Canuck
Well-Known Member
To be honest there's no value in the US market anyway. Cars are cheaper here all else being considered equal.
I'm not certain about cheaper but the difference is not usually worth the hassle for most vehicles. But for some vehicles, like the Leaf, even after accounting for currency, importation fees, taxes and vehicle conversion requirements, the used ones are a lot cheaper down south. These cars are coming off lease and flooding the market...
Used Nissan Leaf's so cheap, they are now hard to resist. I bought one just to loan out!
Also, it's really quite easy to import a vehicle from the States. When our dollar was at par the cars were flowing through the border to private buyers. Car dealers down south marketed directly to Canadians, and I know many people who bought cars, trucks and motorhomes from the States. I bought my Leaf (used) and even a new Honda ATV down south. The ATV was inspected and approved by the service dept at my local Canadian Tire. This took less than 5 minutes as he worked off a checklist and we looked for warning stickers and other stuff. No modifications were required to the ATV.
You just have to have the paperwork done and it waiting at the border when you bring a vehicle back (don't just show up with one) and only vehicles on this list can be brought back:
Registrar of Imported Vehicles - Vehicle Admissibility
My Leaf just required daytime running lights and some other minor stuff that was done and certified by Nissan here for about $600 back a few years.
As you can see from the list, the Tesla Roadstar is allowed but the S and the X are excluded. The S/X could be added to the list if Tesla agrees to it, as well as to doing the conversions/certification. The best arguments I have heard for Tesla not doing this is that the service centers are far too busy as is to do conversions and Tesla has nothing really to gain at this point since they are not looking for more service appointments. This could change years from now if conversions are seen as a source of income to service centers. But with the Model 3 coming out, it probably won't be on that list anytime in the near future.