Can I sell my Ontario-licensed vehicle in New York?

[RedLightning]

So here's the story.

My family is leaving Canada. Our lease for our apartment in Toronto runs up until June 30th.

I have company training for my new job to attend to in New York. The training program starts on July 15th.

At the end of my training program, I will fly directly from New York to Tokyo, which is where I will be relocating.

We have some relatives we want to visit scattered about the northeastern United States, so we were thinking of doing a road trip to visit them all during the two weeks between the time we leave Toronto and the time I have to start training in New York.

I found some cheap tickets to Hong Kong from Newark, NJ for my family, so they will be flying out from there on July 14th.

This is all fine and well. The question then, is: what do I do with my car after that?

Honestly, it's not worth that much in dollars any more. It's a 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan with 228,000km on the odo or so. It's a perfectly serviceable vehicle and has helped me out immensely over the years, but at the same time I know I'm not going to be able to sell it for four grand or anything.

But still, it would be nice to get a small token sum for it (something like a few hundred dollars) at the end of the journey. The question then, is: legally, how would this work?

Would I need to formally import it into the United States first, and then sell it?

Could I just get all the documentation together needed to import it, and have the buyer take care of it?

Hell, depending on the situation, I may be next to giving this car away.

Anybody that has more experience in this department than I do, please do chime in.

[olddog]

i dont see any reason why u would have to import it before selling it.
i believe u can just sell it the same way u would sell it here. It's left to the new owner (the american) to get all other documents that would be required to transfer ownership into his name and get american ownership.

The case is similar to those who buy their cars in the U.S under their american relative's name and the relative just helps them drive it into Canada. And they just proceed with registration.

Just make sure u have a dated bill of sale signed by you and the buyer so that at anytime in the future u can prove there was a sale from u to him (just in case he uses ur car to commit robbery or something without transferring it into his name first )

Make sure you verify though for the actual procedure (if there is one).

good luck
olddog

[win-star]

I have seen people sell these high mileage vans for roughly between 4-500 to a grand that they are trying to do a quick sell.

But I think it's better to selling in Canada rather in US, I think there are fees to do transfers, so save those fees and sell here.



P.S ... if you get to the point you need to give it away for free, I am first in line ... called it haha

[active]

I have seen people sell these high mileage vans for roughly between 4-500 to a grand that they are trying to do a quick sell.

But I think it's better to selling in Canada rather in US, I think there are fees to do transfers, so save those fees and sell here.



P.S ... if you get to the point you need to give it away for free, I am first in line ... called it haha

I agree with Win-star

In my opinion sell it here in Canada. What ever you get for your old vehicle use those Dollars and rent a vehicle in NY. So that you don't have to worry if in case you are not able sell it.
Rent....Enjoy with family&friends, realtives...Drive back to airport and leave the rented vehicle. Simple...

Good luck with your new job...

P.S. If in case Win-star is unavailable...i'm next in the line....hahahahaha

[olddog]

If the car is worth $500-1000 (which is an optimistic guess), i would save myself and family the stress of renting/ insurance and all that and just drive the car.If you rent a car, u have to worry about deductible, insurance for the rental (and their fineprints)scracthes, etc......not worth the stress in my opinion

The OP plans on doing a cross-country ride across U.S, i think renting will eventually come across the $1000 mark considering mileage and length of time of rental. Especially since your U.S tour is for 2 weeks as u stated.

Drive the car across the border and use it for your tour(provided u believe it is reliable enough).
After that, donate the car to some church in the U.S or sell it for peanuts to whoever is willing to take on the trouble of registering it.
Or hell, just take it to a scrapyard in U.S and get $50-$100 bucks for it.
And move on with your life.

[RedLightning]

Yeah, with the low value of the car and the long length of the trip (mostly in number of stops, I don't intend on driving it too hard), I would rather just drive it if possible.

Good call about the scrapyard, olddog. Since I'll need to be in Manhattan the question of how I get to one and how I get back to Manhattan after that comes into play, but that's an option I didn't think about. Seems to be less fuss than dealing with a buyer.

Barring that, I wonder if a dealership in NYC will take it, too...

[olddog]

Yeah, with the low value of the car and the long length of the trip (mostly in number of stops, I don't intend on driving it too hard), I would rather just drive it if possible.

Good call about the scrapyard, olddog. Since I'll need to be in Manhattan the question of how I get to one and how I get back to Manhattan after that comes into play, but that's an option I didn't think about. Seems to be less fuss than dealing with a buyer.

Barring that, I wonder if a dealership in NYC will take it, too...

yeah right...have u checked autotrader.com. Its has like a gazzilion more cars than our autotrader.ca. U.S is flooded with way way way more cars than us.
No way a dealer wold want to take a car with little to no value. Hassle of paper work etc....all to turn $0 or no profit.
NY has a million scrapyards...dump it and be done.
I would personally donate it to charity though.Or a church. Or to your relative's kid as a first car....lol
Manhattan is a major city. finding a scrapyard should be easy. taxi's are not cheap though with traffic and rush hours (which in NYC i consider all the time)

good luck

olddog

[sam123]

FWIW, drive it, then sell it for what you can get. If no one wants it, give it away to a church as a charitable donation and get a receipt. Have a great road trip and don't worry about what your getting for the van at the end. You are saving hassles and $1000 in rental and ins. Just make sure you get proper Donation receipt and cancel your ins. Heck, donate it to a Police Auction.

[mr_raider]

Be very careful with the rules surrounding this. Last I checked (in 2005), to sell a Canadian market car in the US, you had to permanently import it first in to the country.

[JVM]

I'd post a listing on the Craigslist/Kijiji that's closest to where you last want the van, explain the situation and see if anyone would be willing to meet up with you. You may not get many bites this way as the situation sounds scam-ish.

Another option would be to use Google maps to find some used car dealers, or full dealerships, who are located near where you last want the van, and arrange for one, or a few of them, to take a look at the van in the last couple days and hopefully sell it to them.

I'd also target any car club forums who are nearby and have a buy-sell-trade forum, you'd at least be targetting an audience who would be able to tackle the import/registration headaches.

JVM