Sustainable Personal Finance

This series of posts outlines how we saved $9364.47 buying a 2011 Subaru Outback Limited in the United States as a vehicle import. The following is the purchase details of our purchase.

Here are the numbers:

Total Cost: $27,293
invoice (MSRP in brackets)
$26270 invoice for car ($27995)
$695 destination fee
$309 for PZEV
-$300 Van Bortel discount
$110 NY State Fees
$52 - rear bumper cover ($80)
$84 - splash guards ($129)
$34 - rear cargo net ($52)
$39 - all weather mats ($69)

Assessed price (in CDN for taxation purposes - assessed at customs): $28,288
$1,514.42 GST + AC tax
$2273.05 PST

$220.35 RIV

USD Exchange hit: $1,037.89
Exchange Rate: 1.0380

Toll CDN: $7
Toll US: ~$10.00 CDN
Big Mac: $3.94 (lunch)

Dad’s gas: $29
Hyundai gas: $30

Vehicle Safety + Clean Air Test: $132.21
Vehicle Registration: $0

SubTotal: 32,550.86
-$300 for 2010 price
TOTAL: 32,250.86 (give or take - exchange rate not included on these last discounts)

SUBARU.CA BUILD

$36,371.75 (MSRP + accessories)

TOTAL: 36,371.75 + 1725 destination
= 37896.75

HST: $4870.60 *** according to Subaru on line pricing

CDN + TAX: 42823.33

CDN Price = $42,823.33
CDN Adjusted* = $41,615.33 (less moon roof and navigation which are $1658 worth of options @ Van Bortel)
USD Price = $32,250.86

If we’d bought our USD back when we were at par we would have paid even less - at par, the total cost for this car would have been: $31,402,97

So we paid 77.5% of the CDN price.

(would have been 75.7% if we’d gotten our USD at parity)

This series of posts outlines how we saved over $9300 buying a 2011 Subaru Outback Limited in the United States as a vehicle import. The following is the tale of the journey to make our purchase.

We arranged to pick the car up Monday, July 12th at 11am. Originally we were hoping to use the Thousand Islands bridge to export, but Karl at Van Bortel (the Subaru dealership) informed us that this port of entry has different rules than does the Lewiston Bridge near Buffalo. Basically, Thousand Islands requires the original title, signed, whereas the Lewiston Bridge only requires a faxed unsigned copy. Title does not get released until you pay for the car, so the only way to use the Thousand Island entry was to wait an additional 72 hours (and another trip!). Forget that! Same state, different rules. Peculiar.

My father had offered to help me get to NY to pick the car up. My wife has Dutch lineage, so we decided to drive to my Dad’s place to watch the Dutch play Spain in the World Cup final on Sunday the 11th. My wife doesn’t get vacation time where we work so I needed to either take a bus, plane or drive down w/ my father. I’m not in the Greater Toronto Area, so getting to a plane or bus was going to be a pain. My Dad had offered to drive 2+ hrs to my house, then the 6 hours or so to Buffalo, then 6 hours back to where I live, then 2 to his place. He just had his knee replaced 3 months ago, so I thought this was silly. So we headed to his place on the Sunday and my wife drove home after the soccer match. Holland losing was disappointing. Actually the entire final was a poor game to watch.

My father and I embarked on our adventure at 6:55am Monday morning. Quite the trip we were about to take as my dad drives a 1987 (yes, you read that right) Honda Civic (has about 120,000 km on it. It was my grandmothers old car). It was hot, as all of Ontario had been for a month. Our drive was uneventful. We paid a toll to cross the bridge, and it took about 10 minutes to get through the US border. My appointment at Van Bortel was at 11am and we arrived at 10:59am! Great timing. One note - NY State police don’t put up with speeding. We saw a half dozen pulled over cars - so watch your speed. 5-7 mph over won’t get you in trouble, but I wouldn’t risk more than that. Also, the I-90 is a toll highway, so I paid for the toll when we got off of it @ Victor NY. So remember to bring US funds! To buy food, gas, tolls. They don’t take a credit card at the toll booths. I forgot to get some and had to take an ATM exchange hit to make a withdrawal.

It took about 40 minutes to do the paperwork and take a look at the car. Everything was in order and the Van Bortel staff were awesome. They provided free drinks (water, pop, coffee) and snacks which were welcoming after a long drive. The staff provided the paperwork in organized groups - those I needed for my records and those for the import office. They also provided a map that had instructions on it for when I got to the US border (to do the export) which showed the customs area and which building I needed to get to. Very handy.

My Dad and I departed in our separate directions. I drove about an hour and was pretty hungry, so I pulled over at a rest stop and bought/downed a Big Mac, my first in years! I continued on and paid another toll when I got to the next exit/highway. It was an odd drive only in that I wasn’t used to the size of the Outback compared to my 2002 Hyundai Accent. There was a lot of construction, including on the bridges over Niagara, so the lanes were narrower than usual but I managed it. It’s just driving after all. I paid one more bridge toll getting back into Canada.

