Mall Arkey Investments This Week

Friday, September 03, 2010
Buying a car in the US ( by Ron Adams)

As most of you know, Mall Arkey is a cheapskate. To save a few thousand bucks I recently bought a car in Seattle. It wasn’t difficult. You just have to fill out a lot of forms and pay a lot of dumb fees to various Canadian government agencies. Both new and used cars are substantially cheaper in the US, especially now that the loonie is almost equal to the Yankee buck.

A fancy new Honda, for example, with the HST, will set you back $37,000. You can buy exactly the same car in the US for $22,000, or $23,335 Canadian. Add the HST, the import tax, the Canadian registration fee, and the Canadian Tire inspection fee and the total cost in Canadian dollars is$27,331. You save ten grand. The only difficulty is finding a US car dealership to sell you the car. To keep Canadians paying more, manufacturers like Honda forbid US dealerships from selling to Canucks. You have to find a salesman who is hungry enough to ignore the rules, not a difficult task in these recessionary times.

I bought a new Honda Fit three years ago from the dealer in Vernon for $23,000. Imagine my annoyance to find that I could have bought the same car in Seattle for $16,000 Canadian. This time I set my sights on a used Chrysler Town and Country Limited, the most luxurious minivan made. New, this fine vehicle will set you back fifty grand at your local Chrysler dealer. Fortunately, Chrysler minivans get a low rating from Consumer Reports, so you can pick them up used for about half the price of the more expensive, higher-rated Honda and Toyota minivans.

My plan was to drive the van to the Baja and use it there, so I didn’t want a vehicle that was shiny and new. A used van with a few scratches and dents is less likely to attract unwanted attention in Mexico. It didn’t take long to find the perfect 2001 Town & Country on Craigslist for $5,000, a throwaway price. Here’s how I brought it into Canada.

First, you have to fill out the US Customs & Border Protection Vehicle Export Cover Sheet (Google it) and fax it to the border crossing you plan to use (i.e Sumas (360) 988-6300). You give them your name and address, the name and address of the seller, the vehicle’s VIN number, and the number on the ownership document, and they will check to see that the vehicle has a clear title, that is, hasn’t been stolen and has no liens against it. US border folks require 72 hours to complete this check, so you’ll have to wait three days before you bring the vehicle to the border. You can get the same information in 15 seconds from Carfax on the Internet for $40.

When you pick up the vehicle, make sure the owner gives you a signed bill of sale and the original title. In Washington State he or she will have to provide the odometer reading and sign off on the bottom of the title. Now you’ve got to figure out how to get it to the border. There are three ways of doing this. You can get the seller to drive it there; you can arrange to have ICBC and a Washington car insurance agency issue “binders” of temporary insurance; or you can stick some Canadian plates on it and drive it to the border yourself. Guess which choice Mall Arkey made?

At the border I stopped at US Customs and went to the counter with my bill of sale and the title document. An agent retrieved my Export Cover Sheet, checked the van’s VIN number, stamped my import form, and waved me on my way. It took all of five minutes. Canadian Customs was a different matter.

“You’ve got the wrong license plates!” exclaimed the border agent. “You can’t drive this car in Canada.

“I know. I plan to stop at the closest ICBC office in Abbotsford and purchase a temporary operation permit,” I lied as he waved me into the check bay. I waited in line for twenty minutes to hand in my Vehicle Import Form 1. You can get this on the Internet or at any border crossing. It’s easy to fill out. The agent looked it over; then sent me to the cashier to pay the $197 (plus HST) import fee. I also had to pay a $100 “luxury tax” to your bozo federal government because the van had air conditioning.

In ordinary circumstances, I would now have been on my way, but the Customs guys didn’t quite know what to do with me because of the phony plates. They conferred. “If you drive away and kill someone,” an agent declared, “they’ll blame me for letting you through without insurance. You’ll have to take a taxi to an ICBC office and get a one-day permit.” I was prepared for this.

I locked the car, went out to the road, and stuck out my thumb. I was immediately picked up by a truck driver who dropped me a kilometer up the road at the Abbotsford Costco. A gal at the service desk kindly called a taxi. It took 20 minutes. “Take me to the nearest ICBC office,” I said. “I want you to wait for me while I buy some insurance and then drive me back to the border.”

Needless to say the nearest ICBC office turned out to be on the near side of the Costco parking lot! It took just five minutes to get the $22 temporary policy; another five minutes to return to the border. The fare was $12.35. I felt a little sheepish and left the driver with a twenty-dollar bill.

I waved the policy at the border agent and drove away. The entire process had taken 90 minutes. The reason things went so quickly was timing: I crossed into Canada on a weekday morning when traffic was light. Do not try this on a Friday afternoon!

There’s more. Lot’s more. But you’ll have to wait until next week to read the rest of the story.