The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: cooking on March 22, 2018, 01:29:11 PM
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I've been finding few legitimate private-party used car sellers on Craigslist in my area, esp. since I'm looking for a manual transmission. So I started looking on Kijiji in the Montreal area. Figured I could combine it w/a vacation to Montreal where I always wanted to visit. I'm finding many more possibilities up there, and even more so with the manuals.
I'm wondering if cars in the Canadian market are lacking in any of the government-required equipment for US registration, specifically in NJ. (I don't even know if NJ is any more stringent than the US in general, I suspect not.)
My other question is the transition to bring the car into the US to register.
Does anyone have any experience with this, or any cautions to me about doing this? Or even just some answers to these questions? My thinking is that there must be some of you out there who live in border states who might know a little about this.
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Be careful buying an older car from Montreal or Toronto (or any of the surrounding areas). The amount of salt that we put on the roads is pretty crazy during the winter, and cars do not last the same way that they do in the warmer climates.
Purchasing a new car is usually much less expensive in the US than Canada . . . I'd be surprised if a comparable condition vehicle in Canada was significantly cheaper.
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Be careful buying an older car from Montreal or Toronto (or any of the surrounding areas). The amount of salt that we put on the roads is pretty crazy during the winter, and cars do not last the same way that they do in the warmer climates.
Purchasing a new car is usually much less expensive in the US than Canada . . . I'd be surprised if a comparable condition vehicle in Canada was significantly cheaper.
This. I'd go the opposite direction if anything. Buy a car from the southwest US, the land of no rust.
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I bought a used (manual transmission) Subaru Crosstrek (I also like manual transmissions) with low km's in Montreal (I live in Ottawa). It cost thousands less than comparable ones here in Ontario did. I have had zero issues with it whatsoever. I had it inspected by a local Montreal company that has mechanics that will go and test drive and inspect the car you are interested in (it is called Car Inspected if you are interested). They told me the car is good and would pass the safety and emissions testing in Ontario (which is a requirement here).
The car is now 5 years old (bought it about 1.5 years ago). Zero rust, zero problems.
As for safety standards, I think Canada has more rigorous rules than the US does.