Porsche Cars Canada - Import Process Sucks

[BrentMcK]

Porsche Cars North America was such a fantastic company to deal with when I imported my first Porsche from the US into Canada. The whole expeience was great. The cutomer service rep ended the phone conversation with me with "Welcome to the Porsche family". All I could think was WOW ...

This past month I have purchased another Porsche from the US and am going through the importation process again ... only this time the experience is completely terrible. Since Porsche Cars Canada has split from Porsche Cars North America, they have decided to intentionally make it difficult to bring a US car into Canada.

There is a certification process that only "can be done by a Porsche dealership" at a MSRP of $500. This has to be done in order to get the Recall clearance Letter from Porsche. They have a booklet of items that a certified Porsche technician must go through including checking to see if the vehicle has "Porsche" approved N rated tires on it, checking the engine revs at load, amongst a number of other things.

Then they tell you that they have to send a copy of the bill of sale (so they can see what you paid for the vehicle) along with this booklet to Porsche Cars Canada Head Office who, in a "week or two" will let them know if they will allow the vehicle to pass certification. When I paid my bill for this "service", I asked for a copy of what was being sent to the Head Office and was told that I couldn't have a copy even though I had just paid $560 to have this work done!

I seems to me that Porsche Cars Canada would want to welcome more Porsche owners into this small and often overlooked market. If nothing more than to have the potential to keep their sevice bays and parts counters a little busier & potentially sell more new cars. Rather, they seem intent on following the lead of Mercedes & BMW attempting to keep the market prices for their Brand high while trying to deter anyone from seeking better selection & likely a lower priced unit from the US.

I guess it will be interesting to see what the head office does ... will I get my certification? I did all of my due dilligence with repect to this vehicle in advance of my purchase. It meets or exceeds al CMVSS regulations and should have no reason to be denied. It has never been in an accident, has a clear title, and no recalls outstanding. It has daytime running lights and a metric instrument cluster.

Porsche makes a fantastic product and I really enjoy owning and driving one ... but I really am not happy with Porsche Cars Canada going the direction they have. It is really a shame too because when it comes time for me to purchase my next one .... I was planning to buy a new one .... now I am not so sure. I am feeling like I just got screwed and wasn't kissed first!

If you are going to import a Porsche into Canada ... understand the game has changed and Porsche is making it difficult now instead of being helpful & reasonable.