[s-cars] The truth about "admissibility" importing to Canada

[Dave Forgie]

To all:  We have a 95 S6 in our Vancouver S-car "club" that was imported
from Texas.  I will contact the original importer (also a club member) to
see what had to be done.  I know for sure that the speedo was not changed
and has both mph and kmph markings.  To be honest, I don't know about the
daytime running lights but I imagine that they have to be done.  I don't
think its much more than a relay and maybe a bit of rewiring.

The problem that I encountered related to the lack of child safety seat tie
downs in the S6 Avant (wagons).  The stupidity is we have 1995-1997 A6
wagons that came from Germany that are fine.  The Transport Canada can NOT
deal with the fact the avants coming directly from Germany are okay but the
same (okay, different engined) avants that went from Germany to the US first
can't be imported. D-U-M-B.  And Audi of America does not wish to change
their story (that they originally told Transport Canada in 1995)

The real  "funny" thing is 1998 A6 Avants are acceptable.  (Shhh...the early
ones were also C4-based - don't tell Transport Canada - Shhhh).

Gabriel Caldwell wrote:

> Dave,
>
> I think the speedo unit just has to have kmph markings on it.  US
> clusters have both mph and kmph markings.  The Canadian clusters only
> have kmph and that's it.  This would lead you to think that US clusters
> would only have mph but that is not the case.
>
> Gabriel Caldwell
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
> [mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Tony Curran
> Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 4:50 PM
> To: Edward; s-cars
> Cc: Dave Forgie
> Subject: Re: [s-cars] The truth about "admissibility" importing to
> Canada
>
> Hey,
>
> If your car is a 95, then it's only TEN (10) years old and as such will
> have
> to meet Canadian import regs. One of them would be the dreaded DRLs
> (daytime
> running lights). See link that has useful info...
>
> http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/mj/import.htm and
> http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/importation/impusae.htm
>
> It appears you will be required to have a km/hr instrument cluster.
> These
> are approx $1000 from Canadian stealers. Just so happens I have a spare
> instrument cluster that is not 100% and has 114000kms on it. It doesn't
> light up when the headlights are turned on. Deal in the making?
>
> Hope the links help.
>
> Tony
> 96 S6
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
> [mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf Of Edward
> Sent: October 12, 2005 1:34 PM
> To: s-cars
> Cc: Dave Forgie
> Subject: Re: [s-cars] The truth about "admissibility" importing to
> Canada
>
> Hello Dave and all,
> I was searching the s-car archives for information about importing my
> '95 S6
> (sedan) when I move to Vancouver later this month (from Massachusetts).
> I
> was wondering if you could share your experience with the US to Canada
> import. I read on that linked US Vehicle Admisibility PDF that my S6
> sedan
> *IS* admissable (and is more than 15 years old). Does this mean I can
> just
> drive up to the border, show them my door-jam sticker, cough up some $$
> and
> drive on? Somehow I imagine there's more to this!
>
> Is there an agency in Vancouver I can chat with about the details?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Ed
>
> On 5/21/05, Dave Forgie <forgied at direct.ca> wrote:
> >
> > For some reason, I have decided that I like C4 Audi 100 or A6 avants.
> > S4 or S6 avants would be wonderful too. However, no S4 avants made it
> > to North America and the S6 avants were imported to the US but not
> > Canada. In fact, the Audi 100, A6 and S6 avants are all deemed to be
> > "inadmissible" into Canada, at least while they are younger than 15
> > years (we can import almost any vehicle that is older than 15 years).
> > Check "Audi" listings under Volkswagen-Audi on the Transport Canada
> the
> > website at:
> >
> > http://www.riv.ca/english/US_vehicle_admissibility.pdf
> >
> > I figured the problem was bumpers or child seat tethers or day-time
> > running lights. All things that could be "fixed" so I phoned Transport
> > Canada in Ottawa yesterday. Left a message (after hours in Ottawa
> > relative to Vancouver). A gentlemen phoned back today (Friday).
> >
> > I told him the story and suggested that there can't much different
> > between the two countries model specifications because there are Audi
> > 100 and A6 wagons here in Canada already. I can see a 100 wagon across
> > the street from me and my mechanic drives an A6 wagon. The Transport
> > Canada guy and I talked bumpers and DRL, etc. but at the end of the
> day,
> > the guy says, "Well, in any event, we don't actually put the cars on
> the
> > inadmissible list. The whole thing is self-administered by the
> > manufacturers and THEY put the cars on the inadmissible list".
> > (WTF!!!) (I was, as the Brits say, gobsmacked)
> >
> > So what it comes down to is Audi, in its wisdom (NOT), must have
> decided
> > (for reasons not clear to me) that they wanted to restrict the
> movement
> > of avants/wagons across the border. If you check the list, they have
> > also restricted newer models like the 2004-2005 RS6 from being
> imported
> > into Canada.
> >
> > Since there is very little difference, if any, in the bumpers and the
> > crash testing protocols are probably pretty close, in my opinion, the
> > list is BS. Its just Audi protecting their markets and Transport
> Canada
> > doesn't want to get involved.
> >
> > D*mn. And there is a lovely avant on Audifans too.
> >
> > There is no justice.
> >
> > Dave F.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > S-CAR-List mailing list
> > S-CAR-List at audifans.com
> > http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/s-car-list
> >
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