BMW 1 Series Coupe Forum / 1 Series Convertible Forum (1M / tii / 135i / 128i / Coupe / Cabrio / Hatchback) (BMW E82 E88 128i 130i 135i)
 





 

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      08-30-2007, 01:54 PM   #1
Khobin~
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Buying from the US...

So a few days ago the wife floated me the idea of buying the 128i in the states, and making bit of a small vacation out of it....

This of course seemed like a good idea, as we'd probably save about 3-5 k by doing that.

So she looked into what we needed for bringing it across the border, and I contacted the BMW in Seattle.

Unfortunately their response was less then what we had hoped for:

" I want to thank you for your vehicle inquiry. We cannot sell new cars for import into Canada. I really wish that we could do so, as we get several calls per day, asking us to sell cars to Canadians, for import back accross the border. We can sell pre owned cars, jusyt not new ones. The new I series definately falls under the classification of, "new" Sorry that I cannot help you."
:bs:

So I was just wondering if anyone else had looked into going to the US to buy their 1'er, and if you got the same kind of response?
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      08-30-2007, 02:17 PM   #2
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That's interesting... I guess you have to find someone with a US address and get them to buy it for you (then buy it off them)
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      08-30-2007, 02:23 PM   #3
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From what I understand there are warrantee issues too, even if you bought it "used". I don't have it in front of me, but I recall reading that the US warantee won't be honored by Canadian BMW dealers. You might want to research this since I can't find where I read it...
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      08-30-2007, 02:59 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Khobin~ View Post
So a few days ago the wife floated me the idea of buying the 128i in the states, and making bit of a small vacation out of it....

....
The other thing that MAY happen, is improvements to the Canadian ED program.
They were rumoured to be taking place when the new BMW Welt opens...

A holiday on the Autobahn & saving a few bucks sounds good to me :smile:
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      08-30-2007, 05:24 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nixon View Post
From what I understand there are warrantee issues too, even if you bought it "used". I don't have it in front of me, but I recall reading that the US warantee won't be honored by Canadian BMW dealers. You might want to research this since I can't find where I read it...

Yeah that was part of my inquiry to the guy, but that that's all the response that I got...

It's ok though, there are local dealers, it's just that if you look at the the dollar - dollar right now, prices here are waaaay inflated.

Like people are thinking a 128 will be about 26k US, that means it'll be around 35-36 k cdn here...ouch

Whereas to do the exchance rate, taxes etc, at the border, it would cost me around 30-31 k CANADIAN to buy it from the states

That combined with having a credit with Air Canada(fro a shitty flight home from holidays here a few weeks ago) we were thinking of flying to Seattle, then driving it back up the coast to the Vancouver and through the rockies...seemed like a good way to break her in

Buuut like I said, just means I'll probably end up paying the extra $$ and getting it locally:iono:
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      08-30-2007, 05:25 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by inTgr8r View Post
The other thing that MAY happen, is improvements to the Canadian ED program.
They were rumoured to be taking place when the new BMW Welt opens...

A holiday on the Autobahn & saving a few bucks sounds good to me :smile:
That'd be fun, but then I'd need the wife to NOT be in the car to really enjoy the Autobahn
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      08-31-2007, 12:41 PM   #7
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+/- 26?

Hey everyone,

I'm brand new to the forums, and I'm glad to see as many people excited about this fantastic auto as I am. So the estimate for a new 128 is around 26? Does anyone have ideas about a price range for the 135? I'm about to graduate college, and feel this is my 'next' bmw. I love the one I have now, it's the perfect college bimmer, but I've done the work for the new 1'er. ideas on those prices?
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      08-31-2007, 12:55 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ahansen7 View Post
Hey everyone,

I'm brand new to the forums, and I'm glad to see as many people excited about this fantastic auto as I am. So the estimate for a new 128 is around 26? Does anyone have ideas about a price range for the 135? I'm about to graduate college, and feel this is my 'next' bmw. I love the one I have now, it's the perfect college bimmer, but I've done the work for the new 1'er. ideas on those prices?
welcome!

nobody knows for sure but the general guess range is as follows:

128i base: 26-29k
135i base: 34-36k
+/- 10% :wink:
you'll find many threads on this ... and many disagreements.
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      08-31-2007, 07:19 PM   #9
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Yup, I was actually in Chicago just two weeks ago and i had some free time so I swung by a BMW dealership there. the guy knew all about the 1 series and I asked him about importing it to Canada. Just a couple months earlier someone had done the same thing, he needed a US address (which he had) but even then it was still a bit of a headache. The CA though was pretty floored when I told him about how much more cars like the 335 are up here, I guess when the dollar was way lower it made sense, but now with the $ near par there are certainly a lot of people who are interested in this option.

