Introduction - Heading over from Aus
 

G'day all,

So my GF and I are moving over to your awesome country towards the end of the year (Oct'ish) and plan on staying for a few years. We'll spend the majority of the time at ski resorts on a working holiday Visa, hopefully not one of those Aussie infested ones... (I can only apologize for my fellow countrymen's mistakes.) But enough of this background talk and into cars!

Currently I own a Subaru Liberty (Legacy) GT (2010 build) and my GF an early 2000's fozzy.

We both want to land in Vancs and head straight for an import dealership (or have the cars ready by the time we land) and purchase our respective wanted vehicles

Myself: an early 2000's Legacy B4 Wagon (TT) in manual.
Her: an early 2000's Forester GT/XT in manual.

(Is it just me or do manuals rarely exist in this country?!?!)

Now I'm not asking for anyone to look for the cars for us (as this is still the early stages) but I'm finding it a little difficult to locate a list of reputable import agents/dealerships that we can begin dialogue with when the time comes!

Also what are the "on-road" costs associated after the purchase of a vehicle? Average registration costs? Compulsory Insurance? Road Tax? (I am not sure what type of costs are required for Canada)

TLDR: Any suggestions on reputable Jap import agents/dealerships?

Cheers for any help, hope to see you all on some meets at the end of the year/next year!



Added: Couple of pics of my current car for contents sake :)


http://www.revscene.net/forums/membe...5260-009-3.jpg

http://www.revscene.net/forums/membe...5259-007-3.jpg

http://www.revscene.net/forums/membe...0/5258-002.jpg

hello! and an early welcome to canada :D

looks like you're not alone on your venture to our country. I believe you'll find some useful information here as it was quite recent:

http://www.revscene.net/forums/70257...w-ya-goin.html

Cheers for the link, answered some of my questions!

There are plenty manuals around.. perhaps being in a mountainous area there are less, but I've never had a problem finding what I want in stick.

Avoid any dealerships on a street called Kingsway in Burnaby and you should be ok. If you find something and are uncertain, post here and I'm sure some RS'ers will give you feedback.

Thanks, I've noticed that this VelocityCars place seems to have a fair few imports listed on craigslist, seems that Burnaby has the majority of dealerships in Vancouver. I'll keep an eye out, cheers!

I was about to recommend velocitycars. I was going to buy a s15 from them, but chose to go to school instead. There's a rep post here somewhere. I'll try finding it later when I get home. They're also on revscene so contacting them shouldn't be hard

I'll echo what punkwax said, if you're unsure or want a second opinion, feel free to post it here and we'll give you some feedback

Vancs.... that is so much more awesome than Vangcouver

Funny you say that, when I say Vancouver I definitely have the "ang" in there..
I apologize for my incompetence hahaha.

What's the deal with less manuals in mountainous areas? The whole "lose momentum when shifting" thing? Otherwise wouldn't a manual just be more fun in the mountains?!?

For now I'm just gonna trawl CL to get a feel for the market, since we won't be buying till sept-oct. I'll keep up activity on this forum though, seems good so far!

Yeah I saw the rep post after some google'ing, mixed reviews, mostly bad since the rep seemed to leave the company, unless there's a more updated thread! I think the one I saw was around mid-late last year

I meant there might be less demand for manual because less people are comfortable starting on hills.. like in San Fran, I've heard everything is auto down there.

I don't think it rings very true for Van.. like I said, I've never had a problem finding manuals, just takes some patience.

Working holiday visa hey...

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...83/726/c0d.jpg

Comparatively, vehicle prices in Canada is significantly less than in Australia. I just did a quick comparison between Liberty/Legacy MSRP on Subaru.com.au and Subaru.ca, and the difference is between 10k to 12k. My point is that you don't have to purchase a 15+ years old vehicle if you already have a set budget point in mind. That is if AUD and CAD are still on par by the time you move to Vancouver.

The "on-road" costs is pretty simplified. After the vehicle purchase, you need to register and insure the car, if you're planning on driving it on the roads. Both are mandatory and need to done together through ICBC, a government run company. The level of insurance is up to you (bare minimum, average, or maximum). The road tax is already included at the fuel pump, which is 42.17c in Vancouver.

Motor fuel taxes in Canada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Welcome. I lived in Sydney for 8 months a while back and I have a few friends from there as well.

If you're into cars, you'll notice that the biggest difference in car pricing from Australia is imported German cars.

e.g.
2015 M3 = $80K-$90K here versus $160K in Australia.
2015 GTI = $30-$40K here versus $40-$60K in Australia.

Obviously used prices reflect this as well. My aussie friends working here seemed to be most interested in muscle cars - Mustangs/Camaros/Challengers. You can't buy those cars in Australia without spending a fortune importing and modifying them and they are relatively cheap here.

Yeah that makes sense, the hills in Frisco are bloody brutal, even in an auto! (Visited recently, didn't particularly like the place, it was much better than anything south of it though!)

Hey don't be like that! I'm going to be on the International Experience Canada Visa.... It's more like the "I'm young and cbf going to uni so i'll bum around in other countries to delay the inevitable" visa...

The costs are reflected even for imports, If I spend ~8k for an import in Canada, you're looking at around ~12-15k for the same thing in Australia, we get shafted here at the moment, laws are slowly changing so the car scene down under should be significantly better in the years to come!

We're not particularly focused on getting imports, it's just everything that's caught our eyes so far have been them! Our budget is limited as we're looking at major pay cuts while moving over (lifestyle changes amirite?) I'm looking at around 1/5th the pay and my partner around 1/2, in pay cuts. So I guess we need to budget according to what we can afford, it's the sensible thing to do.

Thanks a lot for the cost info, very helpful!

Yeah pretty much all Euro cars get slammed with our infamous Luxury Car Tax, instantly putting a ridiculous markup on them.

My GF and I love muscle cars as well, and plan to have an old project mustang in the garage too, but for now we'll settle for a mountain/winter friendly forced induction practical AWD to start off with.

Good news on the horizon for us Aussies though, the mustang is just landing now with the Camaro around the corner, no news on Dodge though, that hellcat is a beaut!

Don't let other Vancouverites fool you, there is no need for an AWD or winter friendly car here.


This was today:


http://i.imgur.com/NxdkR4M.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/cfwrki4.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/y8iDZpz.jpg


Seriously there are like 2-3 "bad" weather days in Vancouver the entire year. The rest of the time there is rain, overcast, or golden sunshine. :)

Number one thing to bring to Vancity is CASH and lots of it.