Topic: Car Prices - Canada vs U.S. - Some Examples

[canadacraig]

Hi Everyone!!

I hope you're OK.

Here are just some examples of how much MORE cars cost in Canada than they do in the U.S. [In spite of the fact that our dollar is worth more than the U.S. dollar]

2008 Chrysler 300C - $45,195 in Canada + $1,200 for Shipping and Handling

Same car in the U.S. is $36,070 + $675 for Shipping and handling.
 
That's a $9,125 difference in price. Plus $525 more for Shipping and Handling.


2008 Chrysler 300C SRT8 - $52,695 in Canada + $1,200 for S&H

Same car in the U.S. is $44,223.

That's an $8,470 difference in price. And the 300's are MADE IN CANADA!!


2008 Honda Accord EX-L Navi Coupe 6-speed $38,290 in Canada + $1,360 for S&H

Same car in the U.S. is $31,145 + $635 S&H

That's a $7,145 difference in price. Plus $725 more for S&H


2008 Honda Accord LX 5-speed Manual - $25,090  in Canada + $1,360 for S&H

Same car in the U.S. is $20,995 + 635 S&H U.S.

That's a $4,095 difference in price.


2007 Honda Civic Si Coupe - $26,380 in Canada + $1,275 for S&H

Same car in the U.S. is $21,745 + 635 S&H U.S

That's a price difference of $4,635. Plus $640 more for S&H


2008 Lexus LS600hL - $132,000 in Canada + $1,775 for S&H

Same car in the U.S. is $104,765 + $765 S&H U.S.

That's a $27,265 difference in price. Plus $1,010 more for S&H


2008 Lexus LS460 - $86,500 in Canada + $1,775 for S&H

Same car in the U.S. is $62,265 + $765 S&H U.S.

That's a $24,235 difference in price.


2008 Lexus ES350 - $42,900 in Canada + $1,775 for S&H

Same car in the U.S. is $34,485 + 765 S&H U.S.

That's an $8,415 difference in price.


2008 Toyota Camry XLE V6 - $37,525 in Canada + $1,240 for S&H

Same car in the U.S. is $28,780 + 660 S&H U.S

That's an $8,745 difference in price. Plus $580 more for S&H


2008 Toyota Camry LE - $25,900 in Canada + $1,240 for S&H

Same car in the U.S. is $20,685 + $660 S&H U.S.

That's a $5,215 difference in price.


2008 Toyota Corolla LE 'auto' - $21,900 in Canada + $1,140 for S&H

Same car in the U.S. is $17,075 + $660 S&H U.S.

That's a $4,825 difference in price.


2008 Subaru Impreza WRX Sedan - $33,895 in Canada + $1,495 for S&H

Same car in the U.S. is $24,995 + $645 S&H U.S.

That's an $8,900 difference in price. Plus $850 more for S&H


2008 Dodge Viper Coupe - $98,600 in Canada

Same car in the U.S. is $86,496 U.S.

That's a $12,104 difference in price.


2007 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 - $95,605 in Canada + $1,420 for S&H

Same car in the U.S. is $71,000 + $825 S&H U.S.

That's a $24,605 difference in price. Plus $595 more for S&H


2007 Chevrolet Corvette Base 'Manual' - $68,565 in Canada + $1,420 for S&H

Same car in the U.S is $46,110 + $825 S&H U.S.

That's a $22,455 difference in price.


2007 Porsche 911 Turbo - $170,700 in Canada + $1,045 for S&H  [Porsche lowered 2008 prices by 10%]

Same car in the U.S. is $123,760 + 860 S&H U.S.

That's a price difference of $46,940. Plus $185 more for S&H

[NOTE: Porsche has lowered its prices in Canada by 10% for 2008 - but that still leaves a HUGE price difference]

Craig!!

[mmret]

I give you max 15 minutes.

[1TSX]

Thanks for the info.

However...there are 120321124 threads about this topic. Heck, theres a separate section for it.

http://www.canadiandriver.com/forum/index.php/board,19585.0.html

   

[random006]

 

[Accordingly]

Thanks for compiling the list. Certainly isn't worth the drive for a Corolla, but might be for a Corvette!

Perhaps this thread could be moved to the child board.