So the Coles notes version, same story as you got, no luck (but great service). Can't sell for export to Canada.
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      08-31-2007, 08:01 PM   #10
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To me, this is very confusing.
Can one of you guys explain the disparity of rates between the currency's? Everything I know (only a little) points to the two countries having similar standards of living, similar economies.

Is it that the US dollar's worth is inflated because of our trade agreements
with China and the oil-producing countries?
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      09-01-2007, 07:46 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brookside View Post
To me, this is very confusing.
Can one of you guys explain the disparity of rates between the currency's? Everything I know (only a little) points to the two countries having similar standards of living, similar economies.

Is it that the US dollar's worth is inflated because of our trade agreements
with China and the oil-producing countries?
Thats a pretty loaded question... so I'm not going to try to explain it for fear of someone with more insight to our economic situation coming out and correcting me. I can't really explain why, but yeah, the Canadian dollar has been discounted to the American dollar for about 25 years now, there once was a time when our dollar was worth more... At its lowest though, maybe 6 or 7 years ago the CDN$ was worth about 62 cents US, now its hovering between 95 and 97 cents US. Sadly (and not without reason), retailers have been hesitant to correct retail prices here to reflect the narrowed discrepancy between CDN and US dollars since who knows, maybe this state of affairs will be short lived and our dollar will stabilize at a lower rate (hopefully not). Therefore when it comes to stuff like cars, we're still paying thousands more even after the exchange rate for our cars.

Anyways, Canada's rising dollar has from what I understand has been the result of the American economy showing signs of weakness (ie; the current subprime mortgage fiasco) and simple slowed growth following the dot com crisis. But also with the high price of oil, Alberta's oil production has been increasing at quite an impressive pace, so Canada, as the #1 supplier of oil to the US (not Saudi Arabia, we export about 3 million bpd to you guys), has been enjoying sort of an economic mini-boom lead largely by resource values. Hence, our dollar has been doing pretty well.

Now, I'm from Alberta so my slant might be a bit biased, so if anyone has a different take on things or wants to add or disprove me, I won't take offence.

But yeah, you're dead on, Canada and the US IMHO are fairly similar in terms of spending habits and standards of living. That might be oversimplifying a bit but on the macro scale we're a lot more like the US than say Asia or Europe.
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      09-01-2007, 07:47 PM   #12
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I guess I did try and explain it...
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      09-01-2007, 09:08 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Road Runner View Post
Anyways, Canada's rising dollar has from what I understand has been the result of the American economy showing signs of weakness (ie; the current subprime mortgage fiasco) and simple slowed growth following the dot com crisis.
I have to disagree with both of those reasons. They're blimps and not causes of the trend.

The CDN dollar had been stronger against the US dollar well before subprime mortgages had any negative effect on the market. The Dot-com bust was in the late 90's and the economy has more than recovered.

I'd place the blame on the printing presses at the US mint.
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      09-01-2007, 10:56 PM   #14
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Originally Posted by lib View Post
I have to disagree with both of those reasons. They're blimps and not causes of the trend.

The CDN dollar had been stronger against the US dollar well before subprime mortgages had any negative effect on the market. The Dot-com bust was in the late 90's and the economy has more than recovered.

I'd place the blame on the printing presses at the US mint.
Right, well I didn't mean to say that they were the cause of the trend by any means, they just the first couple examples that came to mind that the economy is/has had a rough go. The dot coms were a while ago, but it was around then that the CDN dollar sort of bottomed out against the US$, it wasn't long after that when the CDN$ started gaining ground. I'm no economist, and I'm not living down there so you are certainly more attuned to whats going on down there than I am. I won't disagree with any commentary anyone else makes on the US markets.
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      09-01-2007, 11:20 PM   #15
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Hmm sounds like ya could just wait a few months buy a pre-owned one..to me thats sounds like what he was trying to say without coming right out and saying it....read between the lines
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