Porsche Cars Canada - Import Process Sucks

[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.

[BrentMcK]

Unfortunately, a letter generated from a US dealer or by Porsche Cars North America (US) will no longer satisfy RIV.

Porsche Cars Canada, supposedly through months of consultations with RIV, has set the new terms. RIV will only accept the clearance letter from Porche Cars Canada. It must have Porsche Cars Canada letterhead ... US documents will no longer work.

Unfortunately, if you want to import a Porsche into Canada you will be paying the fees to your local Porsche dealer and waiting for your aaproval letter to come from the Head Office in Ontario. There is no other way to "get around" the fees anymore.

Oh well ...

[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

[Aron in Toronto]

Things have changed recently. When I imported my Boxster several years ago, all I had to do was call 1(800)PORSCHE and customer service faxed me the "Clearance Letter" required by RIV (Registrar of Imported Vehicles) Canada. When the CDN $ went to parity with the US $ several years ago the Canadian Dealers lost a significant number of sales to the US and started enacting new rules to stop imports from the US.

The first attempt was to refuse to schedule appointments for service on imports, next was an attempt to invalidate the North American new car warrantee on US vehicles, then CDN Dealers started charging a ~$500-1200 fees to inspect imports and "validate" cars to maintain their warrantee.

These measures understandably upset Canadian Porsche buyers and PCNA backed down but then created Porsche Canada with I believe a separate warrantee on US cars Vs CDN cars. The most recent attempt to reduce the number of imports is the RIV requirement that US Porsches be inspected by a Canadian Dealer to make sure they meet Canadian standards.

The problem is that the RIV relies on auto manufactures to let them know if their products meet the Canadian standards. Porsche could have done what most manufacture have done, which is to say their US market vehicles also meet Canadian standards, either “as is” or with some required modification(s) like DRLs and metric speedometers. Porsche has chosen to instead insist that all imported cars be brought into dealers to be inspected for ~$1000 before they will provide the needed “Clearance Letter”.

This is nothing more than a short sighted attempt to create a small profit for CDN dealers who have lost out on sales, but is in my mind has the effect of driving off new parts & service business and alienating potential customers.

The real problem is the drastic price difference between US and Canadian Porsches. Several will say that this is due to the smaller market in Canada that causes the higher prices, but in the case of Canadian Porsche dealers, most if not all are in major cities, with larger markets and closer to major transportation hubs than many US dealers.

Back to the OP’s issue of the clearance letter, I know the RIV website states that US Porsches must be inspected by a CDN dealer & a recall letter from Porsche Canada (at $$$), but here in Toronto the RIV is still accepting documents from US Dealers and the inspections done through Canadian Tire.

Good luck on your new car and sorry you to hear you are getting jerked around by your dealer.

Regards,
Aron