bhorne

This is not a dealer issue, and so far my dealer has been accommodating. My dealer?s salesman is ticked that I am not forking out an extra $20,000 to buy Canadian, but the service guys are good.

This is a BMW Canada issue. Why do they need $850 to do minutes of paperwork. It is an outrageous charge. It is obviously a charge and a hassle to deter you to import BMWs. I just hope they don't start telling people that they need unnecessary modifications to the cars.

To BMWs credit, it is good that they still honour the warranty (versus Honda and Chrysler). I wonder how long this will last.

lookdown

lookdown

I agree that the Candian BMW dealers are caught in the middle. The problem here is with BMW North America and the RIV (Government). The RIV, by allowing BMW any determination of whether a vehicle is admissable or not, is setting them up to screw the Canadian car buyer. If your vehicle was manufactured to meet U.S. safety standards and has the original door sticker attesting to that fact, BMW should have no involvement in any determination of whether the vehicle is admissable or not. The Federal and Provincial inspections are in place to confirm that this vehicle still meets those standards. If you pass the inspections it should be a done deal. The RIV has folded to pressure from the automakers. None of this is a surpise. We have been getting ripped off on the price of a vehicle for years and the government has supported it where ever possible. The information age has brought most of this out in the open. I imported an 06 X5 in early Sept. At that point the RIV would accept a vehicle maint. history report from a BMW dealer saying that the vehicle had "No Active Campaigns" providing it was stamped by the dealer and had the VIN. The modifications to the vehicle cost $130 at the canadian BMW dealer for the running lights and to change the odometer to read kilometers instead of miles. It is programming of the onboard computer and nothing more. Takes 1/2 an hour. A U.S. BMW dealer just offered to do the programming on another one for me for $45 US before it leaves the dealership. This letter of admissablity and the recall letter can be totally attributed to the government being in bed with big business again at the expense of the Candadian consumer. The local BMW dealer has treated me great. The U.S. dealers have treated me great. BMW North America and our government are the criminals here. I saved $24,000 through this process. Is it worth it? No question!

bmwmutt

I just got busted with this as I am in the middle of shipping a 2008 535i up to Canada. I called transport Canada to reem them out and they told me that it is not up to Transport Canada or RIV to make the list of admissable cars. How it has always been done is that RIV hands the Manufactures the Transportation Act and asks them if a car was imported from the U.S.A. can if be modified to fit the Canadian restrictions. So what the Manufactures are doing now are saying if the canadian government wants to know if the car is admissible they have to contact the manufacture and ask. Since the government is not going to do this, they place this responcability on the person importing the car. All this is, is a cash grab for BMW Canada and another hoop they make you jump through. What pisses me off is when a manufacture seems to have the right to tell me when and where i have to take a product that i bought to get fixed and that I have no choice. Could you imagine Best Buy (In the U.S.) told you that if the T.V. you own leaves the country that you would have to take it to specific place to get it fixed or cleaned before they would let you turn it on in the new country. I know it is not the best example. I just do not like to be tolded by a NON-GOVERNMENT company what I need to do to conform to government regulations. All I need to do is make my government happy. Even with this change it is still worth it, here is a quick run down.
Car: 2008 535i Loaded with sport pkg and (4,000 Miles)
Car Cost: $54,000.00
Taxes: $7,020.00 (PST and GST)
Duty: $3,294.00
Broker: $600.00 (including RIV Fee)
Provincial Inspection: $100.00
Shipping: $1600.00 (From dealer to my door)
New BMW Letter : $395.50 (350 + Tax)
Total: $66,614.00 (All costs in canadian dollars)

Priced the same car on the BMW Canada website and it came to $81,000.00 before taxs and PDI. After Taxes (PDI,PST, Lux,and GST) would be around $ 96,000 with everything.

So if the modifications cost less then 15,000 dollars I am still way ahead over buying a new one in Canada.

richard

Do you know how long it will take for the letter of admissibility to be mailed from BMW Canada and will they fax it to me. I was about to drive my BMW 535 up from Portland, Oregon and luckily I just happened to come upon the new regulations. So here I sit in Portland waiting for Monday to call someone to get the letter. This just isn't right. They change the rules out of the blue. At least give us a week's notice or even a few days, but not minute by minute. You're right too, this vehicle was $61,000.00 (no state tax either!) and a saving of around 30K.

bhorne

My dealer said it would take a couple days to get the letter.

bmwmutt

Ok here is the next step. The letter took aboud 2 business days to complete. Now BMW Canada is telling me that on an 08 535i I will need a new cluster and modual for the DRL's to work. This will cost me $3000.00 plus tax then they will give me a recall letter telling me that the it meets the Canadian regulations. The funny thing is that BMW wants another $500.00 for this letter after the fact. This has put such a bad taste in my mouth about BMW. However I am still saving over $18000.00 on it.

ademitt

My understanding is that the US module and cluster permit activation and deactivation of the DRL's through idrive. This is not allowed in the great white north hence the need for the changes.

bmwmutt

This is true and that is the reason for the module. The cluster is due to the E-Brake indicator and the Odometer. Transport Canada confirmed that these need to be changed. It is still a deal in my eyes to have this car for the price I am paying. I work with government agencies everyday so jumping through hoops does not shock me anymore. I hope this helps and I will keep updating as I go.

bhorne

This sounds like B***S**** . How come BMW was able to permently activate my DRLs in my 2006 530i with out changing the cluster and module. I doubt things have changed from 2006 to 2008. It is not a requirement for the odemeter to show miles. TC has stickers to indicate the oedometer is in miles/not km.