When I hit US Customs I used my handy maps from Van Bortel to get myself to the right building. In under 10 minutes I was on my way to the Canadian border. There were 3 cars ahead of mine trying to get processed, so it took about 7-8 minutes for my turn. It took about 10 minutes for the border agent to get information from me about the import. I’m not totally sure how many questions were required by Canada Border needs and how many were for his own informational purposes! He was impressed with my new Cyprus Green Outback though! After he was done checking my papers I drove to the Import office. It took me under 20 minutes to fill out the Form 1 and for the officer to process the paperwork. Another 5 minutes to pay for the A/C tax + GST.

I then drove home! I took the 407. We’ll see if the cameras were able to read the temp paper licence in the window. That will be an additional cost if they can. An OPP officer pulled up beside me and slowed - obviously checking the temp licence. I didn’t get pulled over, which was nice. So I kept driving to my home town. I got home around 5:45 pm.

The day after I brought the car home (a Tuesday) the mechanics who maintain my Accent offered to buy it from me for $2200, and they’d handle the safety, work that needed done (if any) and the emissions test. I was hoping to sell it for $2500 but that would include safety/emissions - and the potential of having to fix up things. So a good deal for us as far as we were concerned (and it covered our PST on the new car!). I also wouldn’t have to deal with showing the car, no shows and haggling. Lastly, I was able to transfer my old plates to the new car - so no need to buy more.

On the Tuesday I also downloaded my Form 2 from RIV. (if you give them your email you can forgo snail-mail and get a PDF version to print). Wednesday I took the car to Canadian Tire after dinner, but I was unable to get the inspection done on the spot - so I booked for Thursday after work to get the inspection done.

Friday I went to the MTO with all of my paper work and spent about 15 minutes registering our new Outback. This went smoothly and I went home and attached my old plates to our new car.

So that’s it! Easy as pie. One vacation day used, some extra expenses (gas, lunch, tolls, safety/emissions) but still, mega savings versus buying at our local dealership. We got the vehicle we had researched and decided upon and we couldn’t be happier.

This series of posts outlines how we saved over $9300 buying a 2011 Subaru Outback Limited in the United States as a vehicle import. The following is the background of our purchase.

It was time for a new car. We own a beautiful 3 yr old giant breed dog (not depicted). Our 2002 4 door Hyundai Accent meant our 100+ lb dog took the (entire) back seat and our 300 litre trunk had to accommodate the rest of our storage. Our hunt started in Dec 2009. We almost bought a used 2006 Ford Focus wagon via private sale. Decided against that and started looking at new cars. I asked around on RFD in the Automotive forum. I analyzed quite a few wagons and CUVs. We came close to paying for a 2WD CR-V EX (for about $32,000), and then I decided to read the19,000 + post thread on importing cars from the United States - as suggested by some people who posted in my CUV thread. The prospect of buying a loaded US Outback for about the same price as a base Canadian Outback is a hoping to become financially savvy Canadian’s dream.

We wanted an Outback, but the base model at our local dealership was going to cost us ~$32,000. The Limited was a whopping $42,000. Given we live in a smaller centre there was little room to negotiate even though I had obtained the Canadian invoice price. I do hate the freight + delivery here in Canada - total dealership cash grab as far as I am concerned. Yes, I paid delivery in the US, but it was about 50% of what we would have to pay in Canada.

We wanted the Limited model. We didn’t want a moon roof or NAV. Those cost about $1658 in the US as options. In Canada they are included in the Limited and the buyer has no choice in the matter. The standard front under guard, wood trim, and leather are nice but we didn’t care about them much. The Harmon Karmon stereo is vastly superior to the stock stereo on other models. We also wanted the power passenger side seats, which are not available w/ the Premium or Base models. Most importantly, we wanted the dual zone temperature/climate feature as Mrs. Sustainable PF and I differ when it comes to heat and air conditioning temperatures. We also orders mud flaps, rear bumper protector, rear cargo net,

I emailed Karl @ VanBortel a slew of times. He was great. I highly recommend working your deal via Karl @ VanBortel if you can get to NW NY State to buy your car (in Victor which is pretty much the midpoint between Syracuse and Buffalo). Also, they sell for invoice – always - and they clearly state the difference between the invoice price you will get versus the manufacturer MSRP. You might be able to get a lower rate from Van Bortel, but I was content with invoice (on the car and accessories).

I started doing the math. I figured I could get this car for $31,000 if I got my CDN-USD foreign exchange at par. We didn’t get it at par, we paid a bit more, but we did pick the right time as the Loonie was stronger when we purchased then it ended up being for the following months.

We were slated to get a 2010 Outback, but those got increasingly difficult to order (our first request was not met for the May 1 delivery). Karl suggested we get a 2011 instead. Might have to wait a bit longer, but it’s a newer vehicle. Our order was placed when Subaru of America announced the production start date (mid June I think). We then learned our order had been filled. Karl also honoured the 2010 quote he gave me on both the car and accessories. The 2011 is about $300 more. He also gave me accessories at the Premium price, not Limited prices as for some reason they differ.

