How to find out if your car is made in North America.

Import duty must be paid on certain vehicles when you import them to Canada. This duty is 6.1% of the market value of the vehicle. However, you can avoid these import duties on many vehicles thanks to Brian Mulroney and NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. Brian Mulroney and George H. W. Bush were in power when the U.S, Canada and Mexico signed NAFTA in December 1992. The agreement in a nut shell allows for free flow of goods between our North American neighbours. Specifically in respect to buying a vehicle it allows an importer to avoid any duties as long as your vehicle of choice was originally manufactured in the United States, Canada or Mexico. Cha-Ching, that means you can save an additional 6.1%! Many vehicles are made in North America including many foreign owned companies such as Honda, Acura, Toyoto, etc.
So how do you find out if your vehicle was made in North America? First you have to identify your vehicles VIN number (basically your cars serial number). This number can be found on the car listing ads on many of the online websites this book refers to (REFER TO SECTION ON ONLINE SEARCHES). Otherwise just ask your car dealer what the VIN number is and the will provide you with it. Now here comes the easy part, if the first number of the VIN is 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 you do not have to pay the 6.1% import duty as this vehicle was made in North America.

More details on the VIN

The country of origin of your vehicle is deciphered below:

1, 4 or 5 = Vehicle made in the United States

2 = Vehicle made in Canada

3 = Vehicle made in Mexico

The VIN number is made up of 17 letters and numbers. Each digit in the number identifies a unique feature of the vehicle including where it was made, the vehicle make, the vehicle type, the weight, etc. If you want to find all the details on your vehicle you can do this in one easy online step by visiting http://www.analogx.com/contents/vinview.htm . Once you arrive on this site simply type in your VIN number and push Decode. You will then see a results screen. This screen will give you all the specific details on your vehicle.

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