I'm thinking about buying a used car in Canada from a private seller and shipping it to the US.

Anyone have any experience with this? Resources I can use? What forms are needed for customs (if needed at all)? What to look out for?

 

getting a R32? hehe

I believe I saw something in one of the 240sx forums I'm on... I'll post it up when I find it

 

Usuallly it's the opposite.........

i mean i know lots of canadians bringing the cars in from the states cause they are cheaper down in the states.......

but first time i hear people wanna bring a car in from canada to the states...

 

It happens sometimes. Sometimes cars are available in Canada that are not imported into the US. However, getting them through the grey market process can be painful and expensive.

 

In Canada their Import Car year to get like Japanese cars is 15 years... I believe anything in the 92 year and below you can bring in Canada and have it there without smog and inspection...

In the US, our car year is 25 years... So we still have like 7-8 years left to import like R32 and 180sx's in the US without smog and stuff like that...

 

Here is a link that might be useful for both US Importation Guidelines and Canadian Guidelines. Good luck!

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/

http://www.riv.ca

Jetpilot

 

Thanks for the links!

I'm planning on importing a car that is more than 25 years old. So this means it's free of any restriction? I would think that some kind of paperwork is still required to go through customs and cross the border?

 

Hey Medical Student,

I believe there's a process for notifying the border agents 48 hours prior to importation (that way they know its not a stolen vehicle, etc) but give the customs department a call. That's how I found these links was through inquiring about importing a S2000 into Canada.

A few of my mates dabble in importing classic cars from the U.S. (Impala's, Chevelle's, GTO's, you name it) and have said the process is simple but that's from the U.S. into Canada. These vehicles are definately older than 25 years.

Weird to think the earlier NSX's 91-92 are now able to be imported into Canada without any customs excise tax and taxes!

Read all of the information and call customs would be your best bet.

Jetpilot

 

shit, if its more than 25years try to ship it from that country the car is from and ship it to the US... But it might be more expensive with freight shipping cost and just a bit more hassle...

Medicalstudent, care to say what car your importing? Or maybe just the car make?

 

check my recent posts in the Gallery and that should clue you in on my next project...