Canadian wanting to buy US C4S...need advice

Hello all, First time posting to this forum. I will be (hopefully) acquiring a C4S in the next 6-8 months. I'm interested in either an '02 or '03 Porsche certified, but I've found that the selection and prices in Toronto and other parts of the country are not stellar. Those of you south of the border seem to have a much better selection and the prices seem to be in line with what I've read in this forum and in other sites and magazines. I've never looked into importing a vehicle into the country so any info and advice from those who have done it would be greatly appreciated. Where should I be looking to buy? Any states or areas to focus on or avoid? What are the costs, duties, fees, etc...? I currently own a 2003 MB CLK 500...nice but, now that the kids are getting older and the practicality of a (somewhat) comfortable backseat is no longer a priority, I can get the kind of car I always wanted. Owning a Porsche has always been a dream of mine so I want to take all the right steps to make sure it doesn't turn into a nightmare at the start. Looking forward to the great Porsche adventure! Phil

Phil, The consensus from previous threads on similar topics to me sounded like it's more trouble and may even cost more at the end. You want to do two things, there is a seperate Canadian "regional" forum where you may post the same question. But, before that do a search on some keywords and read the older threads. You can do a search by clicking on the "search" at the top of the page. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info. There is a lot of info on the regional section. Phil

Hey Phil Welcome to the board. Now to your question , It is pretty strait forward to import a car however there are some things you must do. Ok lets say you find the car you want in lets say.... Cali, great now what do you do. I am going to try and show you its not always the cheapest or trouble free thing to do. I will try and break down the cost for you.Lets say the 03 C4S is selling for $ 65,000 USD...converted to Canadian is $80,000. ok not bad right..wrong when the car is brought here, there is a 6.1% duty fee, plus PST AND GST so that come a total of...$ 97,000.00 right, wrong again the car need to be inspected, DRL and cluster needs to be converted to Metric. There are other fees involved as well as Transportation or if your going to pick the car up, you need a flight out to where ever. Now lets say after everything the car costs you $105,000 , That is not a good deal for a car you could have bought here for around the same or even cheaper. Ask me how i know, I tried to do this for 6 months before I ended up ordering a new 04. Only advantage is the selection... not the price.

Hi kilrgt, Thanks for the advice. I started putting together a spreadsheet to figure out the real costs of importing to Canada and you're right, it's almost a wash unless the CAD$ goes up to .90 USD. Not likely in the next 6 months. But the sheer amount of selection available is quite tempting. Maybe now that the new 997 C4s' are coming, a few more 996 will turn up in the Canadian market. I've stopped by Downtown Fine Cars and I have someone looking out for the right car when it comes in. I should probably stop by Pfaff as well. Being a fellow Torontonian, can you recomend anyone else I should go to? If you don't mind my asking, who did you deal with for your new '04 and were you happy with them? My timeline is pretty long since I'd be happy to take until next spring to find the car I want.

DRL can be done via the fuse box, and cluster does not need to be converted. Just the electronic portion which is I think is just via a few buttons. Plus a 02 C4S is selling in Canada for $90-95K CDN, so you are saving around $10-15K before taxes, and have a big selection to choose from (look at Pfaff's 2 C4S's, one in Blue, the other in Seal Grey, but both in TIP). At the end, the selection is worth it even if the price somehow ends up the same. Transportation isn't bad if you choose a location close to where you live. Just need to spend money on a PPI, and hope the car is Porsche Certified for extra warranty. It is very hard to buy a Porsche for cheaper in Canada, and even harder to find one that has the options/colours that you are looking for. As for Pfaff, great dealership, if you find a car with your options and in your price range, I wouldn't hesitate getting it from that dealership.

Pongobaz Go see John at Pfaff, Let him know Paul with o4 c2, Gemballa stuff car sent you, He is very ,very good at finding you something. I hope you find what you want this side of the border.

I'll stop by Pfaff in the next week or so to talk to John; get him to look for something close to home too. Looked at the 2 C4s' but I don't want a Tip. I'll still keep looking stateside as well...my brother lives in a part of Michigan where Porsches are as common as Chevys, so the selection might make it easier to find one there as well.

I bought my car at Pfaff as well and am very pleased with the experience.

the CDN dealers sometimes rumble that they don't want to do warranty of US cars. Don't rule out Quebec - i found the dealers far more willing to deal! The Toronto prices were very difficult to budge. i ended up buying in Quebec. Also - wait if you can - you are going into buying season of October to February - you will find the near perfect deal imo if you keep looking on the internet, wait, don't budge and than no pussyfooting when that deal shows up.