In our ongoing series about cross border shopping, we’ve focused on the price and convenience. While retail prices of new cars are substantially cheaper in the United States than they are in Canada, the practicality of a cross border purchase depends on a buyers individual needs.

So you’ve made the decision that buying a car from south of the border is the way to go for you. You’ve called around to a few dealers, found your car and done the deal. Now what?

Fellow Nissan Truck Club member Derek Penny recently went through this process when he imported a Land Rover Discovery into Ontario. He’s gone to the trouble of documenting his story for the benefit of other intrepid cross border shoppers:
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We’ve determined that on your average sedan or pocket rocket, the Canadian consumer will save about 5 grand by picking up a new car south of the border. On the surface, that would appear to be a pretty choice if one were in the market for a new car. But is it really the best choice?

Financially, there are obviously some vehicles that are a better deal than others and typically, the dollar value is relevant to the price point of the car you are looking at. For example, a Mitsubishi Lancer sells for $13,990 in the States and $2,500 here in Canada. At the other end of the scale, a BMW 750i, which sells for $108,500 in Toronto can be bought south of the border with a whopping discount of $32,700.
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There has been a lot of talk in the Canadian media these days regarding cross border car shopping. The topic has become a daily discussion within the industry, as dealers try to benefit from the cheap prices to the south and manufacturers try to stem the flow of cars into Canada.

Recently we discussed the problem of the price differential from the US to Canada, but we didn’t go into any real dollar details other than the Porsche 911. Most of us will never buy a new 911, so that’s not a real world comparison. Why don’t we see what the differences are for the rest of us and see if it really is worth the effort to buy from south of the border.
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Shopping for a new car could be a very exciting time, except for one thing. It means going to a car dealership, which for many people is worse than a visit to the dentist. The internet has the potential to be a great help for the consumer to educate themselves, so many of their questions are answered before they step foot in a dealership.

In fact, the net savvy consumer often knows more about a vehicle than the salesman they end up visiting. The problem then is that the consumer still has to head in to a dealer to negotiate a price.
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A while back, I wrote about the price differential between cars in Canada and the United States. Some of the readers who commented and sent e-mails, couldn’t believe that there was such a drastic difference between dealers who are sometimes even in the next town. There is.

I just came across the following statement by John Chow that hits the nail on the head:
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Over at Jalopnik, they are talking about this really cool engineering wonder of the German car world. It looked pretty cool so I scooted over to the home site to find that this incredible car stacker is only just the beginning of a wild automotive adventure.

The incredible car dispenser is actually housed within a VW new car dealership and holds their complete new car inventory. Buy a new car, give a token to the attendant and the machine retrieves your car. A glass door opens and spits our your new car. I wonder how they shake the machine when a car gets stuck in it’s slot. When it finally falls, do you sometimes get two?

The Volkswagen dealership is actually one of 2 dealerships in Autostadt, an automotive theme park. The other store is none other than a Lambo shop! The park also boasts a Ritz-Carlton hotel, 7 restaurants and a car design studio. There is an automotive museum, a technology museum and even a theater with dance school. There are 3 driving schools, catering to Schumacher wannabes, off road newcomers and even little kids.

Anybody visiting Wolfsburg soon has got to check this place out. Just watch out for things falling from the vending machine!