Anyone here ever done this?
Been looking at the selections through some import sites, and the prices are just wow for the mileage.

I live in Canaduh ps..

Just curious if the process is complicated, or more expensive than meets the eye, I'm pretty sure it's the car price + shipping + registration + taxes. Let's say Car price is 5k + 2-3K Shipping + 500 + 650.


Just don't want to do this unless it's harder than I thought.. Also have to pay an extra 1k-2k for LHD conversion for most cars as Canada's insurance is supporting less and less RHD vehicles.

You're not going to be able to insure it.

edit:

Assuming Ontario

This post was edited by ride686 on Mar 6 2014 03:50pm

Shipping depends on fuel price at the time and dimension and weight of the car. Customs price depends on how much the vehicle was purchased for. What are you looking to buy anyways?

Converting a car from RHD to LHD has to be more than one or two grand.....

probably a lot more considering not only will the dash have to be changed but the rack and pinion, tie rods, and probably the pitman arm,, depending on the type of car, just the rack, rods, and pitman will be about 500 by itself.. then you will probably have to swap out the existing power steering pump and pressure/return lines/etc or modify the existing setup (the latter is a hell of a lot cheaper and quicker)

im sure the mounting hardware and firewall ports/grommets are already in the car for the brake, accelerator, and clutch pedals if its a model that is sold stateside, if not, well, you are going to have to do all of that, along with re routing or just custom doing the entire wiring harness for the dash/guage cluster because them harness' are just barely long enough to reach where they gotta go in general, let alone trying to stretch it across to the other side of the car...

2-4k is what it will be probably and 80% of that is going to be the labor cost. If you took time to do it your self you could get it all in the 1k-1.5k area just for parts.

This post was edited by TURBO_DODGE on Mar 6 2014 04:15pm

This, if you don't present the insurance company with a north american VIN, they will assume your car is RHD.

If you're trying to get a decent car on a budget, buy one that's already landed. Less of a headache, for you.

Also, just a heads up, you technically pay taxes twice.

Oh Berg...

i will be attempting to import pretty soon, my partner just came back from vacation we just looking for a nice cheap buy thats easy to resell to try it out and then we will get the nice ones

make sure the car is 15+ y/o

btw no need for rhd to lhd conversion lol
wat kinda vehicle you looking into?

This post was edited by BlueAndWhite on Mar 6 2014 06:00pm

well if you are paying someone to do it you probably arnt going to have them do everything vs doing it yourself to save on cash.

if i was gonna do it myself i would spend the extra cash and relocate everything..but i couldnt justify paying someone 70$ an hour at a shop to move 50$ parts like the vent hookup/blower motor/fuse panel/etc..id do that part myself

so yeah my numbers seem off for that reason, guess i should have specified on that cuz it definitely doesnt add up the way i said it but its close lol

1k in parts and a 4k bill = 75% labor cost..so meh

@All - Thanks for the information, I knew the 15+YO thing, I'm thinking of importing a supra.
I haven't contacted insurance yet however I know if I have to I can go through facility insurance (Ontario).
I still have to contact MTO, just was hoping someone has done it, and I can go off their experience, I know RHD are a pain to insure, and 99% of companies won't touch them anymore.

This won't be till a bit before summer because of Canada, and I have a few scrappers I'm storing that I might just pawn off to friends to fix.

Just thought I could save myself 5-10K by doing this so why not?