I have seen a couple in Canada, in fact there has been one at the Radium car show for the past couple ofd years.

I called the border....was told NOT allowed in Canada. Stupid bumpers. If its here. its an American....unless laws have changed....I wanted one of these badly.. I was very disappointed.

-- Edited by MorePower on Saturday 31st of July 2010 03:03:20 PM

MorePower wrote:

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I called the border....was told NOT allowed in Canada. Stupid bumpers. If its here. its an American....unless laws have changed....I wanted one of these badly.. I was very disappointed.

-- Edited by MorePower on Saturday 31st of July 2010 03:03:20 PM

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From what I am told, you must have spoken to the wrong person about importing it. There is a few of them running around in Manitoba, legally imported I'm told.

 

I had a look at the Canadian site that lets you know what can and can't be brought into the country and with modifications if needed. Looks like the GTO has been removed from the list. 4 years ago GTO wasn't allowed in and I eneded up bringing home a convertible TA instead. Nice car but about 75hp less than a GTO.

This is the R.I.V. (registrar of imported vehicles) site:

http://www.riv.ca/VehicleAdmissibility.aspx

There is also all the information on what you are required to have (paperwork) when you reach the border. I believe you need to have a bill of sale and a clear title for the US customs and they need the paperwork 72hrs prior to the vehicle coming across. When you get to the Canadian customs, dig out your wallet and make sure you have every document including email correspondnce with the seller of the vehicle. They don't require this but it is proof of purchase beyond the bill of sale.  Often they think the purchase price is too low and that the bill of sale has been made false in order to avoid GST.

Once the car is in Canada, it has to meet a few requirements :


 and then it can be brought to any Canadian Tire to be inspected to see that the modifications have been done. After it passes inspection, Canadian Tire sends the approval to RIV and they send you a door sticker.  This whole process takes some time but it is a learning experience that can be quite rewarding if you find the car and a deal that you like.  Have fun shopping!

Carl Stevenson wrote:

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As 67SD396 says, arrive at the border with a nice file/clipboard neatly organized with every last note and piece of paper relating to your transaction. The more, the merrier. Any calls you make to Customs prior to arriving there, ask who you are speaking to and note the name, date and time in your notes in case any type of disagreement happens. That way you can say I called and say "I spoke to John Smith, August 2nd, 2010 at 2:00 PM and he told me me yada yada yada....."

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I did these exact same things last year. I had enough paperwork to choke a horse!
I printed the website listing from the place that I bought the car from, and Canada customs actually surfed their site to confirm the info. on the car.
I also spoke to both Canadian & U.S. customs, documented the conversation, and had the seller fax the paperwork out to U.S. customs well ahead of my crossing time.

One other thing that is important is to send a copy of the bill of sale and the title of the car to the US side at the border crossing the car will be going through 72 hours before you are planning to cross. They will not allow the car to cross before this time. Another thing is the car must now be paid in full and the title signed over to the new owner or they will not process the paper work on the US side.I just bought a Firebird in California a few weeks ago and tried to get the car processed on the US side with just a downpayment that I made on Ebay and the bill of sale stating this and it was rejected .One other thing is to send a cover sheet with the bill of sale and title with your name address etc, phone and the make and model of car and the serial number in case the title is not readable. With all the paperwork in order it was a very easy and fast trip through the border crossing .

One other thing nobody said is thats only half the battle,once you clear the US customs then you have our side to deal with,thats where you want the bill of sale to be "right" as they want all the tax money they can get + the $100 A/C tax if equipped. All this is converted into CDN bucks then the HST & air tax [bend over Rover] & get you wallet out!!!!! I've had many "discussions with the CDN. side bringing "older" cars across & they always go for the "date of build" which isn't on the old cars, & they ALLWAYS argue that it "has to be there all cars have it on the door post" Thats when you get the supervisor involved!!!!!

I just came through two weeks ago and had left that blank and they just filled it in for me as Jan 67 then collected their money and sent me on my way . Other than looking at my car as he walked by it in the parking lot they did not look at the car for serial number or year no inspection to see if it had air etc. Even on the US side I forgot to check it out and get the title stamped and had to do a circle back to the US side and they never even checked to see if the title matched the car and on the way back through the Canadian side they just waved me through .I have never had much of a problem on the 10 or more cars that I have brought across the border. Most of the time they have never looked at the car more than when it was passing the checkpoint. .This has been mostly through the Montana-Alberta border crossings and the ones in eastern BC .