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331 Posts
Hello fellow MS3 fanatics,
First, let me thank all of you for your contributions to this forum. Although I don't post a lot, I have taken a tremendous amount of information from the site by closely following the Speed3 threads. I am the proud owner of a Sunlight Silver MS3, which I picked up from the dealer on Tuesday. The reason I thought others might want to hear my experience is because I bought the car in the U.S.A. and have imported it into Canada. I know a number of people on the Mazda Canada forum are wanting to do this same thing, but are unsure on what to do.
The reason I imported was mainly for color. When I ordered my MS3 in August, the only color available to Canada was True Red which was not my favorite color. I would have loved a yellow or orange choice but favored silver of all the available choices. I ordered the Grand Touring model w/o navigation or sattelite radio. I was also impressed with the leather upgrade to the interior, which is not available to Canadians.
The first place I learned about importation to Canada was on a local car forum, www.beyond.ca, particularly this thread, http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread.php?s=dacbce08319708727ca9de8ea9319444&threadid=107279 and http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread.php?s=&threadid=135570. The other important site is the Registry of Imported Vehicles site, www.riv.ca.
Essentially I found a dealership that was willing to sell to me for MSRP and wasn't too far of a drive from Alberta. I then ordered the car and simply wired the money to the dealership when it arrived. I booked flights to the dealer's city and faxed the required information to the U.S. border 5 business days prior to my crossing. (72 hours is req'd, but I wanted to play it safe). After picking up the car, I drove to the border and crossed with no difficulties. The U.S. Customs verified my Bill of Sale, Certificate of Origin and VIN and stamped my papers. I then went to the Canadian border office and payed the GST, duty, RIV fee and excise tax. I found the experience to be very pleasant and wouldn't hesitate to bring back another vehicle from the U.S. I will have Daytime Running Lights installed on Wednesday followed by a Federal Inspection. When I receive my paperwork from RIV, the car will be deemed Canadian.
I did end up saving some money in the deal as well, but as I stated earlier that was not my ultimate goal. After accounting for dollar exchange, GST, duty, RIV fee, excise tax, flights and hotels, I saved approximately $2000 CDN.
If other Canadians are interested in importing a Mazda, let me know and I will put you in contact with the Sales Manager. The dealership I used was excellent in all regards.
Hopefully now that I have the vehicle I can contribute to the forum even more. If you haven't seen how the MS3 looks with 17" Mazda6 wheels, check out my winter setup.
Dwayne
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/
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First, let me thank all of you for your contributions to this forum. Although I don't post a lot, I have taken a tremendous amount of information from the site by closely following the Speed3 threads. I am the proud owner of a Sunlight Silver MS3, which I picked up from the dealer on Tuesday. The reason I thought others might want to hear my experience is because I bought the car in the U.S.A. and have imported it into Canada. I know a number of people on the Mazda Canada forum are wanting to do this same thing, but are unsure on what to do.
The reason I imported was mainly for color. When I ordered my MS3 in August, the only color available to Canada was True Red which was not my favorite color. I would have loved a yellow or orange choice but favored silver of all the available choices. I ordered the Grand Touring model w/o navigation or sattelite radio. I was also impressed with the leather upgrade to the interior, which is not available to Canadians.
The first place I learned about importation to Canada was on a local car forum, www.beyond.ca, particularly this thread, http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread.php?s=dacbce08319708727ca9de8ea9319444&threadid=107279 and http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread.php?s=&threadid=135570. The other important site is the Registry of Imported Vehicles site, www.riv.ca.
Essentially I found a dealership that was willing to sell to me for MSRP and wasn't too far of a drive from Alberta. I then ordered the car and simply wired the money to the dealership when it arrived. I booked flights to the dealer's city and faxed the required information to the U.S. border 5 business days prior to my crossing. (72 hours is req'd, but I wanted to play it safe). After picking up the car, I drove to the border and crossed with no difficulties. The U.S. Customs verified my Bill of Sale, Certificate of Origin and VIN and stamped my papers. I then went to the Canadian border office and payed the GST, duty, RIV fee and excise tax. I found the experience to be very pleasant and wouldn't hesitate to bring back another vehicle from the U.S. I will have Daytime Running Lights installed on Wednesday followed by a Federal Inspection. When I receive my paperwork from RIV, the car will be deemed Canadian.
I did end up saving some money in the deal as well, but as I stated earlier that was not my ultimate goal. After accounting for dollar exchange, GST, duty, RIV fee, excise tax, flights and hotels, I saved approximately $2000 CDN.
If other Canadians are interested in importing a Mazda, let me know and I will put you in contact with the Sales Manager. The dealership I used was excellent in all regards.
Hopefully now that I have the vehicle I can contribute to the forum even more. If you haven't seen how the MS3 looks with 17" Mazda6 wheels, check out my winter setup.
Dwayne
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/
