derrick

All,

I finally picked up my (GF's actually) new 2007 black on black TSX (AT, no navi). Paid the dealership US$26,970 including it being brought to the border. (Bought it in Detroit ... importing it to Canada.

Took us a while (ie salesperson forgot to give me the original certificate of origin!!! ) but drove to the dealership to get it for me. (I am absolutely surprised that the US Customs officer told me nicely to get this paper otherwise the Canadian side would not allow me to bring it home! I will never say anything bad about them again!)

Anyway ... brought the car over (no plates) ... paid my C$4000 in taxes (C$2000 more taxes to pay once I have it safety'ed and plated) ... and some paperwork ... and we will be all good to go.

As I have mentioned in other threads to Canadians ... seriously look into do this for future cars. Not all dealerships will sell a new car to Canadians but the Acura dealerships in Michigan have no such problem. You need to play a little hardball to max out your savings but they will deal with you. I had a friend who brought over a new Volvo S40 so he helped us out. If you guys decide on buying a car -- PM me and I'll give you details and websites to ease the process.

Seriously ... I estimated that I saved C$3500 doing it this way (on a TSX). A bigger ticket car, the more savings. I plan on importing the new G35 coupe when it comes out but at least I'll have experience next time around!

Sorry -- no pics at the moment ... got home late (7pm -- no daylight) and no plates so I didn't want to have it out any longer than I have to. Will post pics once all the paperwork is done. I do like the new things in the '07 model (XM, TPMS).

Crazy Bimmer

Congrats! Guessing the speedo wont bother your girlfriend?

Street Spirit

Congrats!! So.....how much are you going to stealing it to drive? Are you guys going to swap the speedo or just have her read the inner part (km/hr)?

alex2364

Yea, I wouldn't be able to deal with KPH when I've used MPH all my life.

derrick

GF is OK with the speedo -- she will get 'used to' MPH ... (km/h is really small font). What I find ridiculous is that most people won't make it to 1/3 of the spread of the speedometer. Zero is at the 6 o'clock position; 60 MPH (98km/h) is at the 9 o'clock position. The speedo goes beyond 120 MPH ... but who's even going to come close to that speed? Seriously ... they should have spaced out the speed a little wider (at the expense of not matching the tach) for practicality's sake.

I drove the car like 95% of the time today (border -> my house ... 1 stopover to my friend who drove my car ... she drove from my friend's house to her own house). She told me she needs 'time to adjust' to the car. I am scared ... nice brand spanking new car and she drives somewhat erratically. New car or not ... you should know how to drive an auto tranny car (ie feel of the dimensions, etc) after 5 minutes behind the wheel. She couldn't get out of my friend's driveway (I drove it in straight) without going onto the grass ... WHY?!

Over the next couple of days ... I have to get temp plates so I can drive around legally. Then I can go to the garage (aka Canadian Tire) to pass federal inspection. They have to do 1 mod (daytime running lights) then I can get real plates. When I get real plates, I have to pay provincial sales tax (C$2000). This is going to be an expensive Christmas for me.

What's sadder is that her name's only on the title ...

derrick

You learn after a while. I had no comprehension of US distance units until I started competitively swimming. My pool was a 20-yard pool (built in the 60s) so I learned to track the distance I swam that way. (1 yard ~ 0.9 meters). I learned from my dad that 1760 yards = 1 mile (1.6km) ... etc etc ... From that experience, I could then give people directions in either km or miles (have to talk to older folk in miles ... even in Canada!) or understand people's directions when I went to the 'States.

Now ... temperature ... that's a different story. I totally work in Fahrenheit (and have to convert in my head into Celsius). Watching Detroit TV my whole life ... weather was only done in US units. When I lived in Toronto for college ... I had to learn metric temperature. My GF will be messed up with the A/C. I tell her ... 20 Celsius = 68 F ... then move it around as needed.

(Where I live ... we are more American than Canadian in many ways ...)

Street Spirit

derrick

^ I must really love this girl to let her drive my car ...

Street Spirit

Fixed.

You bought it for HER, right?

derrick

^ Allow me to clarify: I can't believe I let her drive my TL-S (from time to time). I paid for a significant chunk of the TSX ... but she paid for >50% of it so it's technically 'hers'. But I'll be the one doing the maintenance + paperwork to get it on the road (legally).

