holders

They won't sell me because I am going to export the car, and register it in canada. But that 11k difference between Canadian and US price is absolutely insane. There is no way that I'm going to pay Canadian MRSP. I wonder how car manufacturers get away with this practice of banning sales to people of other jurisdiction. Imagine some retail stores prohibiting sales because you're bringing it out of of the country.
Guess I will look for used ones... maybe Lexus?

110phil

I assume used RDXs (even sold by Acura dealers) are exempt from this requirement? Of course, it's harder to buy a used one sight unseen, and negotiations aren't as easy ...

rdxon

lets hope the lawsuit has legs. read this site:

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/09/26/a...ce-discrepan/4

do your duty, buy a us honda product

castor

The whole not sellig to CDN's is BS.....I was going to puchase a US Acura but Acura (Honda) in Canada stated quite clearly that I would encounter warranty "issues" if I did so...meaning I was FUBAR'd.

Subaru for instance , as of 2008, has altered their warranty policy when dealing with imported US to CDN vehicles. You pay in advance for warranty items on imported vehicles then SOA (Subaru of America) would determine if you are eligible for a reimbursement. What Shit.

Now i wish I would have purchased in the US.....warranty and HOC (Honda of Canada) be dammed.

Go forth and save cash CDN's.

I recently priced a Toyota Tundra 4x4 TRD at 47, XXX CDN. In the US it was 35xxx US. WTF???? 12k difference????

Anyone know of a good US Toyota dealer along the NY/ON border???

marakbai

how does financing work when you buy stateside? do you have to secure here first and just give them a cheque there or can we finance there?

holders

get financing at your local bank or credit union. You won't get a finance down in the states .

casa7

Interesting information

http://www.apa.ca/template.asp?DocID=253

rdxon

Honda is treating Canadians like trash. Buy something else.
Lest hope they lose the class action lawsuit. Remember, toyota is number one for a reason, and their warranty will work in Canada. Buy a toyota.

black label

This is exactly what happened. Corporate sent out a letter to all Acura dealers in the states re stating their policy on exporting vehicles.

There were quite a few silent threats about losing your dealership rights if you were found to be in violation of the policy.

The big problem as I always saw it is not having local warranty coverage. Going back and forth to the states to service your car is crazy.

Acura does provide some warranty coverage for US Acura owners who are visiting Canada, but not ones who live or have relocated there.

acurardx

We, canadians are not just being ripped off by the auto manufacturers, but also the gas companies. The gas price is still close to CDN1.00 per litre which equals to over USD 3 per gallon !!!

Freedom56

I am still hoping to buy an 08 RDX in the states but I'm having problems finding a dealer who'll sell to me. Some people have stated that if you go further south you'll find some , but I haven't been able to yet. By the way I looked at buying a RAV4 in the states and was told that I couldn't buy a new one, it had to have been registered, in other words used. I haven't given up yet. No warranty doesn't bother me too much, I plan on getting it serviced by a local mechanic. If something serious comes up I'll take it to the states. Surprising what some people will put up with to save $11,000.

110phil

If you do find one, please let us know!

dracore

Have far south have you looked?

mvwood

has anyone tried finding a broker?

Seems like the market is ready for a broker to make a killing for a year or two before prices adjust.

Maybe try a small to medium sized fleet leasing company that does a lot of individual leases (everyone I know uses one guy in Toronto, which doesn't help obviously but I would think there are similar guys all over the states). If they could get their hands on a vehicle, I don't really see why they wouldn't be willing to deal for a cut of the savings. They could probably also arrange to get it either to the border or to your door.

What about a company like this:
http://www.carsmithmotors.com/
(don't know if allowed to post or not, but it was the first relevant hit I found on google and I am not affiliated with anybody)

restrictions the automaker tries to put on their dealers would not apply to the broker, and un less there is also a restriction forbidding sale to broekrs (which I guess there might be), the manufacturer can't do anything to stop this.

And even though a company like this may not be used to the Canadian process, if they start getting requests from Canadians and can make an extra 1 to 2 k per transaction, they or someone like them would probably be willing to learn.

White92

I sell for our Acura dealership. We are in Utah so not too far from the border. We've been getting a ton of calls on these cars from Canada. I currently have 4 Tech RDX's on the lot right now and one 07 Sport Ent MDX. We've been selling almost all of our MDX's and RDX's to Canadians for the past 3 months. I've never seen anything like it before. I know I personally wouldn't pay 15k more for the same car if I could travel a bit and save a ton of money.

