Transferring cars between Canadian provinces

[CokerRat]

I'm flying out to Toronto next week to drive back my dream car... a '91 red/black NSX. I'm having some trouble figuring out how to actaully register it for the drive back. I obviously can't get plates for it til I get back to Alberta (plus inspection etc.), and the Ontario temporary trip permit is only good within Ontario.

Does anybody know how this is handled to get thru Manitoba and Saskatchewan? Even if I need temporary permits in each province, if they don't issue them in advance, I'd have to drive it from the border of each province to a major center without registration. Driving w/o registration is a very heavy fine... and I'm sure an arrest-me-red NSX in Saskatchewan without plates will be quite inconspicuous... doh! I suspect most cops would see the bill of sale, temporary Ontario permit, etc and come to the reasonable conclusion. But if I get some hard-nose....... It's not easily apparent what you're SUPPOSED to do. Gov't info is soooo hard to get sometimes.

So. Has anyone done this before? Did you need permits in each province? Were you able to acquire them beforehand? And finally did you attract attention from law enforcement due to having no plates?

Thanks in advance.

 

[NetViper]

I dont have any Canadian experience, but what i did when I bought my NSX is asked the previous owner if he could leave the plates on while i drove it home. Then I just mailed him the plates.. Don't know how legal it was as we already had a bill of sale, but I felt a lot better about it.

 

[BioBanker]

I dont know what the best legal way to do it is, but personally, I would do it differently.

Because this is a brand new, to you, car, the last thing I would want to do is take it across the country on a road trip. God forbid there may be something wrong with it that may not be evident when you pick it up. Not suggesting that there may be, but the return trip to Calgary could be disasterous.

Id come here (I live in Toronto) for a couple days, drive it like mad and then put it on a train back to Calgary while you fly home.

The thought of driving it back is probably appealing right now, but there is more to loose than gain Id say.

 

[Tony Montoya]

I dont have any Canadian experience, but what i did when I bought my NSX is asked the previous owner if he could leave the plates on while i drove it home. Then I just mailed him the plates.. Don't know how legal it was as we already had a bill of sale, but I felt a lot better about it.

It's not legal to drive the car with somebody else's plates. As soon as a bill of sale is complete the insurance must be transfered from one owner to the new owner.
I spoke to an agent about this and we concluded the government must expect both parties in a deal to conclude the deal in an insurance agents office. When you buy from a dealer they can issue you a 7 day sticker of insurance.
I had a car shipped to me and it sat without any insurance in the delivery yard of the local dealer until they did a safety so I could buy insurance. I know it was insured by the carrier but it had no insurance at some points in transit. We even put a dealer repair plate on it so we could pick up lunch.
I'm not sure what you should do but I will phone MB. auto insurance on Monday and ask for you.

 

[NSX2398]

I don't have any experience going inter-province but when I drove my '91 back from Tucson, I checked with SGI before I went and after going through the same questions as you (ie. how do you register at the border if there isn't a facility, etc) they eventually had to get a supervisor involved and ended up selling me a temporary insurance card for 7 days but no temporary registration.

When I picked up the car in Tucson, I got an Arizona 30-day non-resident temporary registration (also called a 'drive-out' permit). I checked with a number of the states that I was going to be driving through and the ones that I got a hold of all confirmed that they would recognize it and I wouldn't need a separate temporary registration permit from them. I think this is similar to your situation (except it was inter-state instead of inter-province)so I'm surprised that the Ontario permit says it is only in effect there.

Just to be safe, even though I had the SGI temporary insurance card which supposedly covered me while in the US, I also bought a week's worth of insurance (about $90) from an SGI agent which also covered me while in the US and from the border to Regina. They didn't need to see the bill of sale; they just wanted the VIN which I knew in advance. I would think that you could get something similar from an Alberta insurance agent to go from Ontario to Alberta.

It's mostly the insurance that I think you need to care about. I actually had the misfortune of accidentally driving into a Friday night sobriety check in a small town a few hours east of Tucson and they really only wanted to see the bill of sale and proof of insurance coverage. Like you, I expected to be stopped hourly by police and it never happened once in 2000 miles. A cop even passed me without pulling me over for no plates.

I can phone the RCMP on Monday if you'd like.

 

[CokerRat]

The insurance was the easy part. It's been pre-arranged to take effect the day I take possession of the car, specific to that VIN #. I have a faxed document with those details which must be kept in the vehicle once I take possession. I think you're right, with the bill of sale and proof of insurance, nobody should give me grief over it.

 

[Dash Rip Rock]

I just drove my car back from the US and was pulled over by the Washington State Police, I had a typed bill of sale that I produced along with insurance for the NSX and plates from another vehicle and he did not give my any grief, I explained that is how we transport recently purchased vehicles in my home province. Point being I believe majority of the time you will find they will be understanding and typically do not know each juristictions rule book. However if they pull you over doing 100 mph you can throw that statement out the window. I was only doing 85 mph so he was cordial.

When is the car coming back to Calgary? We should hook up for a little excursion.