Our search for a car was a long one. We had specific criteria we wanted met in order to ensure this very large purchase was a good one. After considering may CUVs and wagons our choice came down to the Honda CR-V, Subaru Outback, Toyota Venza, Volkswagen Golf Wagon and the Hyundai Touring. The Touring was not going to meet our cargo capacity requirements so we considered the other four vehicles with a price range between $28,000 to $35,000. We next eliminated the VW due to reliabilty issues and the Venza as it was the highest price car and while the Venza has not been recalled by Toyota, the manufacturer has had too many issues of late for us to trust in their product. We almost purchased the CR-V EX but quickly changed our minds upon learning about how easy it is to import a vehicle from the US. In addition, the fact we could save over $9300 buying the top end Outback for the same price as the CR-V EX, the choice became a no brainer.

Cypress Green 2011 Subaru Outback

We liked the Outback as it is highly regarded vehicle and the new 2010 model was ranked as the #1 affordable full size wagon. As we plan to start a family someday, good safety ratings were also important to us.

In accordance to our desire to leave a smaller foot print on the earth we were also attracted to the Outback as it is a PZEV.

“PZEV stands for “Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle”. In order to earn this certification, a vehicle must meet the Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle (SULEV) tailpipe standard, have zero evaporative emissions and post a 15-year/100,000-kilometer warranty on emission control components.
How does a PZEV work?
All vehicles certified as PZEV feature these four advancements:

* First, the air intake system must use a charcoal canister to eliminate unburned gas fumes during the combustion process;
* Second, the fuel injectors are more finely tuned and they close tighter to prevent evaporative emissions from fuel leakage;
* Third, the exhaust system incorporates a more effective catalytic converter to reduce noxious particulates like nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and other volatile compounds;
* And fourth, the engine control unit (ECU) must be reprogrammed to make the engine very hot upon starting, thus improving the performance of the catalytic converter.

As a result of all this, a PZEV is 90-percent cleaner than the average new automobile sold just four years ago. From now on, as Canada emulates the Californian regulation, every passenger vehicle sold in the country will have to meet this standard — which isn’t the case in all U.S. states, however.”

We knew our next vehicle would have higher fuel consumption than did our 2002 Hyundai Accent. Our criteria for fuel consumption was that it must use less than 10L/100 km city and less than 8L/100 km on the highway. The new Outback has made great strides toward improving its fuel consumption. The OB achieves city: 22 mpg, 9.5 L/100 km and highway: 29 mpg, 7.4 L / 100 km. Criteria exceeded!

As mentioned, we wanted a reliable vehicle. Subarus are known for their reliability but we did have some concerns after visiting the forums at subaruoutback.org. Some OBs have had a rather violent steering wheel shake issue. The Van Bortel team informed us that they had not had a single “shaker” to date so we decided that the percentage of “shakers” was so low we would take the risk on the purchase as the savings were fantastic and the car highly regarded. We did have one recall notice, but it was not a big deal at all. The programming for the PZEV was updated (improved!) so we had to take our car into the local dealership to get this fixed. I was a bit worried about how I would be received at a Canadian dealership but my concerns were for nought as the experience was pleasant and the service fast.

We realized we needed storage space for our giant breed dog and down the line a growing family. The Outback has 34.3 cubic feet of cargo volume with all seats in use and 71.3 cubic feet of space with the rear seats folded down. The following chart shows a that the CR-V has a tiny bit more space but this advantage was not nearly enough for us to choose that vehicle.

Resale value of the vehicle was mildly important to us. I say mildly because we will drive this car into the ground before we sell it. We love our OB and it meets so many of our needs we do not foresee needing a different vehicle. Subarus do resale at a high value and have recently been identified as the best brand for resale value.

We do our best to buy local, buy Ontario, buy Canada. We really do, but not to the tune of over $9300 or 23% savings. The difference in price south of the border is criminal. I feel bad for Canadian dealerships who can’t sell cars at their true value. We decided we would use our massive savings from our import to buy local/Ontario/Canada. We recently used some of that money to purchase a couch and love seat made In Canada. At least the Outback is built in Indiana so North America benefited from our purchase.

A big benefit to buying a car from the United States is that we got to configure how we wanted the car in the US. In Canada the trim levels are pre-configured and a buyer gets what they are presented with. The Limited trim in Canada automatically comes with navigation and a moon roof. We already own a GPS so the navigation was not valuable to us. We liked the idea of the moon roof but it was a nice-to-have not a must-have. By choosing to not select these options we saved $1658! We really like some of the standard features in the Limited trim. The leather seats mean that when we start a family spills are quick and easy to clean up. Also, while many Outback owners dislike this features, we love the integrated roof rack. Basically the roof rails pop out of the roof rails to create an instant roof rack system in 2 minutes or less.

Lastly, we do fit the Subaru buyer demographic as university educated, middle class, nature loving outdoors people. That we write this blog on Sustainable Personal Finance I think says enough.