Topic: Bringing a car into Canada

[jv88]

I am buying a car from my brother in law that lives in the States. The car is a 1995 Toyota Camry 4 cylinder. I was wondering what I would have to do to get the car into Canada. I was also wondering how to install a daytime running light and if it would be easy to install? Thank You.

[tenpenny]

First step, go to www.riv.ca  that is the Registrar of Imported Vehicles.

All of your answers will be there.  And it looks like the 95 Camry is not "inadmissable", so that's the big hurdle avoided.

[articsteve]

I think the speedo is going to be more expensive than the daytime running light issue.  I installed daytime runlights on a 88 jeep for about 100 bucks.

Get your brother in law to declare this as a gift and then pay him.

[100tacos100bucks]

My Girlfriend and I recently imported a '94 Jeep Grand Cherokee from the states.  I'll try my best to recall what had to be done.  

1) DRL Module - as the the states don't require daytime running lights you'll have to install them. It's a simple module that you may be able to install yourself, if you're handy. I'm not, so I didn't.  
2) Go to your nearest toyota dealer and have them print up the list of Service Bulletins for the vehicle.  This document will indicate if they have all been done. And is required for step 4.
3) You have to go to the border to have a form filled out. (i can't recall which form, as it was my girlfriend who did this, but its a good bet that it's related to vehicle importation).  
4) Then you have to go to a shop that will ok the vehicle and allow it to be imported.  There aren't many shops that do it. For instance, i'm in Ottawa and had to drive ~45 min out of town to a shop in the middle of nowhere. Bizarre. Apparently some Canadian Tires will do this.  But do you really want to bring your car to Canadian Tire?  

All of this is above the E-test (if required) and certification.  

We didn't have to make any adjustments to the spedometer as there were km/hr markings as well as mph.

[nissparts]

I do these all the time so it's not too bad just depends on the vehicle.
The Regisiter's office;border guy is going to take around $200.00 out of your pocket and give you form 1.This is a long fulllength form with serveral copies.
You need to wait for form 2 which will come in the mail eta ?? 1-2 weeks.
In the meantime get a letter from your dealer stating there are no outstanding recalls on the vehicle in the US; you may have to contact a US based dealer to do this. Some manf do not share files and are not linked to our US counterparts and cannot do searches for this info.
The Fed inspect will require DRL's only if the same veh in Canada came with them that year.
They will spell that stuff out on form 2 anyway.
The Fed insp should only take 15 mins as it is more of a paper shuffle than anything else.
Keep in mind that they will also be checking SRS airbag operation if equipped so make sure that the little lite goes off after the self chk or you will fail for that one.
They will want you to have a teather anchor in the glovebox; don't ask why just go get the silly thing and be done with it.
Otherwise the only other thing is the provincial insp that will follow so that you can purchase insurance.
You can go to Crappy tire for this;this is not a mech inspection but a compliance inspection.
DO NOT pay anyone for this service!!!!
When you pay money at the border you have already  paid for the inspection;the shop/facility gets re-embursed by RIV.

[tenpenny]

All the details are at www.riv.ca.

And there is the explanation of Canadian Tire; RIV has contracted with Canadian Tire to be an authorized inspection location to inspect vehicles for importation.