Well now that the Toronto Star and La Presse have come out with non-bias multi-page articles on importing a Car from the U.S. , maybe just maybe Canwest will run a 2 line article informing Canadians that this is dangerous and Canadians need to spend their hard earned dollars in Canada!
For those of our members that have a bit of command of the French Language take a look at these two articles from LaPresse that ran over the last few days:
Acheter aux Etats-Unit redevient interessant ( Buying in the U.S. is becoming popular again!) and
Comment importer un Vehicle au Canada. (How do you import a vehicle into Canada)
Particularly about Sylvain Cousineau… he purchased a 2007 Subaru Tribeca in Burlington and saved $16,000!
Everybody Knows… EveryBody Knows…
Car Companies continue to treat Canadians like second class citizens. When will they adopt fair pricing for Canadians!
Here is an excellent document outlining how Consumers are often overcharged for repairs by Philip Reed, Senior Consumer Advice Editor for Edmonds.com
We also advise Canadians to shop around for their repair parts. Significant price savings can be achieved by purchasing your repair parts in the U.S. Of course you have to expend some effort but it might be worth your time. Unless of course you are a strong believer in allowing the Car Companies to fleece you. Why not spend your hard earned dollars on being taken to the cleaners by over-priced Canadian companies, when you could save some dollars to help pay for your children’s education, the dentist or a nice vacation.
Be careful with some repair shops, if you bring in your own parts they might charge you much more for the labor. Aways ask for quotes first! We have found that labor costs are pretty close on both sides of the border.
Check out the Toronto Star, Mark Toljagic is right on and calls it as he sees it.
Canadians shopping for cars in the U.S. - again!
and take a look at some of the responses he has from your trusty Canadian car folks!
Volvo response is a bit funny, they offer a cash discount of UP TO $9000, but the difference in price is around $19,000.00! ( see our price comparison dated April 20.)
The Soaring Loonie and cross border shoppers - if you missed this TV report, you can find it at
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV_Shows/The_National/ID=1478312745
or check out YouTube
Thank you Lynne Robson from CBC - Montreal for this fine report and showing Canadians that there are some deals to be made if you look south.
Some of other thoughts on the report, and they are consistent with the many emails we received… are as follows:
The coverage on CarsWithoutBorders, although very limited, was good and we received hundreds of calls and emails…
The main message got out….. the Canadian Automobile Consumer needs to be careful when purchasing a car. Not all car companies are pricing their products fairly and they will walk all over them.!
The coverage on “RickY” the broker left us confused. He appears to scare people into going to him to buy a car. “Taking several months to prepare a RAV4 or a car for import????? , complicated rules…. they are not that complicated….but they are not simple either. Don’t do it yourself.. call me!
I am not happy with Peter Mansbridge stating that most purchases are for used cars, but then he fails to state why…. Because the U.S. dealers refuse to sell new cars to Canadians for fear of their franchise…..possible Collusion and discrimination!!!!!
I think the CBC lost a good chance to identify the issues, who is behind them and why Canadians are being treated like second class citizens… but then again I guess we should be happy that they are at least bringing up the subject…. The other media doesn’t say a word, and is too scared to lose their advertising revenue rather than informing hard working Canadians. (we hear that the words CWB are banned at the Montreal Gazette… )
We would like to hear more from our members and supporters … what is your spin on the coverage?
Thanks..
In continuing with our data analysis - we determined that in 2009 - of the 124,421 vehicles imported
- -28,257 Passenger Vehicles,
- -21,958 Trucks
- -23,500 Trailers
- -8,050 Motorcycles
- -4,422 Snowmobiles and
- -1,151 Buses - there are more categories but these are the major ones.
- -68,510 were Commercial (imported by a company)
- -55,911 were personal imported by a person like you and me.
Somebody is savings money on these imports - if each one saved only $2,000 this means $248,842,000 saved - ($249 million.)
Vehicle Imports in 2008 were 239,929. If $2,000 was saved on each one - that makes $480 million saved by Canadians.
