Quote:
Originally Posted by StaggerLee
Good Lord! I call that beating a dead horse
You'd be much better off spending that $3,000 on a better example. You can buy pretty much rust free 240's and 300's around here for $3,000 all day long.
|
True, but we're in eastern Canada. Anaheim (for example) is 2650 miles from us.
Add $2,000-$2,500, depending on carrier details, just to get the car back to this part of Canada via truck and through customs.
Transporting a car across the border is extremely expensive if you pay a company to do it, and time consuming and potentially complicated if you drive it back yourself (and tricky depending on how you tag it for the drive home, legal or not). I'm not sure many or any insurance companies in Canada will issue a temporary rider on a car on US plates being driven across the continent, and California companies won't insure a non-resident Canadian either (I have inquired about this stuff). Even with two drivers in shifts, CA to Ontario is 4-5 days driving and a pile of fuel. Assuming you don't end up in some dumpy town, broken down at the side of the road.
Uhaul won't allow its dollies across the border anymore, either, so taking a tow vehicle to go collect it yourself with a rental dolly hasn't been an option for a while now.
And you have the double hassle of having to clear US customs on the way out, and Canadian customs on the way in. Honestly some USCBP agents treat you like you're stealing the thing, and some CBSA agents on our side act like you're smuggling in a Maybach in disguise.
A $3,000 car on the west coast of the US can be a $5,500 car once it reaches here. And it may still need a pile of work. Hell if you bought it long distance, you might have a donkey roll off the truck instead of the draughthorse you imagined (BTDT).
I've done it eight times. I still have puppies from the time the car reaches the US exit point to when it's safely on Canadian soil.
If I could buy a halfway rust-free old Mercedes here, I'd gladly do so and fix some rust. They can't be had. Graham's car is actually pretty reasonable for an old Mercedes in this part of the country, aside from the nasty stuff at the rear.