Hey Canada - I found a nice Land Rover Defender 110 that I want to import in to the US. It is over 25 years old and I should be able to drive it home. Does anyone have any experience with this? What are the costs (roughly) involved when crossing the border? Is there anything that I should be aware of? Thanks for any information and/or help that you can provide. BTW - You live in the best country in the world. I have been spending summers in Ontario guiding canoe trips for the past decade and I love it. Clean water, clean air and amazingly nice people. Teeth to the wind, Sno Dawg Jeff
Hi Jeff, I've imported machines from the USA to Canada, and know the procedure well. I think it would be wrong to assume the steps to bring vehicles from Canada to the USA are the same. However, as it is part of the free trade agreement, there may be similarities. The U.S. Dept. of Transport, and U.S. Customs are divisions of your government I'm sure you will be interacting with. Just to let you know quickly the steps we deal with. There are extra steps we have to deal with should the machine be newer than 15 yrs old. As your machine is 25 yrs old, I use that as an example. We as Cdns, must first send a copy of the registration to your U.S. Customs Vehicle export team, where they check for leans, theft, or any other reason the vehicle may be 'escaping' an unsavoury record. Once cleared by them, it's very simple, we show up at the border, get the paperwork by the US export team, go across to Cdn Customs, pay our federal taxes, then [in British Columbia anyways] go to our local insurance place where they check the v.i.n. to the paperwork, pay the local provincial tax, and there you go, done. Now, it may be very different going the other way. As an example, the Cdn DOT has an 'inclusion list' for vehicles 14 yrs old and newer permitted entry into Canada. If not on the list, there's simply no way it's coming in. You should check to see if there's such a list for the U.S. DOT. Steve
because your land rover is at least 25 years old you do not need to check any list .us has the 25 year old rule and canada has the 15 year old rule. your land rover does not need to comply with DOT or EPA. it is too old and considered a classic. just make sure the title is clear and the serial number matches( they will check at the border so make sure you know where it is) you might have to pay some duty and or taxes because your vehicle is not canadian made.if you plan on driving it back then you have other things to worry about. insurance , a temporary plate. etc. if it was me i would take it on a trailer across the border. much,much easier to do. when i sold my old CB1100RC to a guy in the usa we put it in the back of his truck and i went to the border with him. it took 15 minutes to do all the paper work.he went home with his new back and i turned back to canada with a pocket full of cash. simple north rider
I know of this back road....nah! Next time you're canoe tripping in Ontario, let us know! Any excuse we can get for a ride! We'll even buy the beer.
thanks for all of the info - this really helps alot and gives me some direction. the Rover, an old Defender 110 12 seater) is in Halifax, so a ferry ride would be easiest to get it in. I will keep you posted if/when the deal works out and try to post pics. I will hold you to the canoe trip, ride and beer - we usually do trips in the Temagami (1 hour north of North Bay) area. I am not kidding when I say how much I love going to Canada every summer for 2 or 3 months. It has been a dream job even with all of the rain the past 3 summers. Thanks again - Teeth to the wind, Sno Dawg Jeff Philadelphia 03 KTM 640 Adventure 07 BMW 640 XChallenge
