Driving a financed car across the border

[bradwatson]

Hey guys,

I did a quick search, and I couldn't find anything on Beyond or on Google.

I am planning on driving my car across the border into the US, where I will be going to school in San Jose, CA. Important/relevant details:
- The car is financed
- My Canadian bank account will remain active, and the payments will continue to be taken out of that account
- I will be moving there for 3-4 years, the car may or may not be returning
- Car is financed through a Canadian bank (Scotiabank)
- My legal address is going to remain in Calgary (for registration, insurance, etc.)

I think that's it. Does anyone know about this?

Thanks

Brad

[Cos]

.

[bjstare]

You should be concerned with the rules in CA as well. Are you going to be coming back to Canada in summers? Will you be a US resident? In many places, if you spend enough time there, they require you to get local insurance/registration (I don't know about CA), but this could be a PITA.

Call the DMV down there. Have fun being on hold.

[ercchry]

i feel like it would be different since he would be down there on a student visa... i know up here students on visas can bring their cars with them for the length of their visa but can not sell them to someone else in country and must take them with them when they leave.

[ColoDano]

You should be fine to keep it as you plan, as long as you remain a student down there, but California may be more strict than other states on making you get it registered and insured there.

I had one of my cars financed when I moved up here on a temporary work visa, and had no hassles at all.

Recently I found that I could "temporarily" import the cars into Canada to get Alberta plates, without doing quite the whole process of importing a car from the States one would normally do, since still working on work permits of under 36 month duration.

[bradwatson]

Originally posted by Cos
What's the question?

LOL. My bad. My question is... Will there be any issues? I'm not sure if I'll have to re-finance the payments through an American bank, etc...

[leftwing]

Originally posted by bradwatson


LOL. My bad. My question is... Will there be any issues? I'm not sure if I'll have to re-finance the payments through an American bank, etc...

Should probably notify your insurance company.

[J.M.]

Originally posted by bradwatson


LOL. My bad. My question is... Will there be any issues? I'm not sure if I'll have to re-finance the payments through an American bank, etc...

If your Canadian bank account will remain active and payments will continue to be taken out of it, why would you have to re-finance with a American bank? :dunno:

[bradwatson]

Originally posted by J.M.


If your Canadian bank account will remain active and payments will continue to be taken out of it, why would you have to re-finance with a American bank? :dunno:

The reason why I'm asking in the first place is because a colleague of mine did the same thing but opposite (moved from the US to Canada, had his car financed through a US bank), and he had to re-finance with a Canadian bank. He was coming up for a work visa though, not a student visa. Not sure if that makes a difference, or if it makes a difference that he was going USA->CAN.

[7thgenvic]

You don't need to worry about anything. Just make sure your insurance company knows that your car is in the US.

My sister was in school in the US for 8 years and never changed anything over had her car broke into. Insurance in Canada covered the incident.

[Masked Bandit]

As long as you are a full time student the insurance won't be an issue. If & when you are done school though the clock starts ticking. Call your broker, they should be able to lay out the specifics for your policy.

[Cos]

.

[clem24]

I don't see how any of this matters.. You're going to remain a Canadian Citizen and the car will remain a Canadian car (i.e. no plans to have it registered in the US or go through US insurance carriers). You pretty much answered your own question.

Now as to not driving it back, THAT should be your real concern. You can't just sell it there. You'll need to export it from Canada/import it into the US before you can do that, and I have no clue on the details of that (only familiar with importing a car into Canada from the US). But that's something that will concern you in 3-4 years, so make a thread then.

[rage2]

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/reg_hdbk_pdf/ch12_nonresident_vehicles.pdf

If you're a student under 24 years old, you can drive on Alberta plates and exempt from Cali DMV registration. You should talk to your insurance company though, as most policies only allow your vehicle to be out of the country for something like 6 months a year.

[rage2]

Originally posted by clem24
Now as to not driving it back, THAT should be your real concern. You can't just sell it there. You'll need to export it from Canada/import it into the US before you can do that, and I have no clue on the details of that (only familiar with importing a car into Canada from the US). But that's something that will concern you in 3-4 years, so make a thread then.
This is what I've always assumed too, until my brother moved back a couple of months ago from Chicago and drove his financed, US titled, US plated, US car up here. Last month he went to Northland VW and traded it in on a new Canadian car because he didn't want to deal with import. They took the car, discharged the loan, and got him a new car with new financing. His old car sold a week later. How the fuck is that possible? Haha

[ercchry]

Originally posted by rage2

This is what I've always assumed too, until my brother moved back a couple of months ago from Chicago and drove his financed, US titled, US plated, US car up here. Last month he went to Northland VW and traded it in on a new Canadian car because he didn't want to deal with import. They took the car, discharged the loan, and got him a new car with new financing. His old car sold a week later. How the fuck is that possible? Haha

not sure on the actual process that they would have had to go through... but we CAN import new US cars... the states are different, no? 25yr old is the rule?