[mdxtasy]

Oh for sake....poke me in the genitals.

[dorin]

Thanks for the list.  It's interesting to see the actual dollar values for the price differences.

[mdxtasy]

I think rather than hypothetical savings, let's post ACTUAL savings from people who actually successfully bought and crossed the border.  Anybody with nothing to do can do some internet reference checking.....

Talk is cheap....internet chatting is even cheaper. 

[Zombie]

I agree there is money to be saved in the US but are you just comparing prices or are you considering the cost of importing because of that list the cost of duty for the cars that were made outside of NA you must add 6.1%. Still a savings just not as much.

[Cord]

Those are just MSRPs right? How about some real in depth research comparing prices after relevant incentives are deducted.

[The Mighty Duck]

Those are just MSRPs right? How about some real in depth research comparing prices after relevant incentives are deducted.

The USA is a far more competitive market than Canada...  I would wager once incentives are factored in, the savings would increase.

That said, we know cars are cheaper in the States.  What gets me is this "especially since the Canadian dollar is higher" argument.  Things have been that way for a month - you cannot reasonably expect prices to adjust that quickly.  If you do, we may as well just adopt the US dollar in Canada, since you're essentially advocating all pricing be done in USD anyway...

[sailor723]

I think rather than hypothetical savings, let's post ACTUAL savings from people who actually successfully bought and crossed the border.  Anybody with nothing to do can do some internet reference checking.....

Talk is cheap....internet chatting is even cheaper. 

It's hard to calculate exact savings for a couple of reasons. If you've bought in the US then that's where you've done your "haggling" and not at a CDN dealer. You have to estimate what kind of discount off MSRP you could have got in Canada. Secondly,US and CDN vehicles often do not have exactly the same content at various trim levels and option packages sometimes contain different items. Finally,you have to include expenses involved on a trip to the US such as fuel,meals,possible hotel etc and then the RIV fee to import.

All that being said I'd estimate we saved somewhere around 13.5K on the aftertax price on a 2008 Subaru Tribeca. (Would be about 1K more today as the dollar's up about 4-5% from when we bought)

[canadacraig]

I think rather than hypothetical savings, let's post ACTUAL savings from people who actually successfully bought and crossed the border.  Anybody with nothing to do can do some internet reference checking.....

Talk is cheap....internet chatting is even cheaper. 

Well who's stopping you? Phone some people and find out. Internet chatting may be cheaper than talk - but complaining about people Internet chatting is even cheaper still.

[canadacraig]

What gets me is this "especially since the Canadian dollar is higher" argument.  Things have been that way for a month - you cannot reasonably expect prices to adjust that quickly.  If you do, we may as well just adopt the US dollar in Canada, since you're essentially advocating all pricing be done in USD anyway...

Hi Demosthenes,

You said, "Things have been that way for month - you cannot reasonably expect prices to adjust that quickly." And I would agree with you - IF the Canadian dollar was worth 62 cents in July and NOW look at it. But that's not the case. The Canadian dollar has been worth 84 cents U.S. [or more] since August 24th, 2005 and hovering around 88 and 89 cents U.S. for the most part since then until slowly inching upwards until today - where it is worth 1.04 cents U.S.

Let's take the Chrysler 300C for example. In the U.S. the MSRP is $36,070. Now add 20% to that for the sake of this argument. So now you have the U.S. MRSP plus $7,214 for a grand total of $43,284. That is STILL $1,911 less than the Canadian MSRP of $45,195. And that's at 20%. It should be noted that the Canadian dollar [with the exception of the time between May 13th and May 27th of 2005] has NOT been worth 20% less than the U.s. dollar since October 14th, 2004. Car prices SHOULD have been moving towards parity all along.

As for what some of the rest of you are saying - I am NOT suggesting that ANYONE buy a car in the U.S. What I'm suggesting is that there is no justification for WHY cars cost so much more in Canada than they do in the U.S. and that the Canadian MSRP's should be lowered. A couple thousand dollars more - here - in Canada - for the same car you could buy in the U.S.? Sure - I have no problem with that. But thousands and thousands of dollars more - sometimes TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars more? That's just ridiculous.

Craig!!

