importing from Germany?....(into Canada)

I know this topic has been touched on in the past, but I'm curious with the more recent diesel bans in some German areas/cities, if it might be a more cost effective time to try and get our hands on some of the German cars all us North American suckers always complain about not having access to?....since the German government doesn't want these cars on their roads any more, anyway.

I've had my ALH Golf TDI for a bit over a decade now, and I've always been pretty happy with it, but have also always wished it was a bit longer (re: wagon) and had all wheel drive (especially now that I live in a mountainous/snowy region of the country)....I just see these VW/Audi 6sp 1.9L 130hp TDI wagons advertised in Europe - many of which are sub €2000 - and they get me quite envious and ambitious to try and organize a mass shipment for like-minded folks to save on transportation costs if I could find 2 or 3 to ship...

I've talked to a few folks on tdiclub, and some auto shops across Canada about this, some of whom seem like they may or may not be willing to assist in an individual import job, but obviously these guys need to make a reasonable amount of cash for their connections/efforts (justifiable), but I'm just testing the waters to see if it could be done for cheaper.

The average asking prices for cars brought over seem to be in the region of around ~$12-15k+ CAD... for a 15+ year old vehicle with moderate to high mileage. As much of a dream of mine this idea has been for years, that price point a bit too steep for me to want to pursue it through some of these importer-on-the-side type operations.

Who knows a car nut or two in Germany who'd want to make a few bucks by assisting in exporting a few vehicles via container shipment to Vancouver? ;-)

Any constructive comments/criticisms welcome!...

You are thinking that after dieselgate here in North America, that your government would be willing to let you import the polluters to Canada? I would check that first. I pretty much doubt they will let that happen.

Lightflyer1 said:

You are thinking that after dieselgate here in North America, that your government would be willing to let you import the polluters to Canada? I would check that first. I pretty much doubt they will let that happen.

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to my knowledge you can (currently) take in most any street legal vehicle that is a minimum of 15 years old. emissions aren't presently a hindering factor when importing from other countries.

We have been exporting vehicles to Canada for a few years now. So we know a thing or two about that. There are quite some costs involved during the entire process. I’m afraid that "cut corners"/ “importing cheap” isn’t an option.

You can always send us an email for more information.

Frans said:

We have been exporting vehicles to Canada for a few years now. So we know a thing or two about that. There are quite some costs involved during the entire process. I’m afraid that "cut corners"/ “importing cheap” isn’t an option.

You can always send us an email for more information.

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frans, i was mostly referring to the potential to partner up with another interested person to fill a shipping container, destined for the west coast instead of the east coast. i know RORO is cheaper, but it also only feasibly goes to Halifax, which means i'd need to spend another $2k+ to get the car out to the west coast from Halifax once it landed there. rather than having to pay container cost on my own to Vancouver, would be cool to (partially) split that with someone else who wanted to import at the same time to the same port....


i'll drop you another email though.

I've been seriously considering this lately. I've seen a lot of VR6 AWD Boras lately, but nobody seems to be importing the AWD TDI's.

There is one out east for sale out east currently, but any amount of km's out there, may be sketchy.

jeffro83 said:

frans, i was mostly referring to the potential to partner up with another interested person to fill a shipping container, destined for the west coast instead of the east coast. i know RORO is cheaper, but it also only feasibly goes to Halifax, which means i'd need to spend another $2k+ to get the car out to the west coast from Halifax once it landed there. rather than having to pay container cost on my own to Vancouver, would be cool to (partially) split that with someone else who wanted to import at the same time to the same port....


i'll drop you another email though.

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What timeline are you thinking about? I'm originally from Germany, I Canada for 9 years now and was thinking about a 4motion version of some sort potentially.

Caddy 16v said:

What timeline are you thinking about? I'm originally from Germany, I Canada for 9 years now and was thinking about a 4motion version of some sort potentially.

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at some point this year...roughly...was my hope. i have to head back to ontario in mid september for a few days (i could potentially try to arrange to have a car imported to the toronto area via halifax, and then drive it back to BC). getting one imported into vancouver would be much more convenient for me though. drop me a note!...