A copy of the title must be faxed to the specific border crossing that the vehicle will be accessing. It must be faxed at least 72 hours prior to the crossing, (business days). The original is to be presented when the vehicle is at the border. If it is being transported, the original title must be located in the glove compartment of the car, along with the original bill of sale.

 

Good to know. Next time I need a car I will be forced to import it from Canada given its 'higher standards'. I certainly need my car's design strongly influenced by government bureaucrats, who, as we know, always know better than we do.

 

I just imported my 2006 C2S cab this past October. Didn't need any child tether anchor. Canadian Tire (North Van) did the inspection. Everything went smoooooooooooooooooooooth......

 

You probably don't want a canadian car. None of them have a rack to hold your shot gun and because of the larger cup holder for our double doubles there isn't enough room in the glove box in a canadian car for your smith & wesson.

 

I have imported 4 vehicles now, and only on one of them did I fax the title to the U.S Border 72 hours prior to arrival...big waste of time. If your importing it yourself, don't bother...it's not a requirement from Canada Customs!

 

It is a requirement of US Customs to export it!

 

I am under the impression that it is mandatory to fax a copy of the title 72 hours prior to the car's arrival at that border crossing. The US Border Office has to put their official stamp on the original title and if you haven't provided them with advance notice, I'm pretty sure you are going to be SOL if you just arrive with the vehicle, walk in and ask them to stamp the title and release it out of the US.
Once you have the stamp and the ok from the US side, this would then allow you to go deal with the Canadian Border People, and then be on your way.

 

You are correct, I do not want to buy a Canadian car, but not for the reasons you mentioned. I was just joking and you know it... Be happy buying 'lower standard' US cars and other services (when you need them)...

 

+1

I was told by Canada custom. That if you don't get it stamped "OK for export" by the US customs then the US customs will impound the vehicle.

 

Every step of this process is examined closely and one misstep has far reaching consequences come time to register and insure it here.

 

As mentioned above, I brought in 4 vehicles with my 997S being the most recent imported in Aug. 2009 and had absolutely NO PROBLEM with not faxing a copy of the title to U.S Customs. Canada border does not require it to be stamped by the U.S to bring it into Canada!!

The one vehicle that I did fax the title to the U.S, I wasted almost 2 hours doing so, most of the time being at the gate waiting for a customs officer to open and let me back over to the Canada side!!

 

It would be useful for you to provide a description of your method for importing the 3 cars that you mentioned did not require the title to be faxed ahead of time to the US Customs at the border.
For example; Did you have the vehicle title stamped by US customs, or did you bypass US customs completely and the title remained intact without a stamp?

 

I did not go to U.S customs, I went directly to the Canadian border and told the customs officer I purchased the vehicle and will be importing it. Then went into the building, showed a copy of the sales contract, paid all duties and taxes (6.1% duty, 5% GST) and an additional $100 tax for air conditioning. Then got the paperwork required for RIV and I was on my way home!!

Exact same procedure for all vehicles, all vehicles are registered, plated and insured. 2 Porsches, 1 motorhome and 1 Jeep

 

That is very interesting,
In your description you didn't mention having to show the title to the people in the Canada Border building, is this correct?
When i was at the Autoplan agency here in BC,(that is where I had to go to get the car registered and insured), they went through a checklist of requirements and one of them was to surrender the original title to them, and it had to have the US customs stamp on it. I kid you not, I guarantee I would've been SOL if I didn't have the Original title w/stamp.
On a side note, I thought one of the reasons why a faxed title has to go to US customs and they need the 72 hour advance notice is to make sure that the car has no outstanding liens on it, such as from finance companies, banks, etc. If it does, then of course they will not allow it out of the country.
Canada Customs doesn't do that Lien investigation on their end, so from your description it would seem like with your method, any car can be brought into Canada from the US no matter if it has liens on it.