OK, we have had an inspection done before buying the vehicle, what next?

Now you have to get the vehicle home. There are basically three ways to have this done - drive it home or ship it home. Here are the pro's and con's of both:

a) Driving home: Firstly you have to get to where the vehicle is, which means that you need a current passport. If you don't have one, or if you have had any type of previous criminal record issue (impaired, dangerous driving, etc.) you may not be able to get into the U.S. In addition, you have to arrange flights, travel medical insurance, hotels, etc. You also have to be able to return home, stopping on average, every 4 - 5 hours for gas, a leg-stretch, etc.

Depending on where you are going and where you are returning to, this portion of the exercise may cost you and additional $500.00 - $3,000.00 depending on who is traveling with you. And of course, you may need repairs along the way, you may have an accident and require hospitalization or medical treatment or worse. Don't forget that you have to make sure that you have arranged insurance with your auto provider before leaving for the U.S., because most people will try to undertake their trip during a week end, etc. Once you are down there and you then try to call your insurance provider for coverage, they may be closed and some insurers may not provide coverage until the vehicle has arrived in Canada and passed all the proper inspections to make sure that it is compliant with the safety regulations in Canada. If you decide to drive the vehicle without proper insurance, you can be fined up to $5,000.00 in some jurisdictions and if you are in an accident, you may be held personally and directly responsible for all damages, injuries, deaths, of both people in and outside of your vehicle. That alone could total millions of dollars and bankrupt you forever and could also result in serious jail time.

As well, unless you are a dealer with a dealer plate, you will need to get a temporary license plate for the vehicle before it can be driven. Many states charge you a registration fee of up to 8% of the value, even for temporary tags. If you were a U.S. resident and returning to another state, you would receive a credit back from the home state on your registration tax there. But as you are from Canada, this does not apply, so you may be hit with a sales tax, just to drive the vehicle home and still have to pay several types of taxes at the border.

Others buyers have decided to just use a plate from one of their existing vehicles. YOU CANNOT DO THIS. A plate is not transferable unless the vehicle that the plate was registered to has been sold and only after that can you use the plate for the new vehicle, but you only have 2 weeks until you have to go to a registries to have this transferred over. So if you take a plate from another vehicle that you own and use it and in turn, you are pulled over by the police for an accident, ticket, check-stop, etc., they will impound your vehicle because it is not properly plated or registered. In addition, you can receive fines of up to $500.00 for improper registration that you will have to pay before the vehicle can be released or you may be required to appear before a magistrate (judge) before the vehicle can be released.

b) Ship the vehicle home: If you want to ship the vehicle home, the first and possibly most apparent problem is that you are now buying the vehicle unseen (unless you fly there first, view and inspect it, then drive home and have it shipped, but that is a very costly option.) If you are buying a vehicle unseen, we only have 2 words for you. “BUYER BEWARE!” (And maybe three more words, “Are You Nuts?”) But if you decide to take this chance, here is what you may be in for when the vehicle arrives here. You find damage to the vehicle. The seller says it was fine when the shipper picked it up. The shipper says it was like that when he picked it up. A classic example of: “He said, He said.” You are stuck with the repairs… Again, this could cost thousands of dollars.

In addition, trying to have someone ship a vehicle across the border is a difficult process. You will have to hire a Custom’s Agent to do all the paperwork for you, which could cost you another $500.00 or more, depending on if there are issues that they have to resolve for you. Meanwhile, the shipper (trucker) is stuck at the border for several hours while all the paperwork is completed, which means that you will possibly receive a “surcharge” from the shipper of about $85.00 per hour for wasted time.

c) Ship the vehicle PART-WAY home: Obviously, you will still have to deal with the buying unseen issue, but by doing this, you will save yourself Custom’s Agent costs. You will lower the shipping costs, depending on where it is going to, but now you have more of your time to account for and if you are like most people, your time is also your money. If you were to charge yourself a basic transaction fee of only $10.00 an hour (people at McDonald’s make more than that) the cost of driving to Great Falls, Montana and back to Calgary would be about $200.00 with average wait times at border crossings.

In addition, you have to be able to either arrange a place to unload and meet the shipper or risk it being left unattended and then vandalized, stolen, etc. If you have it shipped to a holding yard, you may have storage charges which can run up to $30.00 a day and then you have to arrange to pick it up when they are open and after that, you still have to be able to be insured and plated and then drive back home.