In a certain number of cases importing a car from the United States to Canada is one of the eaiset things can can do and may only take you 10 minutes to do. But not all cars: read on:

1. The car must be 15 years old or older. If it's newer than that then it has to have all sorts of goofy stuff like spedomoeters in kilometers and French; avoid. That's a hassle and not covered here, we're assuming you have a car 15 yeard old or older.

2. The car has to have been sold in Canada. This is critical. If you have a $1,000,000.00 Ferarri you got for $500 from someody's barn and it was sold in Canada once then you pay your 8% GST and you're done, you've now imported it. But, if this is, say, a model of Volkswagon not sold in Canada it could cost you thousands to bring it up to Canadian specs and in some cases (although it's not clear to me what those cases are) you simply cannot import the car ever, period full stop. So stick with older cars that were sold in Canada and the rest of this pertains to just those cases. Beyond this it's a nightmare. Turns out this is for newer cars. If it's 15 years old or older you can bring ANYTHING in.

3. Whether the car comes across the US border into Canada or you trailer it YOU have to be there to import it into Canada. You can pay a broker to do this for you, but you CAN do it yourself, and should.

4. You now have to clear a car for export from the United States. I don't think you had to in 1996 when I did this, or else I didn't know about it but I believe as part of the 911 craziness that it's now required. What you need to do is fax the title of the car to the border on the US side and give them 72 hours of BUSINESS DAYS to determine that the car is not stolen. Note that you can find lots of refercnes to the 72 hour notice but nowhere does it say 72 hours of BUSINESS DAYS and if you're doing this on a weekend this can really screw you up. Of course this happened to me and the border guy just would not let up. No I can't bring it in Saturday, I'd have to wait till Monday. "May I speak to the supervisor please" got me a more reasonable person that said if I faxed it right now I could export it Saturday. Phew. I found a pamphlet at the local MOT office "importing a car" and it gives all sorts of phone numbers. At this writing the # for Canada Cusotms is 1-800-461-9999 from inside Canada or (613) 993-0534 from outside Canada. They can give you the phone number of the US border checkpoint you'll be crossing at. In my case it was Bluewater Bridge in Port Huron, US, and their number is (810) 985-7125 and you'll get a recording that tells you for importing cars call (810) 985-9541. You'll explain you want to export a car from the US and they'll tell you to fax the title to (810) 985-6070. NOTE: this is the PORT HURON, US border checkpoint. If you're not corssing at Port Huron for God's sake don't fax them your title. I can just see cops showing up at my door in 5 years becuase hundreds of people are faxing some poor government office because of some web page on the Internet they've traced back to me. These phone numbers were valid as of July 2003. WHen you've faxed the title to the border, give them 15 minutes then call them to see if they got it ok, and take the persons first and last names just in case.

5. For paperwork at the Canadian border you'll need the title and a receipt for the car and obviously the VIN number much be on the car and title; yeah they check stuff like that. You're gonna have to pay tax (GST) on it at the Canadian border. You'll also pay $100 per car excise tax if it has A/C - working or not. Even if it's disconnected you'll still pay. You'll pay PST when you register the car.

6. Congratulations, you've now imported a car! Oh, you did declare the booze, right? Not like this guy.

When you're back from the border you have 10 days or so to register the car in Canada, although there have been reports of people not bothering to do this for as long as 18 months. You just go to your local MoT office with your paperwork from customs and they have no problem at all titling, say, a 5 cylinder car from a Georgia title as long as you have the receipt, title and those documents they gace you at customs saying you've imported it legally and paid taxes on it. You'll pay PST now and a registration/plating fee.

Richard Sexton