Author Topic: Importing Beetles (Read 1694 times)

Mike Scott · « **on:** July 17, 2003, 12:54:39 PM »

Anybody know how hard it is to import american cars to BC?

Aircooled Angel · « **Reply #1 on:** July 17, 2003, 03:11:24 PM »

I don't know if I would do it again but here is what you need to know:

1) You will need to export your car from the United states. There is paper work that you must have to the US border 72 hours before you bring the car through. They are incredibly *anal* about this. We brought the car up on a dolly from Californa so we did everything ourself. There was an area on the forms that said what commericial carrier are you using. Well my bf was brillant and left that area blank because he was doing it. When we got to the border they said our forms were incomplete and we may have to wait another 72 hours because we didn't write \"Self\" on the forms. After some arguing, and a threat to put my bf in jail they finally came out and looked at the car where they had us read the vin number and he made sure it matched our title which he stamped and then on we proceeded to Canadian customs. Please note that they will only inspect vehicles from 8-4 Monday to Friday and they were quite anal about that too. I can't rememebr where we got the forms from, I'll ask bf tonight and let you know.

2) At Canadian customs all they want is your money. Here you pay 7% gst and 4% duty (maybe 6% I can't remember). They never even came out to look at the car. There is a 182.00 fee that you have to pay if the car is younger then 15 years. Also you have to pay an extra 100.00 if the car has air conditioning. One thing that really lucked out with that I didn't think about was Mike was away for a week at the Classic so you are allowed to bring back 750.00 US so that was deducted from our car's value. Also please note that the taxes and duty are applied to the converted Canadian dollar amount.

3) After exporting and importing your car must pass a vehicle saftey inspection. EVERYTHING must work. ie. wipers, lights, brakes, tranny, tires etc. etc. The saftey inspection ranges from $40-60.00. I have had some people tell me that they drive the car and some people say no. I have yet to get to this stage. Once the vehicle passes the inspection you pay the 7.5% pst on the vehcile when you insure it.

Hope that helps.
A good person to talk to about this stuff is Roodie, he's a customs broker.

Whatcha thinking about getting?

AirCooledRules · « **Reply #2 on:** July 18, 2003, 09:27:14 PM »

the duty is 6.1 percent. for all but cars made in canada or usa....... and i think 1 percent for mexico .. not sure though

Russ · « **Reply #3 on:** July 19, 2003, 09:35:43 AM »

aircooled angel hit the nail on the head as far as description.
paper work can be picked up at customs prior to getting your car.
we did know about the 72 hour wait but decided to try and go through anyways,without much hassle the guy decided to waive the 72 hour time wait and inspect the car now(check vin numbers only,they MUST match)
canadain side could care less except that they get there money.
we crossed at the 176th street crossing.we bought our car on a canadian long weekend so arriving at customs monday morning worked well.
i believe the time wait is do any checks if the car is stolen ect.

by the way you need a bill of sale from the owner as well(pick up the custom forms US side and they have all the info you will need)

good luck
russ

ps Anna how close is your car from going through inspection?

Aircooled Angel · « **Reply #4 on:** July 20, 2003, 09:49:00 PM »

We gotta put the engine back in and i gotta find some tires that aren't bald and we're good to go..

Will definitly be ready by the great canadian and will hopefully be in the show

moni · « **Reply #5 on:** July 21, 2003, 05:02:09 PM »

sick, i think anna will agree wholeheartedly with this tidbit of advice as well:

don't buy an american bug from a fat-ass, they wreck the seats.

Aircooled Angel · « **Reply #6 on:** July 21, 2003, 05:47:16 PM »

AHAHAHAHAH.
It's chicks with fat asses like that, that give vw girls a bad rep.
Moni is referring to the previous owner of my bug who had such a fat ass that she broke the driver's seat, ripped up the original front seat and rubbed on the original door panel. As my bf's dad said when we bought the car \"That chicks fat ass didn't do the car any good\"

sick-d-three: Another thing that I forgot about is that customs likes to check out the people that you buy the car from. So try and buy a car you get a good feeling from, they do more then just check the vehicle in those 72 hours. If you buy a car from someone with \"records\" you could have some issues.

Russ: I still don't know how you managed to get that car through so easily. The only other person I know that had it so easy when he imported his bug forgot to export the car from the US. We coudn't understand why everyone made such a big deal about going through customs. He showed up at 5:00am and no one even asked if he'd had the vehicle inspected at US customs. Little did we know he were making a huge mistake....

Btw who did you have inspect your bug when you imported it? Do you remember if they drove the car or not?