How to Buy Your Next Vehicle from the US - and Save Thousands!

[Jeeebus]

If anyone is thinking of hiring a lawyer in the US to sue a manufacture for not selling to Canadians, let me know. i am thinking of hiring a Seattle-based lawyer on a contingency basis to sue Audi USA. I'd be interested to see if others have tried this

[valboosky]

Question.

If I have a distant relative in the US willing to sell a vehicle that is worth aprox 6000$ for about 2000$.
Am I paying taxes and duties on the red book value or on the amount payed?

[dealbarons]

I’m also in a similar situation. I have a friend of mine in US who’s willing to sell his car to me .He’s coming down to Canada for vacation and planning to sell the car to me .Can someone familiar kindly explain the process please .Like what to at customs or do he need to sell the car in new York or can he do it now etc.

Question.

If I have a distant relative in the US willing to sell a vehicle that is worth aprox 6000$ for about 2000$.
Am I paying taxes and duties on the red book value or on the amount payed?

[Velocity]

I just have a couple of questions about this, hopefully someone can help me out:

My mother is going to give me her BMW 328i Convertible.
VIN: WBAWR335X8P151033
Mileage: 45,918 Miles

I'm going to drive this back to Canada from the US and obviously it'll be counted as an import.

Here are my questions:

1. I understand I have to pay GST (5%) at the border, how will they access the value of this car? Should I print out a list of similar used cars from autotraders.com or something?

2. Once it's inside Ontario, i understand i have to pay PST on it. In this case, do i have to pay HST? Since there is no more PST? Also, i guess there is no way to get around this since this was gifted?

In summary the taxes and fees i have to pay are:

GST (5%)
PST (8%?) / HST (13%)
RIV Fee: 200$
Air Condition Fee: 100$

Please let me know if i'm calculating this wrong or i've missed something.

[michelb]

...
At the border it doesn't matter that it's a gift, it's a vehicle entering the Canadian market from abroad.

I don't know what the MTO's take is on gift from mother from outside Canada.

Yes, since gifting doesn't work for imports, you'd be better off having your mom 'sell' it to you for a reasonable price, write up a bill of sale and get it notarized. Otherwise you'll be paying tax on the Canadian value of the vehicle.