STIG wants a R - importing from Canada to the US?

Based on the points made here, I would suggest the easiest way to get the car in the states would be to source one in the states (any colour) for the best price, then have it professionally resprayed, or even wrapped if you didn’t want the headache for resale. Would probably work out a cheaper than importing, and you wouldn’t have any other caveats to deal with. Good luck!


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myles said:

Based on the points made here, I would suggest the easiest way to get the car in the states would be to source one in the states (any colour) for the best price, then have it professionally resprayed, or even wrapped if you didn’t want the headache for resale. Would probably work out a cheaper than importing, and you wouldn’t have any other caveats to deal with. Good luck!


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FWIW, it isn't much easier importing a US car to Canada.

There's absolutely no way I would do this on a new car personally, particularly this one. Aside from the very important issues already covered here (warranty, metric/english units, cost, hassle, etc.), there's two others I'd point out.

First, you might have a hard time selling or trading the car when and if you go to do it. Even if you do everything legal and honest, many buyers will likely be concerned that you didn't. There are "grey market" cars (real or imagined) where loopholes or bad paperwork have been used to do things like roll back odometers. Not sure where you are in NY, but living near-ish to the border I've had to sign things on trade-in stating that my trade-in is not a CDM car; dealers have also offered and/or given me paperwork stating that a used car is not imported. Not because there's anything wrong or substantially different with CDM cars, but rather because in the process the car might have been title-washed somehow.

Second--why are the '18 R's being held at port? It might be because of some i-dotting or t-crossing with emissions. If that's the case, I suspect it wouldn't matter if it's coming from Germany or Canada, either way the car would be held at the border until it's certifiable. So you might go through all that hassle and cost and still have to wait.

If you really can't wait, I'd just find the most-lightly used '17 you can, they're out there.

I do not understand why VW would be so much more complex over other cars?

I know lots of US residents were buying Subaru's from Canada since your $ is so much stronger than ours, so you save a lot of money... and the warranty transferring down wasn't an issue. I had a US STi back in the day and had no problems making warranty claims at dealers here in Canada.

I have a friend that works at a Dodge dealership and they are selling new and used vehicles to US residents every week because of the exchange rate (well it has been a few months since I spoke to him so not sure if that changed recently).

I would think because of our crap dollar here it would be worth the headache to get one from Canada as long as something with the warranty can be figured out (unless the buyer happens to live close enough to the border). With the full digital cockpit on the new R changing gauges isn't an issue now either!