Street Spirit

Oh...thought you were talking about the new TSX.

Black Tire

Nice to have money lying around to do these things.

dom

Congrats derrick. I'll definently give some thought to this next time I buy a car. Any idea how much installing DRL's will be?

And what about warranty? Do you plan to simply cross the border if you need something done?

GreenMonster

Yeah, that's the big question. Seems like a pain to have to drive to the US every time you need warranty work done.

dom

Although I doubt an 07 TSX will require much warranty work.

derrick has the benifit of being minutes away from the border. Most of us would have to drive at least 2 hours.

Street Spirit

Warranty should be transferrable, or importing a car would never work (eg: someone moving permanently from California to Saskatchewan isn't expected to drive back to do warranty work!). The only thing I've heard is that it can sometimes be a pain with dealers wanting to honour it.

pimpin-tl

What about Warranty? I know dealers in Canada won't work on US vehicles because the warranty does not apply?

Sclass88

Congrats on the car. However, it just seems to me that there are too many little inconveniences to do this as opposed to just putchasing the vehicle in Canada. But to each his own so enjoy the TSX, it's a fun little ride!

dom

But $3500 is alot of money. For me anyway. If he only saved a K or 2 I'd probly agree.

GreenMonster

TSX is made in Japan, right ??

I thought my CL wouldn't need much warranty work either, but I had both lower control arms replaced (one @ 7500 and the other @ 15,000 miles)

We've had a couple of Canadian CL owners who imported US cars complain about warranty issues before:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...adian+warranty

dom

No car is perfect. I'm just saying I'd bet he won't need anything done. From what I've been seeing and hearing over in TSX, 06's have been problem free. Hell, even 04's are for the most part perfectly relaible, not a mechanical issue in sight. (knocks on wood).

Even if he has problems, he's a 15 minutes drive away from the US dealer.

Street Spirit

I've heard similar stories with the TL, but not so much that they wouldn't honour it --- more that the dealer was being difficult and it just became a big hassle trying to agree to which country's dealer was ultimately responsible.

synth19

good deal, this sounds like a good way to purchase a car if you're in Canada. Why is it that all the imports are so expensive in Canada?

dom

The only reason this is doable is the strong Canadian dollar. 5 years ago derrick would have lost money on this transaction based off our 65 cent dollar.

I recall the roles being revered about 5-7 years ago with Americans buying cars up here.

It also depends on the car. The deal wouldn't be so favorable if he had bought a Civic.

fsttyms1

Congrats derrick.

derrick

OK ... allow me try and answer all the questions raised:

1) DRLs - installation ranges vary from C$75 to C$200. The place where Acura West (London, ON) sends their cars for retrofit charges C$200 for the deal. Someone I know who bought a car in the 'states this summer said Canadian Tire (Windsor, ON) charged C$75 for the job. (The Canadian Tire job looked half-assed so you do get for what you pay for ... )

2) Warranty issues -- I have heard from locals that the area dealerships will not touch your car (even for an oil change). Of course, once out of warranty -- they have no problems to service your car. I know the manager of the Windsor Honda dealer fairly well so maybe he can help me out from time to time. So small things may have to be done in Detroit. As someone has said before -- I live 10 minutes from the border ... so a 30 min drive to an Acura dealership isn't such a big deal (just will cost me C$8 in toll and to bring my ID to go through the hassle of warranty issues). Since the TSX's first oil change is at 6500 miles ... not a big deal (I like the sensor it has to measure oil life )

3) Why cars are expensive in Canada? Several reasons ... Canada is an extremely small share of the global car market. For cars to meet Canadian standards ... all the testing, compliance, etc -- manufacturers pass the cost to the consumer. (You know ... it's really expensive to design a speedo with km/h on the outside and MPH on the inside) Plus ... there are the numerous taxes we have to pay to keep our socialized medicine and social assistance afloat.

derrick

I have a lot of time and really cheap to go through this process! If I really had money, I would have bought this car in Canada to avoid this mess!

derrick

I forgot to mention this -- seems like Canadian pricing is based upon US$1 = C$1.50 ... when I bought my TL-S in 2001, it was a lot cheaper (even with 15% tax) to buy it in Canada than the US.