[rage2]

Well what's fucked is there's NO way the car was imported. My bro just drove it up. Once it was traded in, VW would have to import the car themselves, but because the car was financed, there's no paper title lol. I have no idea how it was done but I'm guessing something sketchy at the dealership.

[lilmira]

Was it financed by VW USA? May be they can sort out the paperwork themselves?

[rage2]

Originally posted by lilmira
Was it financed by VW USA? May be they can sort out the paperwork themselves?
It was, the loan is fine, it's discharged, so it's paid out. I'm just wondering how the fuck VW Northland imported the car so damn quick because it takes at least 30 days to get the paper title after loan discharged out of Illinois.

My guess is they just resold the car and new guy registered it. As far as I know, the RIV system isn't linked to registration, so technically you can register anything here without really importing it. It's fine till you get busted.

[lilmira]

Wouldn't it show something when they run the vin number at the registry?

I'm sure they have a buyer beware fine print somewhere lol.

[rage2]

Originally posted by lilmira
Wouldn't it show something when they run the vin number at the registry?
I don't think so. When you drive up and import a car, the process goes something like this:

1. At the US border, export car. This is just for US record keeping.

2. At the Canadian border, fill out RIV paperwork. This puts the import into the system.

3. Show RIV form, get an OOP inspection form.

4. Show valid insurance, completed OOP, and Bill of Sale, get registered.

At no point does the VIN gets tagged a US VIN in the Alberta Vehicle Registry, and I highly doubt the registry has a list of every single VIN that is legal to registered in US/Canada with the constantly changing RIV rules. So technically, I can just drive a US car up here, make up a Bill of Sale from Ontario or something to get my OOP, show insurance, bill of sale, and completed OOP, and it's done.

The only problem is, if you get busted, you get fined on the US side for non export, and Transport Canada will seize the car from you and destroy/trash it.

This is all in theory, based on my importing experience. You're forced to import the car at the border, that's how they control it. There's no safeguards in the registration system, so if the car is snuck past the border, you can do anything you want. So in my brother's case, the new owner of his GTI that was purchased from Northland VW would lose the car if someone at Transport Canada found out about that car.

[4WARNED]

As an aside, if a buyer did their homework, a carproof report will show if/when a US car was imported into a canadian province....

[lilmira]

Or nothing at all in this case?

Yikes! That would suck. I guess the new owner is doing fine since we haven't had a "N??land VW screwed me over thread" .

[Disoblige]

^^ Haha, there are enough Northland VW horror stories on Beyond already.

[bradwatson]

Originally posted by rage2
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/reg_hdbk_pdf/ch12_nonresident_vehicles.pdf

If you're a student under 24 years old, you can drive on Alberta plates and exempt from Cali DMV registration. You should talk to your insurance company though, as most policies only allow your vehicle to be out of the country for something like 6 months a year.

OK cool. Good info. I am 25 years old, so it looks like I might be out of luck on that one...

I did talk to my insurance company, and they said there would be a 50% surcharge on my premiums. Is that common? Or should I start looking around at other insurance companies? Or can I get a CA drivers license, register it there, and insure it there?

[rage2]

Considering it costs more than double for insurance in the US compared to Calgary, I'd say it's a good deal haha. I'm not sure if they allow you to buy Canadian insurance if you're forced to register in Cali.

Registration in the US, particularly California, is expensive. Plus you pay tax on the car at registration time, so it's a serious amount of fees. There's a online calculator, but the CA DMV site is down.

[CLiVE]

Also - Usually in the lease or finance agreement there is usually a clause that states you are required to notify the account holder (bank, etc.) if you plan to take the car out of the province for greater than a few weeks I believe.

[thetransporter]

Originally posted by rage2
Well what's fucked is there's NO way the car was imported. My bro just drove it up. Once it was traded in, VW would have to import the car themselves, but because the car was financed, there's no paper title lol. I have no idea how it was done but I'm guessing something sketchy at the dealership.


VW probably sent it the car to an auction..

or just did a OOP on the spot in their garage..


I learnt the hard way after importing about 10 or so vehicles - many of the buyers I had actually came up from the US to buy them.......... (Montana, ID)

[bjstare]

Originally posted by bradwatson


OK cool. Good info. I am 25 years old, so it looks like I might be out of luck on that one...

I did talk to my insurance company, and they said there would be a 50% surcharge on my premiums. Is that common? Or should I start looking around at other insurance companies? Or can I get a CA drivers license, register it there, and insure it there?

In addition to the higher cost of insuring in CA, you will have to get it smogged every year or w/e, which you won't have to do if you stay on Alberta insurance

[rage2]

Originally posted by cjblair
In addition to the higher cost of insuring in CA, you will have to get it smogged every year or w/e, which you won't have to do if you stay on Alberta insurance
I believe there's an exemptions for students, non perm residents, etc. They only strictly enforce registration for taxation purposes.

[thetransporter]

Originally posted by cjblair


In addition to the higher cost of insuring in CA, you will have to get it smogged every year or w/e, which you won't have to do if you stay on Alberta insurance


Biggest rip off ever-

Just use RBC .

Or just sign up to progressive with your Canadian DL