JeTxLiFe26

Hey everyone!

I'm thinking about buying a GLC 43 that was imported to the US from Canada (passed all import restrictions and mostly everything has been converted to US measurements) and I was wondering if anyone else on this forum has bought an Imported Benz from Canada and what their experience has been like?

I've been trying to do some research and haven't found anything that would indicate the vehicle would be any different but I'm curious about what your warranty/service experience has been like stateside? Also if there's anything that you wish you would've known before pulling the trigger I'd love to hear that as well!

Also from what I could tell, the only thing that wasn't able to be converted to US measurement was the outside temperature gauge on the instrument cluster. Does anyone have any ideas on how that can be updated to Fahrenheit?

Appreciate all of the insight in advance!!

Kevin

RandySavage

I don't have any experience purchasing internationally but I did look into it a few years ago. I'd just say proceed with caution - in the automotive industry, a lot of fraud schemes involve transferring vehicles internationally. The risk factors were too high for me. If I'm spending $60k on a vehicle, minimally I want to be protected by the US legal system. Also related to warranties, I remember reading this article which was a hard pass for me: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a3...ecalls-canada/

Highline-Autos.com

Just make sure it is one that's warranty will be recognized state side. Other than that I can't see why not!

Lawineer

I'm about to buy one from Mexico. I have no idea why, but they're much cheaper. Other than the owners manual being in Spanish and not having mirrors in the visors, I cant seem to find much different. About 25% less.

However, I know Canada is a lot different than Mexico. Mexico isn't a big deal. Canada is.

superswiss

The main thing is if the car is still under warranty, then the warranty won't transfer. Warranties are specific to the country and MBUSA won't honor the Canadian warranty and vice versa. The temperatures being in Celsius is the one obvious thing that can't be changed. There are some that claimed they can change it via coding, but I've yet to see a success story. It's tied to the region of the car and to change it, the region has to be recoded which apparently only the VPC and the factory can do. So, internally the car still thinks it's a Canadian car, which also means you won't be able to activate the Mercedes me services as far as I know. If you have an analog cluster, then it has a template on the speedometer to convert it from kph to mph. It doesn't actually have the US cluster. On occasion they put the wrong template on it and then the indicated speed is all wrong. With the digital instrument cluster in the FL, you can easily switch between kph and mph and it will be all correct. FWIW, my Mercedes mechanic friend who has his own shop categorically advises against imported cars. Bad experience with repairing/servicing them in the past.

BTW, there are market differences under the hood, specifically when it comes to cooling. US cars are categorized as hot climate cars and get better cooling to deal with the summer heat in many places. Not sure how Canadian cars are categorized, but you can see these differences on the detailed build sheets.