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The Montreal Gazette DRIVING section came out with it’s own home grown journalist Kevin Mio piecing together an evaluation of the new 2011 Cadillac CTS coupe!   This is unusual for the Gazette, usually they pilfer articles from the auto journalists in other Canwest locations and those writing for Media News.  

Nice to see a local boy get a shot, but what does he do… he complains that if he wants a red colored CTS v6 Coupe he has to pay an extra 1,295 plus tax.  

And not one mention of the U.S. price and how Canadians are getting taken to the cleaners for over $13,000 more than their wealthy U.S. Cousins.  And do you know why Americans are considered wealthy and have a better standard of living than Canadians… They don’t get screwed on the price of their vehicles!

2011-01-24 Gazette Cadillac CTS evaluation 

Well of course we couldn’t resist this very bias reporting, so we decided to again take a look at the current U.S. / Canadian Price, making sure that we compared apples to apples and here is what we found:

 Here are the detailed summaries that you can find at  www.cadillac.com and www.cadillac.ca

2011 CTS Coupe Canadian Price Summary    2011 Cadillac CTS U.S. Price Summary

There it is all in a nutshell.  Our recommendation is that if you thinking of buying this car, then you have enough cash to hire yourself a broker to do it for you.  see our friends at either www.NAATA.org  or www.apa.ca .

If you do it yourself make sure you either have the U.S. dealer “Canadianize” the daytime running lights or locate a  Canadian Dealer that will do it for you.  Most of the Canadian guys will tell you they can’t do it, or try and charge you a couple of thousand dollars to do a 5 minute task.  Legislation recently introduced in California has put a stop to this type of gouging.  The government and consumer organizations there don’t put up with it! 

Canada… well what more can I say… we have Don Cherry and GM spokesperson Bobby Orr..

Bobby lives in Boston, maybe he can get us a good deal!

Well the fine print on the latest Ford ad, which begins with ” WISE BUYERS READ THE SMALL PRINT”.  is pretty deceptive and we are told these ads “stink so much, they are there just to get you into the showroom, and then squeeze you for an extra 5 or 10K.”

 After reading and examing the Ford ad today, we thought we would check out the Internet.  In their rush to combat CWB’s entry yesterday pointing out that “Even Ford is Screwing Canadians!” , the build and price feature doesn’t appear to work.

So we phoned up a Canadian dealer and learned that the current deal for a 2011 Manual Escape Xlt I4, is for cash only!, If you want to finance it the rate is 6.99% apr!

But he told us that if you purchase one of the more upscale models, ie…  the price will be 4-5 k higher but you can get 0% financing for up to 72 months.    The same model with Automatic transmission is $6,000 more, but you can get 0 % financing!  You can check the specs and options and pricing out here.

Now how many of us think this is a good deal?  How many Canadians think that if they overpay for a vehicle, but obtain 0% financing they are getting a good deal!  

These car companies really think you Canadians are stupid!

We have included a PDF version of the Ford ad  in order to help you read the small print! We couldn’t make it out ourselves until we loaded it into a PDF file, rotated it and then blew it up to 400%.  Don’t you just luv the Canadian Consumer laws that allow Multi-national companies to get away with this deceptive marketing.  The 2011 Ford explorer ad.

Now,  to top this all off, Page B16 of the Gazette featured an article by Zack Spencer titled ”Ford’s Faded Explorer gets a new life with redesign”… he could have titled it:   Ford’s Faded Explorer Gets a new Life, unfortunately Ford still screwing Canadians on Price!

So the battle for your hard earned taxed dollars goes on!  Please shop smartly!

A friend of ours is considering a new Ford Explorer.  We were originally under the impression that Ford pricing was very reasonable, but never the less we took some time today to check them out. 

Unless we missed something in the details, 2011 Ford Explorer XLT V6 FWD version with no options has a difference of over $7,000 or 15.55%.

