Moving...Should I sell it or keep it?

I plan to move back to Toronto (Canada) in the coming months; maybe even as soon as 6 weeks. My 2000 996 has almost 68,000 miles on it. Should I sell it here, or take it with me? Keep in mind, that I'll need to pay taxes (8%)and duty (6%) on the car's current value as soon as I register it in Canada. Plus, to get it up to spec I would also need to switch the speedometer gauge face to metric and switch the headlights so that they're 'daytime running' lights. What would you do? I love this car, but if Porsche ends up making that Boxster Coup� anything like the drawings I've seen floating around, that could well be the Porsche for me. If I sell the car here, I don't think I could get much more than $40,000, which really sucks. Currently I'm leaning towards keeping it.

keep in mind the market is very soft...im' in so. cal as you are with an '00 c2 coupe w/ similar miles and i've been marketing it for under $40k. you're looking at low 30s for a quick sale...could you buy the same car in canada for that much?

Wow! Low 30s? I wouldn't do it. But I will do some research and see what's available in Canada. There are nowhere near as many Porsches up there as here in California though.

from california to canada. i'm sure you'll miss the weather! i did the reverse - from toronto to dallas. not sure i could ever face a whole winter again. good luck with the move. i'd keep the car. low 30's is highway robbery. 03 c4s

Yeah, that's what I think too. I plan to move back here in a year anyway.

Don't do it. Come back here and take me for a spin or if I finally get one I can have another Porsche owner friend

Where is 'back here'?

My bad I forgot to state my location. I live in Mississauga and work in Markham

Keep the car. Having grown up in Canada I am quite familliar with the daytime running lights.... I can't imagine the mod would be that hard (I know on many vehicles it was as simple as the addition of a relay or a different relay in a different spot in the fuse box). I can remember when we switched road speeds over to metric everyone got stickers to stick on the faces of their mph only speedos. It would surprise me if they made you switch the speedo face - particularly when you can switch the digi speedo over to kph .... If you were to buy a car up there keep in mind that in addition to paying the Canadian price you will also pay sales (PST/GST) at, 15% (I think - been living in wisconsin a while now!!!). Toronto's a fine city... if given the opportunity I'd probably move back - cost of living is quite steep though (even compared to Lala land.....). Canadians are true auto entusiasts - every time I drive back to visit the parental units (in London, Ontario) I always get lots of comments on the ride, as opposed to here in Milwaukee (or even more car-jaded Chicago) where no-one seems to care.... best, trev

Keep it. I believe both the daytime running lights and the digital speedo are a relatively easy change at the dealer. My car came from Canada. The speedo was switched over, and the dealer said they could turn off the daytime running lights for me. I'll probably do that at next service. That just leaves the analog speedo, which I never look at anyway.

In my '99 you don't need the stealer to switch units of measure... just twist the clock adjuster to the left (or right?? - can't remember, haven't seen my car in over a month!!!).... I do it every time I cross the Ambassador bridge..... trev

I think they will still require me to switch the face plate of the speedo, even though no one ever looks at that thing

I say keep it and do the conversion for Canada. You probably have some great memories with the car so unless your planning to get another P-car soon-the one you have fits like a glove : ). Regards. Mike

I'm not sure if the taxes you'll pay will compensate... but the value of 996s here definitely seems to be a fair bit higher than in the U.S. Someone mentioned mid 30s for a quick sale. Even when you convert that to CAN$, I'm not sure if you could pick up a high milage 99 for that. However, if you were to plan on selling the car here to "make a profit", I'm not sure if that is advisable either. You would likely have to discount the car farily steeply due to its U.S. origins when a relatively healthy supply of native cars are available without any sort of "stories".

Keep it! Absolute worst case, if you're only going to be in Canada for a year, store the car and buy a beater SUV to tide you over...

Thanks for all the opinions! I'll keep it for now.

Guess I don't understand the logic of either selling or converting your car. What is the legal "tourist" or "guest worker" period in Canada prior to residency or vehicle registration? Since you indicate you'll be moving back in a year, can't you enter the car with US registration, drive it thru the "tourist" maxium period, and drive it back across the border at Buffalo to reinitiate your tourist status (if less than 1 year)? It's only about a 2 hour drive... Perry

Good choice!

Sort of.... My insurance in California says they'll only cover me for another 6 months while I'm out of the country. I won't register my car in Canada until I absolutely have to. I can't insure it with a carrier up there unless it's registered there.

Yeah, I agree with NYC. Put it in storage for the year, and drive a beater. It will give you more incentive to come back, and if you decide to stay, you can come pick it up later.

When you have a car in good shape with 68K miles, you must either hold it or sell it at a significasntg loss. '99 C2s with 30K miles are selling in the mid-forties in my area. So you would be lucky to get mid-thirties for your car, and that's assuming it's in great shape. You made the right choice.