Long story short, I have a buyer for my M3 who wants to pay now, but he lives in Toronto, and wants me to deliver the car after we settle up here in the states at my bank (I have another potential sale local, but want to cover all bases). We met up this weekend, very nice group of guys, known on bimmerforums as well.
So, it’s not sketchy on the payment end. We would meet at my HSBC branch, pay off my loan and deposit the rest of the cash into my account. He is going to pay cash, so I don’t have to worry about checks clearing or any non-sense like that. From there though, I would drive the car to Toronto, take my plates and registration, and he will drive me back home. Again, I am not sketched out about driving up there, or getting a ride home.
I am, however, questioning the legality of me driving a car to Canada, and then returning to the States without the car. Is there anything illegal, wrong, or troublesome about this? Has anyone else done this before, or something similar? I don’t want to throw a red flag at the border when I don’t return with my car, and I don’t want to break any laws by selling a car to another country.
Please advise! And first-hand experience please, or references to proven information, not hear-say.
-Mark
---------- Post added at 01:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:05 PM ----------
Mods, do network-wide gen auto sites include any Canadian sites? If so, can you please cross-post into there for me.
I sold my car to a guy in ottawa, the car has to be imported into canada. You fill out some paperwork and the US customs basically checks that the car is not stolen. Once it is imported your not allowed to cancel it if something goes wrong with the transaction, so you better have all the funds in line before this. Might want to PM minglor about addtional info too.
Since your doing the transaction on the US side you dont have to worry about brining cash over the border, thats the biggest issue that you are avoiding.
Having done this the opposite way (bought a car in Ontario and registered it in NY) I really don’t think it’s as simple as drive it across and drop off, especially when it comes time for the new owner to register it.
Paging Dr Bing. I’m sure he’s got experience with this.
He’s going to have his dad, who lives in NYC, register it, so he won’t actually be registering it in Canada. After the point of sale though, I don’t really care what he does with it, as long as it can’t come back and bite me. I just don’t know what the border agents will say if I tell them “I am going to Toronto to drop off this car, I sold it”, and then return by saying “I dropped off the car, now they are bringing me back to the States”.
If that is illegal, or even wrong, at all, I simply won’t do it. No way in hell I am taking a single risk here.
to avoid all risk, sell in the US and let him do whatever he wants with it. there is obviously some reason he wants you to drive it across the boarder and not him.
There could be a hidden reason, but like I said, him and his friends are well known on bimmerforums, I think it’s just the fact that driving to Toronto to Rochester and back, and then Toronto to NYC and back like a week later is a pain in the add. I agree though, if I can avoid it, I will.
If he’s registering it in NY, he’s going to be stonewalled when it comes up renewal time. He’ll have to come here and get an inspection. I would tell him to BUY IT, and go to the DMV with a notarized POA from his father and register it legit before it rolls over there. He wants you to drive it over the border, b/c it’ll be in your name and a PITA to get across as a Canuck w/US tags IE:lots of explaining to do. It’ll be easier for him to register it, INSPECT IT, and go on his merry way with his father’s name on the registration, vs. having it up there and dealing with it.
You’re definitely doing something wrong. My grandparents have a cottage in Quebec and each year they drive a NY registered boat to their cottage in the spring and bring it back in the fall. On the way to Canada they are required to stop at Canadian customs and get a special form basically stating that the vehicle is not being sold in Canada, just stored long term. Then when they bring the boat back in the fall they have to stop at Canadian customs (even though they’re going the “wrong” way) and have that same form signed off to show that they did indeed bring the boat back to the US. I’m guessing this is a sales/import tax issue and by doing what your potential buyer is doing (registering in NYC) he’s cheating the system to avoid paying that import tax. Could they charge you as an accessory to import tax evasion? Who knows, but I wouldn’t risk it.
I’ve said it before, but because I like to hear myself type: Just because someone is part of the sacred brotherhood of the internet message board doesn’t mean that they’re trustworthy. Don’t trust people you don’t know.
You’ll remember this when you’re getting your anal cavity searched by a customs agent pissed off about being the assman.
This whole situation seems really sketchy as mentioned above. Not worth the hassle and I’d hold on to the car longer if it means you get the right amount of money for it.
you should be concerned about getting your money for the car and let him worry about the rest. if he’s going to do something funny with taxes or whatever that is his deal and his crime, not yours.
To be honest, if the guy is registering it in NY anyways then i don’t see how this is better for him. If he were registering it in Canada then i can see needing this done if he has issues crossing the border (his skin is brown). Any tax game he is playing is not served by your delivering of the vehicle. The paper work to register it will follow a different process but it will still have to go through the RIV so no short-cut there either. There are a lot of US registered vehicles in Canada that go up for sale that cannot do the standard process of having the title at customs 3 days prior so even though it is atypical it is also not entirely uncommon.
On the other side though, i’ve had Canadian friends drive US registered vehicles and cross the border without issue and without proper plates (temp plates) for years. This was on Audi S4’s and Mitsu Eclipses before they were available in Canada.
I doubt there is anything seriously sketchy going on here and actually think a little bit less of you for posting it on the forum and then stating that you won’t do it if there is anything sketchy about it… unless you were just doing that as a cover up… in which case… you’re the sketchy one
also, moved this to network, no need for two threads.
