I was recently looking to purchase a Honda Element (yes it is goofy, but it does fit what I want) and so went to a local dealer to get prices.
The car I wanted retails in Canada for about $33,000. Insane I thought, but that is the price we have to pay. I looked the car up on Honda's Canadian web site, figured in what I wanted and sure enough it lists out at $33,130.
But then I went to Honda USA and did the same calculations on an identical vehicle, and it came out to $23,879 US or if you do the conversion $22,766 Canadian.
That is about $10,364 less than the same car in Canada. I went back to the Honda dealer and said this is insane since the car is built in the US I cannot accept that difference. Too bad they said, but as a Canadian you can't buy that car in the US. I did not believe them! So I called a US Honda dealer and asked if I could buy a car from them. Well they told me that Honda forbids them from selling to Canadians, part of their franchise agreement and they could lose their franchise if they did sell to a Canadian.
I next went to the Canadian government website to look up rules on importing. Yes you can buy a new car in the US (some restrictions) but the 2008 Element is ok to import as it is built in the US and meets all Canadian requirements. So it's not the government stopping me from doing this, I only have to pay the appropriate GST and about a $200 import fee and of course provincial taxes depending on which province I bring it in to.
To make it a little uglier, Honda Canada says they will not honour the warranty if I buy a US Honda (even though it is the same vehicle made in the same place) and US Honda will not honour the warranty if I bring it to Canada and then take it back to the US for service.
Clearly Honda Canada is screwing Canadian consumers by having these rules in place. They are stopping you from getting the best deal available and they seem to have no intention on reducing the costs to Canadians. (Why would they, they are making it almost impossible to get the better price).
This is by no means a simple Honda deal either. Apparently most of the car companies have some sort of restrictions in place to stop cross border shopping and keep prices in Canada artificially high. GM has similar rules for their dealers. I have not checked with all car makers, but as I looked up info on the internet there are many stories of Canadians being refused at US dealers as part of their "franchise agreements".
The government also seems powerless to do anything about this, since it is a cross border issue and so it is not against Canadian consumer laws.
What can we do about this? Well I for one know what I can do; I won't be buying that Honda from Honda Canada anytime soon.
Like Union members with the power to withhold services (strike), the only power consumers have is their ability to withhold their dollar.
Now it would probably be impossible for anyone to organize a capital strike against all the auto makers engaging in this practice. It would mean that no one would buy a car from any Canadian dealer until the costs come down closer to what US consumers pay. But it would be possible to pick each separate car maker off by not buying from that particular car maker until they get with the program and stop screwing Canadian consumers.
And what better company to start with than Honda Canada as they seem to have some of the biggest differences and some of the toughest rules.
So I would urge anyone that was considering buying a new Honda to put that purchase off, for a week, or a month, or until Honda Canada comes up with a reasonable reason for their outrageous price differences and starts to treat Canadian consumers with a little more respect.
Perhaps if we can put the squeeze on Honda, the other car retailers will get the hint and we can make a difference.
This is not like trying to put the squeeze on the oil companies, which never seemed to take off. But this is you spending literally tens of thousands of dollars more in one single purchase! That is a very big chunk of change to part with just for the privilege of buying a car from Honda Canada!
Write Honda Canada and tell them you will not be buying their product until they do something about this issue.
Just as an update, I called Honda Canada and asked about this price difference. They told me that Canadian Hondas are quite different from US Hondas in that they are engineered for Canada’s climate and of course Honda has to advertise in both languages in Canada and that increases their costs. Hmmm, so it seems US Hondas won’t stand up to Canadian winters (kind of a
story since US winters in Maine and Wisconsin and many other northern states easily equal the worst winters that Canada has to offer) and let me see, does US Honda ever do any advertising in say, oh, Spanish? You bet, their web site even offers a complete Spanish link, (surprise there are more Spanish speaking Americans than there are French speaking Canadians, do you really think Honda USA would not want to sell a car to that market?).
The bottom line, Honda says they have no intention on changing the price differences Canadians pay. So I told them that I guess it will be the consumer that decides. You are the consumer, you decide.
To contact Honda Canada:
Honda Canada Customer Relations
715 Milner Avenue
Toronto, ON
M1B 2K8
Phone number: 1-888-9-HONDA-9 (1-888-946-6329)