Freedom56

I talked to a salesman yesterday and he told me once you import the vehicle into Canada the warranty is null and void, that's in Canada and the US. This was the first time I heard that one so this morning I called Acura in the US and asked them what their policy was on Canadians importing a new or used Acura into Canada and what warranty coverage would there be on the vehicle. The customer rep confirmed that the warranty would be void in both the US and Canada. She said if I was told otherwise by a dealer it was probably that the dealer was willing to cover the warranty at his own cost but I can't see that happening. So for now I think the purchase of an Acura or Honda in the States is is pretty well pooched, let's hope that class action suit against Honda get's settled sooner than later, until then I'm going shopping at Lexus, I've owned an ES300 for 7 years now and I love it but I thought I'd try Acura, that RDX is a sweet machine. Can you say RX350...

holders

Oh man... I tried 10 dealers in the Northeast... None of them would sell me an RDX... There was one dealer that I even wired the money to their account, and they turned down the deal 1 day before I was going to pick up the car... so I thought I had enough...

110phil

So your dealership is willing to sell to Canadians? It's not THAT long a drive to save $12K ... even from Utah to Toronto.

rdxon

i think honda is guilty of poor management. the average canadian thinks they are being taken advantage of, and traffic to the dealerships is down.
toyota is more responsable. they honour their warranty wherever you buy the car. there is a reason they are number one.

this is a bad business practice, and they will continue to lose market share in Canada because of it. i hope they lose the lawsuit. the bad publicity will cause more harm than they realize because no matter what the price of the car, people will lose trust. trust matters.

mvwood

Well, the average Canadian IS being taken advantage of, so makes sense we would think that.

But beyond that, honouring warranties and stuff just doesn't cut it. The car costs the same to produce regardless of where it is sold. We pay like an extra thousand dollars on delivery and ALL the car manufacturers are applying an exchnage rate markup that doesn't actually exist.

Toyota doesn't get a whole bunch of points in my book for letting me drive to the US to buy a car and have to deal with the hassle of bringing it back. Sure, doesn't piss me off as much as Honda, but that isn't saying much.

I priced out a BMW 335i online yesterday on the Canadian and US websites. Turns out a whole bunch of stuff available as a "premium package" in Canada seems to be standard in the US, but regardless, the overall price difference for identical cars was also like 14 or 15k. It's just not accpetable, and Canadians need to just plain stop buying cars until this changes.

It is in our collective self interest to do this, but it is also in our individual interest - these prices will not remain so high for very much longer, and we are talking about purchases worth tens of thousands of dollars. Delaying a car purchase for a year or less could save you $10,000 or more. Who is willing to spend that sort of premium because they just can't wait.

Now I know this is going to do damage to resale values and the leasing arms of these automakers are going to get stuck with underdepreciated stock when all these leases come up, but it's just plain a cost of doing husiness. Not paying it now will just make it worse for them and their dealer networks.

White92

Yep. It has to be used though. So all of the RDX's and MDX's that we get that are about a year old with a few thousand miles or so usually end up in Canada from our dealership. In fact, the 07 MDX that I mentioned in the previous post will end up there.

I don't know if the TL's are the same situation, but I just got an 07 TL Type S with about 75 miles on it. It's been registered before and therefore must be sold as used now.

mvwood

do you have rules about selling to brokers?

White92

Not that I'm aware of.

110phil

In Canada, the November lease rate has dropped to 0.9% for 36 months, as shown at acura.ca.

Poster #7816 here says dealers are offering alternative big discounts, as much as $9000 on the MDX (no word on the RDX).

First I've heard of it.

acurAspec

Acura has just released 0.9% upto 36 months and 1.9% upto 48 months on all leased Acura Models.

Also, 0.9% upto 48 months and 1.9% upto 60 months for Financing on all models.

Cash rebates on all models but the CSX for Cash purchases only!

Go see you local sales rep today for more information!!!

acurAspec

This will only last until inventory levels go down. Once they come back to normal pricing will be corrected as needed. This is the time to buy!!!!

perfchris

Still cheaper to buy in the US by thousands.....

110phil

Um ... can someone who knows fill us in, so we don't have to go visit the sales rep?

cheffip

Had a call from the Acura dealer today. Rates as already described above or $4k factory rebate on the RDX Tech or $3k on the Base if you pay cash.
With the MDX, it is $7k on the Base, $8k on the Tech or $9k on the Elite.
In theory this is a November promotion so they had no word on how long it may continue.
Still cheaper in the US.