Fast forward to 2006 ... US$1 = C$1.16 ... cheaper to buy in US. Had my car been built in Canada / US / Mexico, I would have avoided the 6.1% import duty (thanks to NAFTA).

Now ... using a Civic as an example -- I probably would have saved more (percentage-wise) had I been able to buy a Civic in the US than Canada. (Canadians -- check out honda.com to see how low their Civic prices are!!!) Thing is ... Honda USA has forbidden dealers to sell ANY car (new or used) to Canadians. If I wanted to buy a US-spec Civic, I would have to buy it private and bring it over myself (ie hunt down the original certificate of origin, etc) ... that would have been a pain in the ass!!! Otherwise, my GF would have bought a Civic ... More importantly ... I wouldn't have to cough up any money towards the car.

Crazy Bimmer

And you can say you imported a TSX.

Sounds fancy that way.

derrick

^ Knowing what I know now ... more people should buy a new car in the States. It's easy and money saved can go towards mods.

synth19

How come it won't sound that fancy if I say I imported an EL to the US?

derrick

^ Dude ... it would be cheaper to do a "CDM" conversion than to bring a rusted EL over to the States.

(It would be a "CDM CSX conversion" if you wanted to convert a new Civic...)

triggle

I may do the same some day, but my only hesitation would be the resale value of the US car takes a beating as soon as it crosses the border. The reason is partly "buyer beware" buying a used US car in Canada. I have heard that there is some pretty shady deals going on like selling write-off rebuilds that can't be sold in the US. We have a dealer here in Van that sells lots of US cars. Willingdon+Lougheed (Morey?) Nissan.

derrick

No doubt -- there are a lot of shady guys who will purposefully import a 'salvage title' to Canada ... for some stupid reason -- the 'salvage title' disappears when it comes across to Canada as 'clean title'. CARFAX will save you from this fate.

Difference is when I sell it -- I have all the original documentation (even odometer reading of "10 miles" from the dealership when I bought it) so it won't take as much of a beating as I would anticipate. Furthermore, we will definitely drive this car into the ground (ie doesn't have the same transmission issues as my 2nd gen TL-S) so resale after 10 yrs won't be as much as an issue, than say ... a 4 yr old car.

Definitely 'caveat emptor' when buying used of an American car in Canada.

TSX7

Hey Derrick. Congrats on the new car. I went to Bloomfield Honda for an oil change (Windsor Honda wouldn't let me book an appointment on the weekend since I didn't buy my car there) and a black S2000 caught my eye. People there were also very willing to do all the paper work to get the car across the border for you. Maybe I should trade in my TSX and get the S2000 sometime next year.

afici0nad0

an s2000 is exactly the car i've been thinking of importing too. price difference is too great to ignore.

derrick, nice work. i'm assuming you've kept up with the 60+ page thread in redflagdeals?

if i had known about importing when i was in the market, i may have ended up with a usdm tsx or legacy gt.

derrick

Hey TSX7 -- the guys at the Honda dealership there don't realize that they CANNOT sell you a car if you plan on importing it to the US. It goes against Honda USA's dealership agreement. I didn't contact that dealership but all the other metro Detroit dealers ... my GF wanted to buy a Civic but when they got to their manager ... the deal couldn't be brokered due to that agreement. If they sell (new or used) ... they will be fined by head office.

Cliff notes: can only buy a Honda used from a non-Honda dealer or private sale if planning on directly importing to Canada.

PS I had every intention on buying a new S2k as my 'summer car' from the US until I heard that news during my Civic (then TSX) search.

derrick

I know of the website but nothing about importing from there. A good friend of mine imported a new Volvo S40 earlier this year ... and he helped us out with the process. Plus, I've read threads in NSXprime about it so it seemed like the right thing to do.

Proximity to the border is definitely on my side. If I lived in Toronto ... I'd think twice since there's no close place to get warranty work completed.

dom

Get a used one in he US. We get seriously ripped with the S2K up here.

derrick

^ If I did ... I would have a hard time coming up with the 'certificate of origin' from the dealership that sold the S2k ... and that is essential to bring it over to Canada.

Probably will end up with a new G35 coupe since the Infiniti dealer seems keen on helping me export one when the time comes ...