65fastback

I am wondering if anyone here knows the laws pertaining to American used car dealers buying car's from Canada at auction. Then of course importing them the the US to sell.

Main question.....If a car has had significant damage ( water or fire) or been involved in a accident or multiple accidents ....and if it has been documented on the canadian car fax can it be somehow NOT transferred to the American title or car fax when imported?

In other words can a auction bought Canadian car's title and history be doctored when being transferred to the US?

Avanti

With all the domestic cars available, why bother with the imported one? IF it sounds too good to be true... well, you know.

TorchZ51

65fastback

There is a lot near me that sells higher end "luxury" just off lease cars, most of the cars are from canada is seems. They did have a C7 however i wasn't there to look at it, i was checking out a different car.

A couple cars i looked in did have the km gauge's ....they said if I want they will have it changed to MPH at no extra cost.

I dunno....its hard enough buying a used car let alone one that has crossed the border and even more potential for title issues or whatever.

Was just hoping to hear from one of the ex ( or current ) car dealer guys here.

JALLEN4

I am not going to claim being an expert but I did spend forty-years buying and selling used cars. During those years I have seen a number of cars traded back and forth between the two countries. It is very common in border states such as Michigan, New York, etc. The title being transferred is not going to change the Carfax report found by the serial number inquiry. There is probably no less or more chicanery found than any other changes of ownership.

From time to time I have seen problems occur with the manufacturers being involved. These were normally when Canadian dealers were selling new cars back into the States as used cars and caused warranty concerns and even blocks in extreme cases. This happened with "hot" cars in short supply.

All of that said, I always stayed away from buying Canadian cars. There are just too many cars available normally without getting involved in the potential equipment problems such as the afore-mentioned kilometer speedos. I would seriously question there being any large monetary advantage unless there was a problem yet to be discovered.

Mayor111

When i was selling my C4 last year, I had a very nice Canadian buyer, who was ready to pull the trigger. But when he and I looked at all the fees involved in getting the car over the border, it made the deal too expensive for both parties. Also the Canadian government wanted me to sign a document claiming the sale of the vehicle as INCOME that would be reported to the US IRS... That was the nail that sealed the coffin for me.

As others have stated - you are adding additional costs and headaches buy going this route...too many for sale here in the US to even bother with this...just my .02 cents.

65fastback

I was reading google reviews of this place and i found a review that was NOT GOOD. This was the inspiration for my original post.

This is the review ( i copy pasted it )


UPDATE: Turns out the leaks we had in the vehicle were actually due to the fact that the vehicle had been in - not ONE, not TWO but THREE car accidents totaling over $17k in damage. Dealership knew about the damage when they bought the vehicle at auction in Canada but did not disclose to us. (Even offered us a “clean” Carfax.” Tried to lie and say they didn’t know, but I was able to obtain the Canadian Carfax information and have proof they DID know. BUYER BEWARE: this dealership gets cars out of Canada. Canadaian Carfax information DOES NOT transfer to America. Transfers of titles will show but accidents will not. Ask for Canadian Carfax if you buy a vehicle from them that originates from Canada. They took the vehicle back and paid us the value of our trade in which was a given after the stunt they pulled. Money aside, my children were riding in a vehicle that had a destroyed back end. Had we been rear ended I hate to think about what could have happened. Purely shameful business practice.

Vegas1500

Sconn

Sounds like a place to steer clear of to me...

Thunder22

Ping theMonk he buys/sells in/out of US/canada for living.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...3-themonk.html

Skid Row Joe

Sounds like a place to steer clear of to me....

​​​​​​​..That sums it up nicely.

..

Maxpowers

When the guys says he would switch from KM/H to MPH at no cost I doubt he means he'll change out the entire cluster. He'll probably just change the settings, which means you'll have a 330 MPH speedo.

CE_Vetteboy

There's always a rash of high end cars imported here to Canada after a hurricane or other natural disaster down south. It's a major problem as most are not disclosed as damaged and the Carfax/Carproof reports are not reliable. I've imported a few classic cars and one previous Corvette without issue, but I did my own research instead of relying on Carfax.

Corvette ED

I can tell you here in the US most of the auctions in the east are flooded with cars & trucks from Canada. Most are GM or Ford products because the factory warranty is good. Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, & Jeep have no warranty if imported from Canada to the US.

CE_Vetteboy

Yeah,probably a good idea. We've got nothing better to do up hear than sit around in our igloos, drinking beer and maple syrup, waiting for our dogsled to warm up, all while thinking of different ways to mess with our southern neighbors. Have a good day EH!

eseibel67

I have imported a few cars from the US to Canada and the procedure is a piece of cake. I must assume its the same the other way around. A few notes:

1) Canadian cars do not have a Title, they have an Ownership, proof of which is declared on a $20 document that is iron clad.
2) The reason I buy cars in the US is not because they are cheaper, but because the selection is increased by more then tenfold.
3) American buyers can increase their search by 10% by including Canada in the search if you are looking for something specific.
4) Especially with late model cars, Canadian and American are pretty close to identical and require no intervention to comply with each countries safety/emissions laws. There is a setting in the menus of most cars that can change your measurements to US (or Imperial or English as its sometimes referred to!).

FLEXjs

I don't know about doctoring the history but it's clearly possible to bring a wrecked car from Canada to the US. I know because my 2015 SRT was wrecked here in Canada when a dude turned left in front of me and it was a total loss but some dude in NC bought it to rebuild it. He posted on another forum about it. Weird he tracked me down. But he never came back to post pics of the repaired car or what he ever did with it.

C5MSG2004Vert

I've bought 2 "flood" cars. Both of them were cars that had been driven into fresh water and they sucked water into the engines. One got water in it when the person got out of the car, the other had no water inside. I put 130k miles on the one with water inside it and never had a problem related to the flood. I would be very leery of a car that had substantial water in the passenger compartment. Since most of these cars are salvage you can look them up by their VIN and find out the auction details which may include pictures of the damage before repairs. Otherwise ask the seller for the insurance report which will detail the damages. I would not buy a salvage car unless I had this information.

rfh928

Well I did the opposite 15 years ago...bought a 6-year old C5 that a Canadian used dealer here in Ontario had imported from Florida. I just sold the Vette a couple of months ago when I ordered my new C7. The C5 was a great car all those years, and for me it was a daily driver for the 8 months of the year there's no snow on the roads here. The only thing I had to do every time I started the car was to press the 'E/M' switch that took the dash readouts from the US imperial default to the metric that we use up here.