US car dealers turn away Canadian new-car buyers - is that legal?

Wow! A government entity misssing an opportunity to collect some kind
of processing fee. Woof! How could that happen!

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Where have I been? Right here in the US, where I don't see these big price
differences - that's why I asked. Did not really have any idea what
vehicles sell for in Canada and certainly did not realize that sort of
difference existed.

 

I apologize sincerely for that . My 1994 Grand Caravan LE was
originally sold in Southern California. It was imported into Canada
about a year ago by the second owner (a Canadian who wintered in CA).
Someone had to add a DRL module.

 

Okay, fair enough.

Ken

 

Then Canadian dealers were selling to Americans, but they were under
pressure from Canadian HQ not to sell to Americans. Same situation on
the other foot.

The vehicles which are made in low cost Mexico, such as the Neon, could
easily be priced to the market.
When the exchange rate was 1.5
Neons were about US$3000 less in Canada.

 

Lest any Canadian feels discriminated against, please let me add my 2
cents. I am a U.S. citizen living in Canada on a 3-year work permit;
need to replace my old Buick Rendezvous, and I, also, like any person
of any nationality who has a (legal) address in Canada, cannot buy a
new car in the U.S. It's not just Canadians who are being
discriminated against--it's anybody with a Canadian address.

 

oh well that changes it... its obviously not discrimination then

 

1. an act or instance of discriminating.
2. treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or
against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to
which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit:
racial and religious intolerance and discrimination.
3. the power of making fine distinctions; discriminating judgment: She
chose the colors with great discrimination.
4. Archaic. something that serves to differentiate.

 

What's your point?

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

How do you reach that conclusion?

Obviously anyone with a CDN address is discriminated against.
The car companies are really showing their greed on this issue.

 

There was a couple on the news who went to maine from canada to visit
family or whatnot ... tried to buy a new car and the dealer prohibited
them from doing so. they are taking the dealer to court (Hope they have
deep pockets).

I wish more people would do this.

 

OK - since he's not going to answer the question, does anyone know what
his point was?

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Finding someone with a US address to buy the car could be an upcoming
business opportunity. Some people have friends/family that can buy and
then sell as a used car to their Canadian relatives. I don't know why
the salesmen wouldn't offer this service to anyone who wants to buy a
car in the US.

How do those companies that buy cars for people work? Do they buy the
car and then turn it over to you, or do they just get your name on the
original purchase?

 

I sent my message directly to
by fault. If you have recieved my message please post it on this
newsgroup so people can view my points ,
thx

my points in brief, is that the population of Canada is just about the
population of California. Dealership won't dare ruin their
relationship with Manufacturer by selling cars to Canadian just for a
period of cross border shopping frenzy. Dealership cherish their good
relationship with the manufacturer, cuz they can make really better
profit by buying cars at bigger reduction on their whole sale value,
if they get a better rating from Manufacturer.

My suggestion to canadian is to keep their money in their pocket until
the Canadian retail market get starve, so the retails would lower they
already high profit margins. On the other hand, wait til the US
economy to crash, so the snobs would eventually fight for our loonies
in the pockets.

 

You are likely referring to this:

You can join them and help out their pockets.
Actually the USA Gov. should back the suit.

 

Very good suggestion, that's what I'm going to do.
Thank goodness Chrysler made my Concorde (CDN assembled car) very well
and parts are readily available. My dealer doesn't like it though, they
reminded me how old it is the other day when I bought a small part they
don't have in local stock.
Considering the very significant design changes now being made to cars
because of high and increasing fuel prices, it isn't a good time to buy
a vehicle for a long term keep anyway.

I can see the reluctance of manufacturers to reduce Canadian prices
until this currency situation levels out, however they could use rebates
quite effectively in this situation.
The more expensive vehicles have the biggest price difference and some
expensive car dealers, such as Porsche and BMW, have already announced
rebates.

Unfortunately that is happening and the USA $ is dropping to levels even
the currency experts weren't expecting. (C$1 = US$1.048 now)
The USA is dropping interest rates and CDA needs to keep interest rates
where they are or even higher to avoid excessive inflation; this will
drop the USA $ even more.
As the USA economy and $ drop the Canadian economy is negatively
affected. The Canadian forestry industry has already been affected by
both the USA housing recession plus the falling USA $; many Canadian
lumber mills are shutting down. So many CDNs may soon not have jobs to
pay for the cars at any price.

 

It's a class action suit. They won't see diddly-squat for money.

 

Finding someone with a US address to buy the car could be an upcoming

Dealership, if they are smart enough to squeeze the juice out of the
fruit, they can always open a seperate entity just to buy cars and do
resale buiness with canadians. However, becuz canadian cross border
buyers are still not common, and used car really depreciate alot,
there is big risk for them to take.