So Ford Canada has decided to get on the band wagon and screw hard working Canadians! 

The good news is that they are not taking any chances with warranty coverage and respect an all  North American solution, (this will keep them out of court) according to the APA.ca web site.  We recommend you call first!

Here are the details: 2100-01-16fordex-can.pdf     2011-ford-explorer-us

So we assume the bottom line here is if you want a Ford… do your homework!

Well I did the numbers a few times and I knew exactly how much I wanted off my new Highlander Hybrid 2011 - Limited - fully loaded - leather - sunroof - AWD - navigation System - Satelllite radio and much more.  I got pricing from Ottawa Toyota, Cornwall Toyota and a US Toyota dealer (they would not sell to me but that can be arranged if the price is right).  Armed with all of this $ information and having a local reputation of buying in the US if I have to.  I negotiated a deal in my home town and I am happy to encourage the local gang.   In summary, my 2011 Highlander Hybrid was paid $57,013 all taxes included.  The US import all included would have cost me $56,223, for a small difference of $790.00   The US rate at the time was $0.97  - today it hovering around $1.00.  I have attached the excel sheet that shows the calculations.   But in summary for this vehicle (built in Japan) - the 6.1% duty of $2, 818 plus the Trade-in tax credit of $1,495 made this vehicle a good purchase in Canada.  CarsWithoutBorders is not about buying all cars in the USA - it is about getting fair pricing - equivalent pricing - and in this case I bought my car right here in Canada.

Highlander Hybrid 2011 US - Can comparaison

Many thanks to one of our members who documented his experience in our newly updated forum:

“Howdy

I actually Factory Ordered a brand new 2011 Base Mustang GT (you cannot get this model in Canada) in April 2011. I aquired this vehicle in Montana July 2011. I was refused by 3 Ford dealers before I found one that would sell to a Canadian. In my case, U.S. Ford dealers have to worry about their Mustang “allocations” as they are only allowed so many Mustangs per Dealer, and if they sell to a Canadian, which Ford Head Office frowns upon, when they find out, may sometimes “punish” the dealer by reducing their Mustang allocations the following year.

This dealer was very fluent in the importation process as they sell a lot of trucks to their neighbours in Sask.

The things I needed to do to import the car were as follows,

- Immobilizer - Already installed when you order the Security System option
- Child Tether Anchors - Already factory installed on all Mustangs
- Recall Letter - Aquired from my U.S. Dealer on U.S. Ford letterhead. accepted by RIV.
- DRL’s - this is the tricky one….
The Daytime Running Lamp (DRL’s) Modules in the US sourced Fords are already in the vehicles, they just don’t turn them on.
My US dealer was happy to activate them, but was unable.
Reason, US Ford Dealer computers need a “password” from Transport Canada to activate the DRL module via the computers in their service departments. This “password” is not provided until Form 1 is filled out at the border.
That’s why we can only get them activated at a Canadian Ford Dealer as their computers can somehow access Transport Canada servers to retrieve the necessary password.
- Sales Tax - This issue goes out the window as there is no sales tax in Montana, and no sales tax in Alberta.
- GST - paid at the border.
- Driving Home
A couple years ago, I once bought a car in another province, at that time i needed an in-transit permit to drive it home. I expected the same for this car. Instead, my local Registration office said “not required, just bring a valid plate with you, and put it on the car.” I was about to do so in Montana, but instead the Ford dealer has a Paper Licence in plastic attached to a licence plate frame that is registered with the local (and State I think) Authourities. Once I got to the border, I asked the Customs official what to do with this Paper Licence, I was informed I can leave it on there for the rest of the trip home! There was no charge for this! cool….

In total, after accounting for the exchange rates ( I had been been adding to my US account over time) I saved a little over $8000.

Next time, If I can even save a $1000 bucks, I will do this again. ”

If you have questions or just achieved some great savings shopping in the U.S. tell us about it!  Join our Forum today.