At 11:44 PM 10/18/97 -0400, Bruce Aaron Hefner wrote:
(Regarding purchasing a truck in Canada)
>Well, I must say, that's a pretty shitty thing for Chrysler to do. Is
>there no way to go around it, like give you the money, and let you go get
>what we want or anything like that?
>
>Bruce
Well, as some are probably aware, I recently moved from the US to Canada,
and decided to bring my Dakota with me. Since I was relocating, I didn't
have to pay import duty on any of my posessions that I already had in the US
(including the Dak). I did have to show my Utah registration and copy of my
title to prove that I didn't just buy it to move it across the border. I
also had to pay for a special safety inspection to make sure it met Canadian
safety standards, and I had to have daytime running lights added. I also
found out that Chrysler Canada won't honor my warranty unless I transfer it
over to them, for some unknown fee. They would also have required me to rip
out my speedometer and odometer and replace them with the metric units.
Since I only had about 2,000 miles left on the warranty, I decided to forget
about it.
In your case, since you're thinking about purchasing (or having someone
purchase for you) a truck and bring it right across the border, you're will
be paying import duty on it. The US customs people take themselves awfully
seriously. And then there's going to be the certification hassle. If you
look at your door, there's a little USDOT sticker there that states it
complies with all US safety standards. Canadian trucks have one for Canada,
which doesn't mean shit to any US govt. agency. You'll have to go through
the process of certifying that it meets the US standards. It's idiotic, I
know, because the standards are pretty close to identical, but that's how
the bureaucracy works. Then there's the warranty question, since Chrysler
US and Chrysler Canada are apparently totally separate companies. As I
understand it, Chrysler Canada licenses the trademarks and pays for the
priveledge of supplying Canada with vehicles from Chrysler US.
In short, I was only able to justify bringing my truck with me because I
really like it and want to hang on to it. If not for the emotional
attachment, I would have sold it in Utah, rented a U-Haul to move up here,
and purchased another vehicle here. I've managed to get it certified,
registered and insured here, but I still don't know what hassles I'm going
to find if I ever try to sell it here. The only way I could recommend
purchasing a vehicle from another country to bring it in to your own is if
it's a specialty vehicle that you just can't get at home.
That's probably not what you wanted to hear, but after the headaches I went
through I can't recommend anyone else do the same. And I had it very easy
since I was moving myself at the same time.
Hope you can find a good deal in the US.
Jason
janor@ican.net
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