Car bargains in U.S. thanks to shift in exchange rate

Thanks to therecent recovery of the Canadian dollar against the greenback, luxury cars fromthe U.S.have suddenly become a bargain for consumers north of the border, sometimeseven significant ones, saving buyers thousands and thousands of dollars.


Indeed, manyupscale vehicles have reached a point in U.S. dollars where it's more thanworth the amount of hassle involved in bringing a vehicle across the border,and the amount of that agro has many mitigating factors.

It's importantto bear in mind that these vehicles have to have been owned before (this canmake them different from ''used'' vehicles) and that there are some models thatsimply can't be imported, no matter what. The rules determining these thingsare so detailed that sometimes import eligibility depends upon the last sixdigits of the VIN number.

To find out preciselywhat is and isn't acceptable under the law, consult the Registrar of ImportedVehicles at www.riv.ca, which also has atremendous amount of information on what's required in an importation.

You can alsocheck out e-Bay, which has a fairly detailed list of instructions for peoplelooking to move vehicles across the border either way. In most cases, it's notactually that bad a process.

To save the mostmoney, you need to get a car from a U.S. source yourself, either adealer or a private citizen. Or, you can take advantage of one of the servicesavailable to do it for you, who will raise the price to make money themselves.

These placeswill actually find a new vehicle for you and have someone buy it so that itbecomes used and therefore eligible for importation, but this of course willreduce the amount that you can save.

If it stillsounds like too much trouble, consider the following comparisons of some newcar MSRPs in the U.S. and Canada and theamount you can save by shopping south of the border, using an exchange rate of 1.19.

At that rate, thenew Porsche 911 Cabriolet and Cabriolet S will retail for (all prices in Canadiancurrency) $94,129 and $105,791 in the U.S., respectively, and $115,650 and$129,900, a difference of $21,521 and $24,109.

A new 2005 AcuraRL retails for $58,869 in the U.S.and $69,500 in Canada,a difference of $10,631.

A 2005 BMW 330iretails for $43,310 in the U.S.and $47,400 in Canada,a difference of $4,090.

A 2005 LincolnNavigator Ultimate retails for $63,885 in the U.S.and $73,695 in Canada,a difference of $9,810.

A 2005 ChevroletCorvette convertible retails for $62,171 in the U.S.and $79,495 in Canada,a difference of $17,324.

If you start to look at vehiclesthat are used in the real sense of the word and available for sale in the U.S. and Canada at the Autotrader websites,similar savings can be found. It's harder to compare exact prices because noofficial MSRP exists and each car will be different, but the theme holds.

Comparable models of the 2004 HondaAccord LX, for example, list for about $1,200 to $2,500 less in the U.S. than in Canada.

Cadillac CTS models from 2004 modelyear carry used prices that are as much as $8,000 less in the U.S.,

A 2002 BMW 540 can cost $5,000 lessin the U.S.,

The prices for used 2004 LincolnTown Cars from the U.S.are even lower than that, usually hitting $12,000 to $15,000.