| Imported 2008 Toyota Sienna by Gravem, redflagdeals forum, posted on Apr 19th, 2008, 05:13 PM |
After months of research and looking, we finally got our 2008 Toyota Sienna imported from the USA (just got the plates today). In the end we decided not to go down there ourselves, but instead got a place in Scarborough called "USA Cars 2 Canada" (www.usacars2canada.com/index.html) to do all the work for us...
We were emailed many different Toyota dealerships, from people on various forums, that would deal with Canadians... but, by the time we called them (mid-March)... they had stopped. I was still able to find one place in North Carolina (thanks to vim back in February), but unfortunately, the price after a ride to the airport, flight down there, fuel, time off work, and the $1500 cash back promotion I wasn't able to make use of, it would have been almost the same price as using this place to do all the work for me (they were able to use the $1000 cash back available in the NE states).
We saved roughly $7500 by not buying the vehicle in Canada. (Upgrades we got were 16" Alloy Wheels, LE EVP#2, Daytime Running Lights & Deicer Grid, Towing Prep Package, Carpet Floor Mats/Door Sill Protector).
If we could have found a dealer in NY (or even PA)... we definitely would have gone down there and done this ourselves... as we could have saved at least $1500 more.
In the end, we were really happy choosing to import the car in the manner we did.
Thanks |
| My Sienna Buying Experience by oldbear, redflagdeals forum, Aug 5th, 2008, 03:06 PM |
Hi all, I benefited a lot from this thread and would like to share my buying experience for my new 2008 Sienna XLE.
The cheapest way is to go directly with dealer that is willing to sell to Canadian. I started by sending email to *ALL* Toyota dealers in NY, MI, OH, Penn States. Only a few of them responded; however, after knowing I won't register the car in the states they all refused to sell. I also got two willing dealers to sell me the car (one in Detroit and one dealer referred by carswithoutborders.com), but they wanted full MSRP and i said no thanks. Then i gave up dealing directly with US dealership.
Then I worked with fleetrates (a US based broker) and they are really nice and helped me located the car I wanted. The downside is, 1) I have to do all Canadian side import work, 2) I have to hire my own trucking company, 3) they want US$2000 for their service, and 4) the worst is that I have to wire them the full payment upfront, and it's a matter of risk that my wife doesn't allow me to take (even after I did couple reference checks!). Along the way I found another US broker who can give me a better deal than fleetrates but I didn't go ahead because of the trust issue.
In parallel working with fleetrates, I started talking to usacars2canada. I almost turned away by their ghetto website (it's improved now). I contact them anyway and I like them for two reasons 1) they do all the work from purchasing to getting Ontario license plate, leaving absolutely no work for their customers, 2) they have office in Scarborough area that I can go and they accept a reasonable deposit; you pay the remaining balance only when you pick up the car.
The guy from usacars2canada is nice and patient enough to locate the car with the exact configuration I want (I flip-flopped between Red/Gold color XLE with EVP1 or EVP2, finally settled with Red XLE EVP1 with factory installed DRL). The price they got is comparable to US brokers (close to invoice price, but not as good as some internet price which is around $1k below invoice from dealerships like DARCARS). I made the purchase on June 30 and in two days I learn Toyota US increase rebate from $1500 to $2000 in July; I call them up and they followed up with their partner dealership and gave me an additional discount. I took delivery of the car in two weeks time and everything went very smoothly. I got copies of all related documents and got RIV sticker in mail and Ontario license plate one week after taking delivery.
To sum up, the cheapest way is travel to southern states and import your own vehicle, and the most convenient way is to buy local. Canadian importer like usacars2canada provides most of the saving with all the convenience of buying local. For me a family guy with two young kids, this is price premium I'm happy to pay to a Canadian importer and I'm glad I made this choice.
Thanks to all who contributed to this thread. Together we put pressure on manufacturers lowering their overly inflated Canadian price by buying internationally. |
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