Questions and Answers
Canada 1, USA 0
Q. Good Day, My search to buy a Honda Odyssey has taken me all over the country and very few dealers seem to be willing to sell for anything less than MSRP.
Yesterday a dealer in Spokane, Wa. advised me to be very careful about finding and buying a cheaper Odyssey because he said dealers in Canada have vans to spare and were selling them to dealers in the US, who were having the odometers changed out and selling them to the public. He said Honda of America voided the warranties on these and that once something like to the odometer had been changed, they should be sold for 20% less as they were "used cars.".
I asked him how one could tell a Canadian van from an American specs van? He said after the odometer was changed out, you could discern this by the VIN code, by the presence of daytime running lights, by the presence of heated side mirrors and by side marker lights. Call my dumb but I like the idea of DRL, heated side mirrors and side markers. Why aren't these features offered in the US?
My real questions for you:
- What do you think of all this and is there any truth to it?
- What are the tax / emissions consequences of buying the car in Canada myself and driving it in?
- What else do you think I should know?
I appreciate your help. Have a great day!
LisaA. The best way to tell a Canadian model from a US model is by the VIN code. If the last six digits of the VIN code (and this applies only to Honda) is above 500000, it is a US model. If it is 499999 or lower, it is a Canadian model.
To really understand all of this, you have to understand a little bit about how things work in a new car dealership. When a dealer gets a shipment of new cars, they own them. All the cars you see on the lot are actually owned by the dealer. The dealer makes their money when they are sold. If they sit on the lot unsold, the dealer is paying interest to the bank on those vehicles. So it is in the best interest of the dealership to move those vehicles as quickly as possible.
Now, if a dealer has a lot of a certain type of vehicle and another dealer needs that type of vehicle, they may do a dealer swap. Trade this one for that one, or just sell the excess inventory to that other dealer. Now this happens every day, and it is the normal way of the business and there is nothing wrong with it.
The problem arises when this happens across the border. Canadian vehicles are built to comply with Canadian laws, laws that are not always the same as the laws in the US. Cars that are built to be sold in another country and brought into the US are called "Gray Market" cars. They are not banned for sale in the US, but do not meet US specifications.
When these gray market cars come into the US to live, the Car maker will usually not honor the warranty because they do not comply with US law and under that law they are not obligated to. So cars coming in from Canada, or any other country, have to be made to comply with all US laws before they can be legally sold here. Ask any serviceman who bought a car overseas and brought it home what a chore that is.
Should cars be sold or traded between dealers in other countries? No. Does it actually happen? It probably does. When you have a lot of people at your door looking for something and there is a large supply of that something not far away, some less than honest people will sell that something and not be too fussy about minor details.
As far as the payment of taxes go, I don't know. I know that drug dealers don't charge sales tax because they are involved in the sale of an illegal product. Do you need to pay tax on an illegal car? Well from the previous example, you shouldn't be buying it in the first place if it is illegal. So the tax question is a moot point.
As far as emissions, I believe the standards between the US and Canada are close, so if the emissions meet Canadian standards, they probably will meet US standards.
Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA
