazing MK1 MR2 in Canada on eBay with a turbo swap & much other goodies. It's been listed at least 3 times I know of, probably because he wants too much (it never hits reserve) & the fact that it's in Canada.