White92

Wow, it's still way cheaper in the U.S. That MDX made it's way to Canada on Saturday. We still have a few RDX's, all tech's with around 7k miles on them.

gogozy

can anyone tell me how this rebate work? i have questions on
1. can i negotiation the price with sales and have rebate applied later, or, i can only take MSRP-rebate and no negotiation.
2. does taxes applied after the rebated price or before?
i want to know if i can deal with a better price even when there is a rebate..

thanks.

cheffip

My local (Ottawa) Acura dealer said there would be no further negotiation on price but who knows?
The rebate is applied after taxes so you pay the full PST/GST.
Remeber the GST drops to 5% on January 1 so there would be more savings if you wait, provided the rebate is still in effect.

gogozy

so those rebate has 14% less power than the "advertiased" in Ontario.. i just did the calculation, assume 1CDN=1US(for ease of calculation) and dealers at both side of border sell at full MSRP(which is not true)

after tax.. a canadian buyer pay more...
$6400 in Elite package,
$8200 in tech,
$8000 in base model
compare to south. the differences is even wider if we consider getting the x at near invoice price and adventages of 1CDN=1.07US...

my conclusion is.. continue to wait for 09 MDX or wait for better rebate. i can't believe after 7-9k of rebate there is still so much differences in price.

White92

How much is an Elite model in Canada new?

gogozy

for MDX... the Elite package is $62200 + 1855 (f+pdi) = 64055 + taxes...
since the rebate is not as attractive as i hope also i am not in a hurry to get the CUV, i will ask my sister in US to help me with purchase when time come.

White92

Yikes! The lady who just bought the 07 Sport Ent (which I guess is comparable to your Elite package) said she said about $20,000 buying here instead. I didn't think that was right, but if it's $64,055 there then it is right!

rdxon

the canadian prices are only starting to adjust. it is a double whammy affect, because it means residual value prices on off lease cars have to fall as well.\
there is only one long term solution for the manufacturers, which is to sell the vehicles in north america with only one currency. i.e. sell all cars in US dollars.\
people will understand and not accuse them of dishonesty, conspiracy, usery etc
it may be the best long term protection for the dealers as well

cFoo

Well. I'm sick of listening to both side of the debates. I've picked my side and I'm ready to buy down south. The problem is I've been looking for 2 months to pick up a new 08 in the Pacific Northwest and I can't find any dealer that will deal with me. A Canadian. I'm starting to lose my love for Honda and the way it's treating its loyal customers. My first car was a Civic, upgraded to a Prelude, now I have an S2000 and a Pilot in the garage. I think one more push and I'll have to ditch Honda. Other than the RDX everything else in the Honda line up is CRAP to me. If it wasn't for my wife loving the RDX I wouldn't even bother to deal with this $hitty company. Sorry for the rant. But I'm frustrated. I bet you are was well.

HOiYA

I just helped my parent's purchase a RDX from Acura of Serramonte here in California. I am arranging to ship the car up to Port Angeles where they will pick it up at the Coho ferry terminal. Shipping cost is about $900 in an enclosed container. The dealer was willing to sell it to them directly, but my dad said it would be easier to import the car if I bought it. Msg me if you want the contact info.

ACURascal

You know, so many Canadians seem pissed off at the wrong people. It's so easy to blame the corporations, but that's only shooting the messenger in many cases.

The Canadian government has worked tirelessly since the 1965 Canada/US auto pact to protect and nurture the GDP that their automotive industry provides. In fact, at one point recently, I read that the automotive industry provided 20% of Canada's GDP.

If you want to know what's REALLY behind WHY US-based dealers are being instructed NOT to sell to Canadians for import into Canada, you might find the following story interesting:

http://canadianeconomy.gc.ca/english...auto_pact.html

Here's an excerpt from the article link above:

The Auto Pact has not remained static over time. During Canada–U.S. free trade negotiations in the mid-1980s, features of the Auto Pact were changed. Non-U.S. automakers lost the right to import parts and vehicles duty free into Canada unless they met the production conditions of the Pact. These manufacturers did not make enough cars in Canada to qualify for the tax break. Companies such as Honda and Toyota had to pay auto tariffs, even though some cars were built in Canada. Meanwhile, American automakers continued to operate tariff-free, even though they now imported cars and parts manufactured overseas.

While negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Mexico in the early 1990s, the Auto Pact was again modified. Canada wanted to protect its Auto Pact safeguards but at the same time gain access to the Mexican market. Mexico's auto industry had been essentially closed to foreign competition, although Mexico shipped automotive products produced by American branch plants to Canada duty free. In the final NAFTA deal, Canada retained its production and investment safeguards and the Mexican market was opened to North American competition over a 10-year transition period.


NAFTA is not as complete or comprehensive as most would lead you to believe. A great deal of the concern over imports from the USA comes from the concern over protecting the resellers in CANADA, and to maintain trade pacts (including NAFTA) that stratify markets.

It's never as easy an answer as an angry, half-informed assessment may indicate.

-AR