saleen01

anyone have any experience doing this...looking at the speedo i can't see any km/h on there...could be a huge issue for me
any help would be greatly appreciated.

Busta Riles

Ya, i have experience...

You need to call your local dealer and pay him to send a request to MB Canada for the requirements to get compliance work & a compliance letter from MB.

If i remember correctly, even if the car requires ZERO work, the letter will cost you $750. On an AMG, i've seen compliance work range between $3000 & $6000.

You won't need to do this if you don't care about warranty, but i suspect you do.

Extended warranties from the US do not transfer into Canada.

After you pay for your federal & provincial inspections, 6.1% duty, GST & provincial taxes, take at least 5% off for exchange rate, pay for travel/shipping, is it worth it?

Maybe you should try to find a Canadian car.

saleen01

The car would be an 07 so I wouldn't really car about warranty. so all I need is the recall letter as I recall, do you know who provides that?
When I imported my M3 I bought it from BMW Canada for 500.00 from what i understand the delaer on the US side can sometimes get these for free?

saleen01

also found this thread to be useful
https://mbworld.org/forums/cls55-amg...-s-canada.html

c43amgedmonton1

I trust what busta says, he helped me when i brought my e55 back.

MB_Forever

I shipped a car to my brother in the past and it required $5,000 of changes to make it comply with Canadian specs. This was in addition to customs and shipping charges.

transferred

5k...what kinda car?

-Rob

shardul

iTrader: (1)

my car is a canadian car. I have the speedo in km/h everything else is the same. Any canadian member with a mp/h speedo want to swap

MB_Forever

It was actually an S430. That was a dealer quote though. I probably could've gotten it done cheaper at an Indy shop, but I didn't have the time to mess with it. They wanted to change a lot of parts into Canadian specs:

- Rear bumper
- Instrument Cluster: it's not enough that the cluster reads mph/kmh.... they had to change the brake light to show the triangle instead of the word brake in US cars, and a bunch of other warning lights.
- Shift knob: because the car had keyless go, the engine start/stop button had to be swapped out for the circle icon keyless go on international cars.

There were a bunch of other items that they changed, but I forgot, as it was 5 or 6 years ago. The local dealership would be able to tell you exactly what needs to get changed.

saleen01

seems like mixed messages from everyone...from what i understand if you don't want to or care about the warranty all you have to do is day time running lights, and child seat brackets

MB_Forever

Go to your local dealership and talk to the service manager. He should be able to give you a list of conversions that are necessary and a list of "optional" items. He should also explain what conditions waive which items.

c43amgedmonton1

like busta said unless you want to get a warranty all you need is the recall clearance letter from mercedes benz. The bumper law was harmonized 2 years ago, and unless it is different form the E55 the odometer,speedometer and drl's can all be turned on through the steering wheel buttons. Nothing else is required for the federal or provincial inspections needed. I imported mine to AB so i only had to pay 11.1% tax's.

c43amgedmonton1

Just look in the back seat for a little round tab with a picture of a child seat on it, I think they all have them, if not you can get a kit for cheap, the drl's are turned on through the steering wheel.

ray_huge

I imported my '06 E55 2 years ago and you don't need to change anything. Set the speedo to KM, turn on DRL's, buy some Air bag stickers ( have to be in french as well) and that's it. Of course you get no warranty when you do it this way. All you need is the recall letter, pay your duty, taxes and your done.

tbal

Ray huge... do all mercedes models, or atleast the e55/e63's have the option to set the speedo to KM/H?

ray_huge

The E55 and E63's can do it for sure. I'm not sure about other models.

bce63

I imported a 2007 e63 with 2500 miles on it

I had to replace my speedo, up the bumpers and replace the shift lever(900 bucks) designo. The american one says start/stop but we need the symbols of start stop due to french. Funny BMW does not need it. Also the letter etc. I think it ran me close to 8000 back in 2008 to import incl. shipping and all other costs. 2007 e63. It was worth it for I picked it up the week the cdn dollar was around 1.09 to the Us. My only issues were the way treated by dealership with US car.

saleen01

I think I found an e55 in Canada....thanks for the info guys

saleen01

arghh. still looking guys....e55 or e63.....looking to import, any other experiences?

citylightva

I guess people hold on to theirs up there, because I saw a bunch of AMG's running around Toronto last week...

MB_Forever

I don't know how it is in Canada, but here in the U.S. the E55s and E63s are all over the place. Try a search on AutoTrader or cars.com and you'll find tons of them.

Busta Riles

That's a big one.

Don't expect a lot of help from the local sales guys when you're importing a car.

BlueOpal

Just noticed this thread as I'm usually on the W211 section. Here's my experience with importing recently.

I purchased a 2008 E350 4matic from the US in April of this year and it was very easy to do. You no longer need the clearance letter from MBUSA ($750) if you supply RIV with a copy of the VMI (from US dealership). I called the MB dealership in Buffalo and told them I would be servicing my car with them while still under US warranty so they were happy to provide the VMI for free. I then faxed it to RIV for pre-approval before importing.

I only have a year left on warranty so I was not concerned about doing the Canadian certification ($3,000 was my quote) just to have a Cnd warranty. Anything major comes up and I'll take it to Buffalo.

The speedo only reads in mph but you can change the cluster settings so that the digital speedo in the center in kph. Basically, I have analog sweep in mph and digital centre in kph. This was acceptable for RIV at the Canadian Tire Inspection.

My only costs were 6.1% duty and $250 RIV fee.

I figure I saved at least $14,000 compared to a silimarily equipped Cnd vehicle.

Busta Riles

The need for warranty on an E350 is slightly different than on an E55/E63.

Most people bringing vehicles up here don't live close to a US dealer either, so there isn't that safety net.

Do you think that you will get the same amount for your car when you go to sell it as you would if it were a Canadian car?

BlueOpal

No, from what I've seen in Toronto, US vehicles for sale at Cnd independent dealers here are 15-20% cheaper than the Cnd. equivalent.