Upgrading - need your help

[tehsteve]

I was just reading through the "what would you upgrade to" thread, and decided rather than hijacking it, I'd create my own.

I'm going to upgrade this winter, but will probably keep the M for my girl to ride, as I feel that I need a bit more power and am ready for it now. I'm mostly interested in the M109R2, but would also look at HD Night Rod, or Victory Vegas or Hammer. I know what these bikes retail for in Canada, but I'm curious as to the actual selling prices on them in the US. I don't mean MSRP, but dealer selling price - if anyone has some advertisements or know someone that's recently bought any of these - please let me know. I'm curious if it's worth it for me to go down to Phoenix this winter and buy there, rather than here.

Thanks boys.

[DrBob]

Make sure you do a LOT of research on this before you make a decission. Taxes, import fees, and transport costs often erase any savings, and just as importantly, many manufacturers do not honor the warantee if the vehicle is sold in the US and then exported to another country; to get warantee coverage you may have to buy the vehicle from a dealer in Canada. So check with Suzuki, Harley, and Victory- you will need to contact them anyways, to get a 'recall clearance letter' on the bike you want. The contact the Canadian Government and see what the taxes, registration fee, and import duty are going to be, to see if you really are saving anything.
Once you select the bike, you need to purchase it obviously, and provide all the documentation of ownership. If you don't pay cash for the bike and have the title in hand (I don;t know if you need the actual title or if a title application is enough), you will most likely need a certified letter from the lender saying it is OK to buy the bike in one country and export it to the other (as technically the lender owns the bike until you pay it off). he US Customs Agency has a form you have to fill out about 3 days in Tadvance as export notification.
Once you hit Canada you need to fill out a form with the Canadian Border Services, show your title/ reciept/ registration, and pay the fee. There is an inspection (and fee) to prove the bike is the same one as the one on the paperswork and that it was properly assembled, and then you are good to go.

[Drtoronto]

yea what drrob said!! i work at a dmv in ontario and can tell you on the metric bikes the savings is not worth it but on the hd,s (if you can get a dealer to sell you one) theres enough of a diff to make it worthwhile
jeff
ps as far as the 3 day in Tadvance thing thats hit or miss my bro brought up a brand new car and they didnt seem to care on the canadain side that he did not have it.
you will pay the gst but cause your in oil country no provincial tax your rockin

[tehsteve]

I've imported a vehicle before without any major issues, but I had heard that Harley dealers wont sell a new bike to a Canuck as per orders from head office. Just by what I'm seeing on Ebay, it likely wont be worth it at all - a one year old M109R with 3000 Miles for 11K - when I can get a brand new M109 with full warranty and no miles for 13K... so it's hard to say.

[CYNWAGON]

We looked at the same thing when we bought my M50 this year. Wasn't worth it. The prices have come down so much here that with the time and energy involved in importing there was no plus side. Same with the M109s. My husband has an 07 and he paid 17, MSRP has dropped by 4. People selling used are still trying to get what they paid for out the bike so there's no real savings.
By the way - hubby loves his 109, he's put 25k on in a year. And that's not easy to do in Alberta!