[2latecrew]

I do think that the "can't adjust prices quickly enough to meet exchange rate fluctuations" by manufacturers is .

As mentioned above even YEARS before all this controversy with the Can being at or above par started US prices have been substantially lower . The dollar has been worth 85 cents plus for a long time but no real adjustment was made even years after it his 85 or 88 cents.

Its simply not a legit argument on the manufacturers part. Its a smokescreen to take peoples attention away from the real reason CAN prices have been substantially higher. Because they CAN.

[jcon]

Thanks for compiling the list. Certainly isn't worth the drive for a Corolla, but might be for a Corvette!

Perhaps this thread could be moved to the child board.

Just to be clear, no amount of driving for a Corolla is worth it!

[mdxtasy]

I think rather than hypothetical savings, let's post ACTUAL savings from people who actually successfully bought and crossed the border.  Anybody with nothing to do can do some internet reference checking.....

Talk is cheap....internet chatting is even cheaper. 

It's hard to calculate exact savings for a couple of reasons. If you've bought in the US then that's where you've done your "haggling" and not at a CDN dealer. You have to estimate what kind of discount off MSRP you could have got in Canada. Secondly,US and CDN vehicles often do not have exactly the same content at various trim levels and option packages sometimes contain different items. Finally,you have to include expenses involved on a trip to the US such as fuel,meals,possible hotel etc and then the RIV fee to import.

All that being said I'd estimate we saved somewhere around 13.5K on the aftertax price on a 2008 Subaru Tribeca. (Would be about 1K more today as the dollar's up about 4-5% from when we bought)

Somebody who's actually brought a car over.    I actually respect this post (and the poster) a lot more than all the other ramblings by people who just say...but never do. 

[inco]

I couldn't resist.

Okay so why do cars in the states cost less than ours. Content is one area, they have lower content than ours in many cases and I hear that they often come with-are you ready for this....

Hercules 215/40RZ17 G5000Z tires  


Yeah Baby

[The Mighty Duck]

I do think that the "can't adjust prices quickly enough to meet exchange rate fluctuations" by manufacturers is .

It's easy to think that, but consider two things:

1) Currency is a fluctuating market.  Just because the Canadian dollar hit 85 cents was no guarantee that it would stay there.  Now, obviously the dollar continued to rise, so an adjustment should have been made.  I think it fair to say that by now car prices should have adjusted to reflect an 80-85 cent dollar.

2) These cars are built long in advance.  The contracts for parts are signed even further ahead of time.  So while the dollar might change, the cars were built at a less favorable dollar, and so the manufacturer may actually lose money selling it at the current exchange.  Though with cars, I believe the time from building to hitting a dealer's lot is relatively low compared to a lot of products, so this is not such an issue, perhaps.

That said, there is obviously a large portion of corporate greed in Canadian car prices.  You're quite right in that a a lot of the reason is that they can overcharge us...  the American market is much more competitive than our own, so prices tend to be lower on most things.

[2latecrew]

I do think that the "can't adjust prices quickly enough to meet exchange rate fluctuations" by manufacturers is .

It's easy to think that, but consider two things:

1) Currency is a fluctuating market.  Just because the Canadian dollar hit 85 cents was no guarantee that it would stay there.  Now, obviously the dollar continued to rise, so an adjustment should have been made.  I think it fair to say that by now car prices should have adjusted to reflect an 80-85 cent dollar.

2) These cars are built long in advance.  The contracts for parts are signed even further ahead of time.  So while the dollar might change, the cars were built at a less favorable dollar, and so the manufacturer may actually lose money selling it at the current exchange.  Though with cars, I believe the time from building to hitting a dealer's lot is relatively low compared to a lot of products, so this is not such an issue, perhaps.

That said, there is obviously a large portion of corporate greed in Canadian car prices.  You're quite right in that a a lot of the reason is that they can overcharge us...  the American market is much more competitive than our own, so prices tend to be lower on most things.

Cars are built long in advance? The 2008 models just came out. Manufacturers didn't build them before the $ was say at least 90 ncents so why isn't the price difference Canada US reflective of that? Its simply not reasonable to use that as a reason. They would lose money if they built them at a favorable exhange rate if the difference was equal to the exchange rate but it hasn't been for quite some time.