but in the last year, MB USA has locked down the dealers to stop the flow. Apparently US dealers get docked all of the money they made on the sale, plus lose one unit of allocation for next year if any new car they sell shows up in MB Canada database within one year.
Dave
That sucks. If this is true to all dealers in the U.S., it pretty much means there's no one who can import Mercedes from the States to Canada. I guess there's nothing more to talk about.
Don't buy from a dealership! However, this requires that you have someone of confidence in the US. Have a friend (US resident) purchase the vehicle for you in a different state than his or her state of residence (avoid US sales taxes), then purchase the vehicle from that person on the same day and bring it to Canada as a used vehicle.
It is a very complicated process, you need to send the custom the original bill of sale 72 hours before you arrive at the border. When you arrive, you need the admiissible letter from MB Canada ready. On top of that, MB Canada only honor international warranty, which covers you for 2 years/40000km, anything after that you need to go back to USA to get the warranty repairs. Also, if it is a car from the states, when you want to get rid of your car, the value will be lower than the vehicles purchased in Canada.
On top of that you need to do all the inspections and modifications, which will cost you from maybe 2K to 8K depending on the model. So at the end of the day, do you really save money? It's something for you to think about.
As an used vehicle, the process is very similar with the new cars as well. I dont think its worth the time and money to go through the process myself.
The weak dollar has every Mercedes dealership hassled by exporters on a daily basis. Yes you can buy a Mercedes in the US for a lot less. This is because the US is the largest buyer of Mercedes-Benz for the company in the world. To be competitive with Japanese imports, and other makes they have to take a smaller profit on the cars.
As many of you know, there is a class action lawsuit against car manufacturers accusing them of price fixing or something.
Do you think maybe for the next model year (2009) cars, MB might slash the price down to parity with the States?
As many of you know, there is a class action lawsuit against car manufacturers accusing them of price fixing or something.
Do you think maybe for the next model year (2009) cars, MB might slash the price down to parity with the States?
I highly doubt that's going to happen at least anytime soon because MB dealers are paying Euros (not USD) for their vehicles and CAN is more stable against Euros. Unless the vehicles cost less for the dealers in Canada (and for Canada dealers ONLY), or else it's probably not going to happen anytime soon. The other possibility is that MB USA raise their price on their vehicles to make it even with Canadian MBs, but then they will lose the competitiveness with domestic competitors.
That's just my opinion from top of my head, who knows what is going to happen. Guess we can just wait and see what's going to happen
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