Good luck finding a US dealer who will sell it to you. I looked into this, and the dealers I contacted told me they were prohibited from selling to me by BMW. They wouldn't even sell used.

My Canadian dealer also told me that they absolutely would not honor a warranty from a US vehicle.

It seems like they're all trying to discourage this type of thing. For me, I figured I'd save CAD$13K. I settled on the X3 instead.

If you can get one, go for it. You are correct about the duty. Yes, the speedo would be in miles, but I think you could replace it. The odometer can be programmed to be in metric, along with the OBD.

There is a government web page that tells you all you need to know. It even lists cars that are allowed etc. The X5 is on the list. If you can't find it, let me know - I can probably find it again pretty quickly.

One scary note: Canadian Tire is the official inspector for the government. (!)

Hey, I love Canadian Tire. Where else can you get tires, hockey equipment, and dishes? I think I have some old Canadian Tire money in a drawer somewhere.

The warranty coverage could definitely be a problem. Oddly enough though, back in 1994 I drove my E36 325i to Vancouver. My front rotors were warped and in need of replacement. The dealer there, then called Vancouver Auto, replaced them under warranty. No charge to me. I don't know how that worked and I didn't ask. They knew it was a US car too. The California plates might have been a clue.

Good luck with this!

__________________

My personal experience: I imported a US made car into Canada long time ago. At the border I had to stop over at customs and they had me fill a form and told me to take the car to dealer for inspection. I got the car inspected from dealer who put a sticker on console saying "miles", paid some fees and got the plates from DMV. And they also put a sticker on door next to manufacturers stamp about vehicle import details(date, importer, etc.). No problems whatsover.

There should not be any warranty issues either. I know several who have taken US BMW cars to BMW dealers in Canada and they covered warranty no problems. You should let BMW NA know that you you have moved the car to update their records on vehicle.

Go for it.

Do it, the trouble will be well worth the savings...

the BMW dealers in the GTA (greater toronto area) do all of my warranty work for free (even CPO). The only thing that's not covered is your full maintenance, since Canadian BMW's (correct me if I'm wrong) do not come with full maintenance standard ...

__________________

Canadian Tire does the car inspections? That's analogous to Sears doing car inspections over here. That must raise the potential for conflict of interest and price gauging.

thx for the feedback. I bought my boat from WI and imported it without too much hassle. My main concern was the warranty issues from US to CAN. Now I just need to find a decent Lemans Blue 4.8. I see a few for sale on ebay (4.8is black on black), what's the experience buying one there? Too risky?

Try Cars.com Quite a few LeMans blue 4.8 there Some are BMW dealers and will CPO it.

We just moved from US to Canada, and yes you can import it "but". First you have to export it from the US, which means that you have to pay it off, and then you get the letter of recall. After you are done with that, then you take the car to Canadian Tire for inspection ($75 or $85), and then you go to any Autoplan agent and get your registration. Regarding the warranty, only the "new" car warranty is valid (50,000 miles/4 years), and for certified preowned, you would have to take it to the US.