Topic: Car price class action from the FP

[Cord]

No state tax - at least the states I've dealt with.

Which states did you deal with?

Illinois, Florida, and Texas.

[Cord]

GM and VW also forbid its US dealers from selling to Canadians so let's get off the Honda and Toyota thing.  It's an industry problem, not a Japanese brand problem.

To all the pro-embargo supporters, would it be okay if a US dealer refused to sell a car to someone because of the colour of their skin?  Yes or no?

Why in the world does any company have a right to control what its consumers do with the goods they buy once they've paid for them?  It's a ludicrous concept.  A company has no more right to control whether its goods are being exported than whether they're being used for any other purpose.

According to this ridiculous logic, car companies have a right to control how fast their consumers drive or where they're being parked.  Once a product is sold the manufacturer has no rights whatsoever to it any more.

Why in the world should any company be allowed to manipulate the market?  The whole point of anti-trust, anti-collusion, non-binding pricing and such laws are to encourage competition.

Wow. You're really embarrassing yourself with some of these comments.

This issue has nothing to with the colour of anyone's skin. Unless you consider Canadian exporters to comprise a homogeneous race that can be identified by skin color.

And where has anyone said anything about any company trying to control what someone does once they pay for their product? You've missed the entire point of the topic. Car companies are attempting to control what happens to their product before it is paid for not after.

As I said before, businesses sell to people because it helps their bottom line. If selling to someone would negatively affect their bottom line there is no law in the world that forces a businesses to sell to anyone. As has been made clear already, Canadians are not being discriminated against, exporters are.

Toyota Canada and Toyota USA are divisions of Toyota. Anti-trust laws, etc. are meant to apply to diiferent companies acting in concert. They are not meant to apply to one company competing with itself.

also, as I said before, I am not "pro-embargo." I just have yet to see any arguments beyond "I should be able to save money ..."

[inco]

Interesting solution was posed this morning on the radio for those goods that have US and Canadian pricing, such as magazines and books. Pay them with American money.

[tpl]

Now that is a good idea. Mind you, if you don't have an existing USD account I bet you'll end up paying 2-3% for the exchange...and thats another one... if the two $ are equal why would one pay a fee to exchange pictures of the Queen who is at least alive with pictures of long dead presidents.

if I had any USD in the house I'd be right round to Chapters to try that out!

[Snowman]

Good luck with that. Retailers do not have to accept foreign currency. They do it as a courtesy for tourism customers.

[Snowman]

Way to go Pike….unplug him.

[tpl]

It might not work anyway.

I wonder what a chapters sales person would do.... call the manager? 
I have a book priced exactly as follows

USA $25.00
Canada $32.00

So the clever sales person would say " I don't care if you pay in USD  but as we are in Canada so you must pay $32

[2latecrew]

It might not work anyway.

I wonder what a chapters sales person would do.... call the manager? 
I have a book priced exactly as follows

USA $25.00
Canada $32.00

So the clever sales person would say " I don't care if you pay in USD  but as we are in Canada so you must pay $32

Wonder what will become of the bookstores in US terminals that feed canada?

Sir are you going to read that book in the terminal or are you going to read it in Canada?

Well if you are going to read it in Canada you have to pay 32 Candian but if you are going to read it in the terminal you only have to pay 25$ US?

[froggy]

Only legal tender in Canada is Canadian dollar. A retailer does not have to accept any other currency, though they may chose to do so (at their own exchange rate)

[Cord]

Way to go Pike….unplug him.

beep!

[The Mighty Duck]

It might not work anyway.

I wonder what a chapters sales person would do.... call the manager? 
I have a book priced exactly as follows

USA $25.00
Canada $32.00

So the clever sales person would say " I don't care if you pay in USD  but as we are in Canada so you must pay $32

The price in the store's computer would be $32, and they would take the American money at their exchange rate...  1:1.  The US pricing does not "really" mean that's the price in USD as much as that's the price within the United States.  And at any rate, it's only a suggested retail price.  The store can do what they want. 

Clever, though.  Still be fun to try.

[No H2O]

Ptotectionist barriers? Refuse to compete? We're talking about the same company doing business in both countries. Is it really that shocking that a company may not want to compete against itself?

Why, are Honda USA and Honda Canada  or Toyota USA and Toyota Canada the same company? And if they are, they obviously are competing...at least the US ones are. The Canadian ones haven't quite figured it out yet.

Sure enough, that Honda OEM exhaust pipe "B" is actually the factory original, except it only ran me US$227 (CA$227) in the US compared to $422 up here. A long sucker but the CR-V has plenty of room. I just saved myself $254...on one item alone. Lets not even talk about the rest of my order. Nay sayers would get sick.

[No H2O]

Having just stopped at a Honda dealer in NY state to pick up some parts, I stopped in the sales department and asked a few questions.

It seems they've been given a dose of scare tactics by the US distributor. Such as "the customer will sue you because the warranty may not be/is not valid in Canada".

Then they said that they can't deliever the car because I couldn't obtain insurance or a plate to get it to the border and home. That doesn't hold water...I can easily rent a flatbed with a small portion of the savings.

The rest of the excuses were similar.

[No H2O]

if I had any USD in the house I'd be right round to Chapters to try that out!

TPL, its pointless dealing with the hard headed mentality of Canadian business.

I'd just buy it in the US the next time I'm down there and rob them of a sale up here. 

I've done well in the past but with the dollar at par, I'm having a field day buying stuff in the US...and no tax either...other than NY state tax. I'd sooner pay that than 14% up here.

[Cord]

Back to the original topic.

Now that a class action lawsuit has been filed, why would anyone named in such a case as a defendant lower their prices and provide the plaintiffs with such incriminating evidence?

Pricing probably would've eventually dropped due to basic market forces anyway. Considering that lawsuits from the American side from 5 years ago have yet to be settled, I see little hope that Canadian pricing will drop anytime soon.