LBC Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 I was driving on a fairly rural road today, in the province of BC, and there was a car in front of me with a rainbow license plate. I didn't recognize it, but thought I saw "Hawaii" on the plate. When I got home I googled it, and sure enough, it was the same rainbow as the Hawaii plate. So, my question is, how does someone from Hawaii get their car to Canada? Do they put it on a barge? If so, wouldn't it be cheaper to just sell it and buy something here? Or maybe they have a summer home in BC (we live in a very popular area for summer homes), and keep a vehicle here, but insure it at home in Hawaii?? I know this is way off topic for homeschooling, but you folks are the only ones I know who might be able to answer this sort of question.:tongue_smilie: Lori Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 (edited) Yep, they just ship it. I have a friend who bought a Volvo on vacation in Europe and had it sent home. LOL I figure people are really attached to their car when the pay to ship it! I have heard that it is Very expensive to buy a car in Hawaii. I just Googled it and it costs about 1200.00 to ship a car to California or Washington. Not too bad, considering if you sold a car there and repurchased the car in a taxed state in the continental US. it would cost more to pay the sales tax on a new car once you're here, than to have the existing car shipped. Edited June 1, 2009 by Tap, tap, tap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne Rittenhouse Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 I've got a Jersey plate in Brussels. I get some funny stares. We shipped the car. It took about six weeks from NYC to Antwerp. For me the car cost $20000 USD. This shipping cost $5000 USD. To replace the car with something similar, it would have cost us between 35,000 and 40,000 euros. My vehicle is insured with a European insurance company. We are currently working on registration. I can't speak for the US to Canada situation, but the US to Europe with a relatively new car, made financial sense for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 My Hawaii plated car was all over the midwest over the winter. We shipped it from Hawaii to Virginia and drove it around before we moved to Japan. We rated shipping a car from Hawaii with our last military move, but couldn't import one to Japan. So we shipped one car to the US and eventually sold it to my FIL. Unfortunately we had to sell our other car in Hawaii. It was a well functioning minivan that was worth a lot more to us as a paid off vehicle than what we got for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaniceO Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 The Navy paid to have our car shipped from Hawaii to Washington. It took me 6 months or so to have the plates changed over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommytobees Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 The Navy paid to have our car shipped from Hawaii to Washington. It took me 6 months or so to have the plates changed over. Ditto here, AND I drove my Hawaii-plated mini-van in Canada too! But, that wasn't me you saw. 1) my US based car isn't Hawaii plated and 2) it doesn't currently HAVE plates! Kris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxMom Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Also - and someone please correct me if I'm wrong - don't military personnel register their cars in their home state, no matter where they are currently stationed? So, if you're stationed in NY but your home state is HI, and you bought a new car, wouldn't you still have HI tags? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Not too bad, considering if you sold a car there and repurchased the car in a taxed state in the continental US. it would cost more to pay the sales tax on a new car once your here, than to have the existing car shipped. You get to pay the difference in sales tax when you try to register it :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LND1218 Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Also - and someone please correct me if I'm wrong - don't military personnel register their cars in their home state, no matter where they are currently stationed? So, if you're stationed in NY but your home state is HI, and you bought a new car, wouldn't you still have HI tags? That's correct. So they could have even bought the car on the mainland and just had it registered in HI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SheilaZ Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Also - and someone please correct me if I'm wrong - don't military personnel register their cars in their home state, no matter where they are currently stationed? So, if you're stationed in NY but your home state is HI, and you bought a new car, wouldn't you still have HI tags? It depends. Our home state is TX. We have GA tags here in GA and NC tags when we were in NC. But we don't have to pay the state tax for the cars, just the tag fee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 (edited) Not about shpping cars, but when we were going to move from Maine to Arkansas, our Maine plates were ready to expire and I didn't want to pay to register the van in Maine, then again in AR once we moved. Dh was already living in AR so I mailed the paper work to him, he registered the van in AR. When he came home to move us he brought the plates and we drove around Maine for a bit with AR plates and of course had them for the drive through Canada and across states. Edited June 1, 2009 by Quiver0f10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBC Posted June 1, 2009 Author Share Posted June 1, 2009 Thank you all so much for indulging my curiosity. I now know more than I did before (which is a common occurrence for me on these forums). Lori PS - The car was a dark blue Toyota Highlander, for those who care about such details.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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