July 11, 2022

Tips for Buying and Shipping a Car from Another Province

The struggle to find a new or used car right now is real; there simply isn’t enough supply to keep up with demand. And this situation is doubly difficult if you have a specific model, colour, or features in mind.

To combat limited local supply, maybe you’ve decided to broaden your search radius, maybe significantly. While looking nationally for new or used cars used to be something or a rarity, reserved for limited edition, vintage, or collectors’ vehicles, more and more people are considering out-of-province purchases to get them their dream car faster.

Here’s what you need to know about interprovincial car buying, shipping, and making sure you don’t end up with a lemon.

Local Provincial Regulations

Regardless of whether you are buying a car in another province and driving it home or hiring car movers to take care of the job for you, there are several hoops you are going to need to jump through before that car can leave the lot.

Firstly, when you buy the car, whether privately or from a dealer, you will need to pay sales tax in that province, get insurance, and apply for an in-transit permit. Then when you get home, you’ll need to go through the process all over again; transferring over the registration, getting insurance, paying tax in your home province, and working on getting a refund from the province you bought the car in.

Driving or Car Shipping

Finding a new or used car might have been the easy part. Now that you have one, you have to figure out how to get it home. Depending on where the car is coming from, flying out or getting a friend to drop you off may be most convenient. However, if you’re picking up a vehicle several hundred kilometres or more away, you might want to look into car shipping companies.

Car movers can take care of all the work of getting your new car from A to B, but they won’t be able to transport your vehicle until you’ve got all your paperwork sorted. So before hiring a car shipping company, make sure the title has been transferred, the car’s been registered, and your insurance sorted.

Steering Clear of Lemons

In a perfect world, you would never buy a car sight unseen. But the reality is that the time and costs of travel might make in-person inspection impossible. The next best thing to testing out a potential car is to have someone you know locally to take a look at the car; you might even be able to hire a mechanic from the area to inspect the ride. This is particularly important when buying from a private seller, but it’s always best to know exactly what you’re getting, even when purchasing from a dealer.

Failing to secure an in-person test drive, ask the seller for plenty of pictures of the interior and exterior of the car.

Add Up All the Costs

Before you buy, it’s important to consider all the costs associated with the purchase you’re about to make to see if buying a car from out of province still makes sense. While saving a couple of thousand dollars and several months of waiting might seem like a good idea, make sure you’ve done the math before buying.