Crossing border with courtesy car
 

I was wondering does anyone know or have experience with crossing the border with a courtesy (body shop) car?

I was told it wasn't allowed because of the whole icbc crap; not being covered when in the usa, etc.

can anyone clarify this? because i'm planning to make a trip there while my car is in the shop. i dont want get to the border and be told that i have to turn around and drive home after my hotel and everything has been booked

have crossed over with a rental car and no issues. when they ask who's car - just say bodyshop name and make sure you have papers to prove!

Read the papers that the body shop gives you with the courtesy car, I got a courtesy car once and it says on the paper that the vehicle can only be used within B.C., so I couldn't use it to cross the border.

I've taken a service loaner across the border a lot, they just ask who the vehicle belongs to and that's it

It's best to ask, I had a courtesy car from a body shop and it said on the paperwork that I was not allowed to drive it outside of BC, and I doubled checked with them and they said yes because it gets complicated if something does happen outside of BC and they would rather not deal with the issues.

Most of the time, the border officer ask who the owner of the car is because they are looking for the driver/passenger's reactions.
Normal people should be able to reply quickly with a short answer ie mine, my parent's, or brother/sister's car. If it is a detailed story or the stories don't match, then the officer may investigate further.

As for insurance coverage, I do not know the exact answer to that.

When your car is in a body shop, your own ICBC coverage is transfered to your courtesey car, so you do have insurance coverage in the states.
However, if the body shop owns their own car (ie. Not fleet rental from an enterprise or smth) they can have their own rules which prohibits you from taking their car across the border.

Also, in the event you get into an accident, your body shop can also ask you to repay the damages up front while you settle the claim w/ icbc/3rd party US insurer.
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With rentals, unless you mention that you are taking it out of the province and have it noted on the contract, they may consider it a violation of the contract, as some state it's for in province only.

If that's the case, like skiiipi said, you might have to pay for the damages up front.