Porsche Cars Canada - Import Process Sucks

[t2-bxtrs]

Just want to make a comment on your experience here.. i'm not sure when the last time you had brought a car in from the U.S. it sure sounds like they really want to discourage people from bringing them in.
If i remember right when i brought my 04S from the States in 2007, all i needed was a phone call to Porsche North America and they really was so accomodating and nice enough to send me the so called certification "NO RECALL" note with their Letter Head. That was all i needed to fax over the border in Fort Erie, together with the bill of sale from the dealer in the States 72 hrs prior to me crossing the border.
Paid my duties with Canada Customs and off i went , made my appointment with Canadian Tire shop for the daytime running light activation, etc.. done in no time.. paid another $200 to the RIV(Registrar of Imported Vehicle) got the sticker and that was it.....My car runs like a charm never had to bring it to a Stealership and all maintenance done by me and my nephew technician.... my box i can say drives and looks better than new ! detailed to the "T"..
i wish you luck!
thx
t2

[Bladecutter]

I don't know why you needed to deal with Porsche Canada when importing your new-ish car to Canada.

All you need to do is go to a Porsche Dealer in the US, get them to print out a letter stating that there aren't any outstanding recalls on the car, and drop that info and the title off at the Border Crossing office 24 hours ahead of time before bring the vehicle to the border (on a trailer, of course).

Then you bring the car into Canada, take it to Canadian Tire, and get it to pass the inspection process.

Unless the car is under warrantee, there's no reason to get Porsche Canada involved in the process at all.

BC.

[BrentMcK]

I am glad I posted this so others would see.

The old days of simply getting the recall letter from a US dealership or Porsche Cars North America are done! They are no longer allowed to provide the letter to people exporting a Porsche vehicle.

My first experience was in May of 2008 and it was as easy as faxing my bill of sale showing I owned the car to PCNA and they immediately sent me the required clearance letter. Simple ... easy ... no frustration. Off to Canuck tire and done.

Now the game has changed and the US dealers won't touch this for fear of losing their franchise. PCNA tells you that you have to go to a Canadian dealership and go through the process ... at a significant cost I might add ... before they will consider a providng the clearance letter. Any and all modifications identified must be carried out by a Canadian Porsche dealership ... again at a significant cost.

Don't be fooled folks ... the old days are gone. Since Parche Cars Canada has split from Porsche Cars North America, they are hell bent on protecting their "market" and deterring anyone from importing a Porsche car.

Before you buy a US vehicle .. be sure you unserstand the new process fully. When you call a Canadian dealership and ask what modifications are required they generally only tell you about the DRL and the change to KM's (4 Dealerships told me the same thing). I thought no big deal right. When I got the car here, they pull out a 1/4 inch thick inspection booklet and it became a whole lot more involved. Like I said .. even checking to see if my servicing was up to date, if the tires were Porsche "N' spec approved ... an on and on. Not sure what either have to do with meeting or exceeding the CMVSS regulations.

Let's just say that Porsche used to be great to deal with ... they aren't anymore!

[mikefocke]

The Canada guys want to protect their market because they know you can import for less. They don't get paid a cent on that and, now that they are a separate corporate entity, they have to pay for that corporate overhead on a much smaller base of sales than when Atlanta could spread the costs over the total US and Canadian sales numbers.

Sales driven compensation guarantees an internal fight over who gets credit for the sale. And drives people to act selfishly and not for the benefit of the long term corporate interest. A sales guy doesn't care if his actions will drive business into the repair side, that is a different profit center and so benefits him little and long term...and if he doesn't sell he won't be around to collect anything anyway.

And in a tough market, the fight over who gets credit gets only worse because every side has to justify their positions with numbers every month.

[ekam]

Don't feel so bad, Ferrari dealer here charges $5000 for that same paperwork.

[pothole]

What if you're the US owner? Surely you can request the letter from the dealer? On what grounds would they refuse?

[tawheed]

I've imported a few cars myself, no Porsches though. I did some research and there are ways to avoid the fees etc. A company like BMW has an agreement with RIV, as stated in the admissible vehicle list, that all inspections etc have to be performed at a BMW dealer. Porsche, as far as I know, does not have that setup with the government.

Hence, you could have the original owner of the vehicle in the states request a recall clearance letter directly from the manufacturer. Besides day time running lights and a metric speedo (quick change with the knob) no other modifications should need to be done. If these are done before entering the country your import should be as simple as your old one with Canadian Tire doing the out of country inspection and you being good to go!

[hosickjg]

I agree with Tawheed, why cant you ask the US owner to get a letter from the US dealer stating there are no recalls. Just get the buy to say the new buy wants to for personal assurance. Then supply that to RIV.

[Bladecutter]

Looking at the RIV website, I think things are a bit funky, depending on what year car you are buying.

Here's the link I found for Porsche approved cars:

http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/safevehicles/importation/usa/vafus/list2/PORSCHE.htm

It lists all Boxsters as being admissible, all years.
The date on the bottom of the page says 7-22-2010 as the date modified.

I would pitch a fit, and find a way to force them to take the US printed recall notice.

The big issue that I see is that the process is being controlled by a PRIVATE COMPANY, and not the gov't. This means that if the company made a deal with Porsche, there really isn't any going around it, unless you can force the gov't to get involved.

BC.

[tawheed]

Originally Posted by Bladecutter

Looking at the RIV website, I think things are a bit funky, depending on what year car you are buying.

Here's the link I found for Porsche approved cars:

http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/safevehicles/importation/usa/vafus/list2/PORSCHE.htm

It lists all Boxsters as being admissible, all years.
The date on the bottom of the page says 7-22-2010 as the date modified.

I would pitch a fit, and find a way to force them to take the US printed recall notice.

The big issue that I see is that the process is being controlled by a PRIVATE COMPANY, and not the gov't. This means that if the company made a deal with Porsche, there really isn't any going around it, unless you can force the gov't to get involved.

BC.

Yeah, I looked again today.. Nothing solid on RIV saying they need something from Porsche Canada.. I think this can still be got around if you have the will