New owner - import to Canada

I prefer to purchse my vehicles in the economy that I earn my money in, because if all Canadians purchsed all their products and services in other countries we'd all be out of work and have no money to buy a car.

I'm sure the Japanese appreciate it... no matter where you pay for it. I think the Honda Pilot is made in Canada. (bump)

I remember a time when you could hardly find an import in Canada. Were they better off then? I don't think so. I don't recall seeing many people in PEI with Japanese cars until about 1995. Now they are all over the place. Heck, they even build most of them in North America now.

(canada)Canadians wouldn't be out of work if they purchased everything from somewhere else. What would the World be like without Canadian musicians, comedians, actors, oil and so many other great exports?

I typically buy what I think is the best bang for the buck. If everyone bought just the things their own countries produced, we'd end up with some expensive crap that was no good.

I wonder who actually assembles the Toyota Tacoma's in Indiana. Maybe people that once worked in Michigan on US auto assembly lines? What kind of pride do they feel? How does that affect the product? (thought) I wonder if they could do a worse job that they did with GM or Ford?
 
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I'm sure the Japanese appreciate it... no matter where you pay for it. I think the Honda Pilot is made in Canada. (bump)

I remember a time when you could hardly find an import in Canada. Were they better off then? I don't think so. I don't recall seeing many people in PEI with Japanese cars until about 1995. Now they are all over the place. Heck, they even build most of them in North America now.

(canada)Canadians wouldn't be out of work if they purchased everything from somewhere else. What would the World be like without Canadian musicians, comedians, actors, oil and so many other great exports?

I typically buy what I think is the best bang for the buck. If everyone bought just the things their own countries produced, we'd end up with some expensive crap that was no good.

I wonder who actually assembles the Toyota Tacoma's in Indiana. Maybe people that once worked in Michigan on US auto assembly lines? What kind of pride do they feel? How does that affect the product? (thought) I wonder if they could do a worse job that they did with GM or Ford?

I think you're totally missing my point. I don't care where the product is built, I'm talking about supporting your local distributors of the product. How many people are employed buy the Canadian offices of automanufactures and the Canadian dealers. I'm talking about all the people employed in the local electronic, appliance, computer, insurance, financial services, banks....etc. It's not about where the product is made. 3/4 of our work force is employed at distributors for international products or services. All these people would be unemployed and the entire country would collapse.
 
I apologise to the original poster for hijacking his thread. I'm happy you are excited about your new vehicle, I just feel the need to express my opinion on this topic every once in a while. :)
 
Some of you sound like the same pro union crazies around here in Ohio\Mi that hate walmart etc. They blame the people if things collapse for not buying internal products, but the reality is and always will be, better product and better price is what people go for, if you have neither, its not the buyer\consumer's fault. There is no real comparable USA vehicle for the mazda5, so I, the consumer, am not to blame for buying japanese, and if I could lived near the canuckian border and could get a better price on that vehicle by going up north into the cold, I would not hesitate whatsoever to do that. If someone gave me $(*% about not supporting the local dealer you can tell him you tried and they would not deal and they were overpriced. If that dealership falls eventually from their greed then thats business darwinism. Dont feel bad for what you have done, youve done whats best for your family and what any smart consumer should have done.
 
Some of you sound like the same pro union crazies around here in Ohio\Mi that hate walmart etc. They blame the people if things collapse for not buying internal products, but the reality is and always will be, better product and better price is what people go for, if you have neither, its not the buyer\consumer's fault. There is no real comparable USA vehicle for the mazda5, so I, the consumer, am not to blame for buying japanese, and if I could lived near the canuckian border and could get a better price on that vehicle by going up north into the cold, I would not hesitate whatsoever to do that. If someone gave me $(*% about not supporting the local dealer you can tell him you tried and they would not deal and they were overpriced. If that dealership falls eventually from their greed then thats business darwinism. Dont feel bad for what you have done, youve done whats best for your family and what any smart consumer should have done.

Actually I'm as anti-union as it gets. I'm a big believer in free enterprise. You are either not grasping my point or choosing to ignore it and I don't think trying to explain it again will help. As a side note the Mazda 5 at the dealer he was refering to was not overpriced for the Canadian market. There just happen to be cheaper ones in the US market which has the cheapest auto prices in the world. It would actually cost more to buy the same car in any other country. The dealer probably paid $15k for that Mazda 5.
 
I apologise to the original poster for hijacking his thread. I'm happy you are excited about your new vehicle, I just feel the need to express my opinion on this topic every once in a while. :)

meh. No skin off my back as I respect your opinion. Normally I wholeheartedly agree with you. We kinda did what fam posted, except in reverse:
fam said:
There is no real comparable USA vehicle for the mazda5, so I, the consumer, am not to blame for buying japanese, and if I could lived near the canuckian border and could get a better price on that vehicle by going up north into the cold, I would not hesitate whatsoever to do that. If someone gave me $(*% about not supporting the local dealer you can tell him you tried and they would not deal and they were overpriced. If that dealership falls eventually from their greed then thats business darwinism. Dont feel bad for what you have done, youve done whats best for your family and what any smart consumer should have done.

We made an offer on a M5 that was in Canada, keeping in mind that for every penny spent on the car, it was one less penny that could have been spent on other needs for our family. That M5 at the Canadian dealer was brought in on trade-in and was originally listed at $21,999 (it was a 2006 GT/AT). It has sat at that dealer's lot since December 27/07. They dropped the price to $17,999 and the offer we made would have meant they took a loss on the trade-in. The car has since sold. The funny thing is that the dealer was prepared to take the vehicle to auction if it didn't sell within a couple weeks when we went to make an offer. What surprised us is that the local Mazda dealers up here have been doing the same thing and buying fleet vehicles being returned on lease and importing them into Canada and then bumping up the pricing to the going prices up here.

Regardless of whether we didn't support our local economy on the purchase of the vehicle, we will be supporting the local Mazda dealer by taking it in for the regularly scheduled maintenance, etc., and by paying GST, duty, PST.
 
I am new to this Mazda Forum but I agree with Magoo. Yes he did spend money buying the vehicle down south. However, he is now going to have his car serviced in Canada. Either way, I think dealers make more money from servicing the vehicle than the actual selling. If the local dealer maintains its quality service, the customer will keep on coming back to have service done.

And if the economies change around and US price is not lowered than the Canadian price, those that have been treated well at their local dealers may go back and buy another car from them.

I understand dealers may not have any room to move on prices. It is set by Canadian headquarters. I believe if there is enough pressure from buyer to majorly affect the Canadian auto economy, they all will have to reconsider the prices. I don't expect them to match the US prices but should line up more accordingly. I know there is a difference in market population and cost of doing business. The cost of doing business should drop if the entire economy adjust to the difference in the loonies.

I know there has been debates on buying local, specifically manufactured locally, but that has gone out of the windows because more than 75% of the product now sold in Canada are all imported. The debate now moves over to buying from local retailers. It is difficult to contain this trend since everyone will tend to buy low, that is the economic way. So the only option is to stay competitive to gain people business.
 
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