Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Buying a Subaru in Seattle

Here is some info about importing a Subaru from a guy that used Carte Subaru.
note: He mentions that only two models are made in Japan and the rest, Outback included, are made in the US

Price of vehicle plus a 3 day test-drive permit for about $23 provided by dealership all converted from US to Cdn at the going rate.

Cost of wiring the money from my account to Carter Subaru was about $20 but this depends on your bank.

Duty of 6.1% on the total price (including cost of permit) in Cdn dollars. With Subaru this is on the Impreza and Forester as they are manufactured in Japan. Other Subarus are built in NA and are not subject to this duty.

$100 Cdn for air-conditioner excise tax GST of 6% calculated on the final number *after* the duty and the A/C excise tax.

PST of 7% (in British Columbia) when you insure the car. This is on the import amount only (the amount you paid duty on above, but not including duty like with GST).

Registrar fee of $206.70 to RIV at Cdn border for the paperwork and forms and such.

In addition to the driving permit you also need an "insurance binder" which is expensive ($77 for 10 days even though you only probably need 1 day) because you are insuring a vehicle not registered in BC. This gets you home from the dealership and that's it. You need separate insurance to get to the inspection centre (I used Canadian Tire). If you buy a day permit before your insurance binder runs out you can save some money as it will only cost you $12 for the basic coverage.

Inspection centre takes a cool $120 for doing who-knows-what on your brand new vehicle and giving you the stamp of approval.

And, yes, after all of that I still ended up saving 25% over the best price I could find in Canada (even having talked to an auto-broker who did a search for me).

No comments: