I'm here, I'm here!
Where are you in Canada?
If you are in the western half...call Wilson Toyota in Bellingham, Washington (20 minutes south of the border). Ask for Edwin. He has done 2 already that I know of.
Note...they won't take your 80 in for a trade (tried that with my 80), and he may not deal too much (they can do that because we don't get the 200 in Canada).
If you are in the east half of the country...Bellingham may not be an option. I would suggest calling around Toyota dealerships, and seeing if they have any on the lots. If they do, don't tell them you are Canadian, and try and secure a deal for yourself.
Once you have the sale all in place, then you need to ask them for a few documents. Go to the following website, and it will give you all the document information you will need:
Importing a U.S. vehicle | Importer un véhicule des É.U.
The most important is the original title.
You will need to send this information to the U.S. border you are crossing at, and there is a small fee. Once you are over the border, you will need to deal with Canadian Customs. Depending upon how familiar you are with Customs Canada you may or may not want to use a Customs Broker (I did mine myself, but I deal with customs daily). They will need a document from the dealer, and a $5000 tax on the vehicle (because it was made in Japan).
One other thing you need to do is hook up with one of the Registrar of Imported vehicles testing shops (I used Canadian Tire...took me 5 minutes). Registrar of Imported vehicles will give you a document that you take to Canadian Tire...basically they check the vehicle for Canadian Compliance and send it back to RIV. In about 2 weeks RIV will send you a Canadian Compliance sticker for your door. This is an additional $200.
After all the money grab is said and done, you will need to spend about $5400 above the sale price.
I started my search in Canada with local dealers, not one of them wanted to broker the deal for me. If you have a good relationship with a dealer, you may want to beg and plead with them...if not, do what you are doing and call around. I called 5 placed in Montana and North Dakota...none of them would sell me a car because I was Canadian. I found Wilson Toyota on my 6 try (10th total try in Canada and U.S.). I got Edwin on the phone (he was great) and didn't tell him I was a Canuck. I mentioned that I may be transferred to Canada and was there any way I could bring the vehicle over...he said that they sell cars to Canada all the time, once he said that, I let the cat out of the bag and was honest with him...he thought it was funny, because he just sold a 200 a couple of weeks ago to a guy in Victoria.
I gave myself 2 days for the whole transaction and border crossing. Basically I flew to Bellingham, picked up the rig, and crossed the next morning and drove home.
PM if you have any questions. I know I had a ton. I will be more than happy to walk you through. As far as a dealership...two words of advise, don't tell them you are Canadian, and the further south you go, the better chance you have.
If it was a Corolla, I could understand as those are sold in Canada, but this vehicle isn't, and it is ok to import? Made no sense to me.
P.S. You must be a rich bastard...with a $70,000 price tag, and minimum $5400 tax and fees and today's exchange, this is going to be over $100,000 dollar vehicle (that's before mods). Wow...in today's economy, that's great.
to you!
