Canadian (bilingual) 987 sun visors

[Sideways99]

Hi folks,

Just bought a 2008 US Boxster S and imported it to Canada this week. I live in Ottawa, Ontario.

My P dealer is telling me that regulations require the airbag message on the sunvisors to be in English and French. No stickers are available, so they want $575 for a pair of sun visors, plus labour.

I assume this is because they are made of kryptonite and platinum and the ink is made from crushed leprechauns.

Pelican can get them for only US$464 for a pair.

Does anyone have a pair of sun visors that they would like to sell that would fit a 987? Or perhaps even to borrow for a week?

Thanks

[trimer]

Can you find someone to recreate the sticker? There has to be someone that can do that for a lot cheaper?

[Johnny Danger]

Does the RCMP have a special sun visor enforcement division ? Who's going to check, much less who's going to care ?

[dghii]

Wow! I looks like your government really cares about the safety of its citizens!

I think you are on the right track about borrowing a pair to finish your import. That crazy!

[Jaak]

Bull Crap ... mine is a USA car without French decals.

Dealer is getting you to bend over ...

Canadian Tire gives the RIV sticker for the door which makes the car legal. After that they can go pound sand or French kiss a Moose.

If it's something you want to do, find a Canadian Car, take a picture of the visor's decal, print it out, trim to size and use contact adhesive to mount on the visors. Cost ... about $20 CDN max.

[Mark_T]

My car was also a US car that somehow made it through the importation process without changing to bilingual decals. Now it doesn't have any decals at all.

Not the first time I've heard of a dealer playing silly bugger with the import process. I heard of one not too long ago that a dealer refused to pass because the tire weren't all the same N number.

[Mark_T]

Originally Posted by Johnny Danger

Does the RCMP have a special sun visor enforcement division ? Who's going to check, much less who's going to care ?

Worse in this case - it's the OPP. I see them sitting on the snowplow turnarounds on #17 all the time monitoring traffic for unilingual airbag stickers. Big fine apparently.

In Quebec the French wording has to be at least twice as tall as the English wording or the language police (yes, they really do have language police!) crush the car. They make the Taliban look like a bunch of amateurs.

[Sideways99]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the suggestions.

Just to clarify, the Porsche dealership was just telling me what the local Registrar of Imported Vehicles (RIV) inspectors have done in the past -- failed vehicles without the stickers. (For the non-Canadian guys reading these posts, the government awarded a contract to one of our national auto stores, Canadian Tire, to do the inspections on RIV's behalf.)

The regulations are definitely there, but I think they are only enforced at time of import during the RIV inspection.

Porsche's solution of putting two new visors on for $575 plus labour plus tax is what some fussy Porsche owners might go for, to keep their babies "Pure!"

Not me though. I have heard anecdotally that people have gotten away with gluing on printed paper bilingual stickers, but that others have not. Depends on the guy (and what kind of day he's having), I guess. I'll try the paper thing and let you guys know how it goes!

I found a wrecker who will sell me used visors for $150 each, so that's the new worst case cost to pass the inspection.

[NewArt]

You do not need this. I drove mine from California and at the border they stuck on a sticker inside the door frame to meet this requirement:
"French supplementary restraint system label for airbags that require periodic maintenance"
I had a couple of labels printed out (from the internet) that I could stick on just in case. Not necessary.
Check this out: Registrar of Imported Vehicles - Modification and Inspection Requirements