Replica in Ontario?

Hey Stan.  Where in Ontario are you?  I'm just across the river in Detroit.

Hi Tom,

 

I'm in Toronto.

Henry prefers all his builds to go out with leather.  I asked about vinyl when I had my car built and he talked me out of it.  I'm glad he did too it's one of the best parts of the car. The quality and the smell is second to none.  All IM's have rollup windows and are mostly watertight.  A modestly optioned air-cooled car with a small motor will be 50k. 

Giday, Stan. I'm in the South end of Ottawa and imported an IM which was older than the 15 year limit. Registration / licensing and insurance was straight forward after that. However, I did hook up briefly with a local lad last year who had a very new replica. I asked him how he got it all done and he kind of skirted that part of the conversation, we parted company after a bit and I've never seen him since.

 

I do believe you can "build" your own car and register it properly in Ontario and if you go through Transport Canada's regs on the subject, I think a creative person might be able to get the job done one way or another with a Speedster.

 

Henry at Intermeccanica may have some ideas.

Stan, as mentioned above your two options are to order a new IM from Intermeccanica, buy a used IM from Intermeccanica, or bring one back from the US that is 15+ years old.

A new IM will run you in the mid $50K and up.  When I had my older IM's interior refitted to save some money I had Henry do the seats in leather and everything else in vinyl.  I can't tell the difference between the vinyl and leather, but I'm really glad I went with leather seats.

Sometimes Henry has used IMs for sale, on consignment.  Presently, he doesn't have any for sale in Canada.

Ron...who said above that one option is to order a new IM from Intermecannica or buy a used IM from them ?  It is my understanding that you can't do either. If you can, could you please explain under what rules this can be done ? For instance, and let's be dead clear here, I don't think I can pay Intermecannica to build me a new car and I will be able to register it in Ontario. I notice that your IM is a 2010 model. How did you acquire the car and register it in BC ? Would it be legit for you to sell your car to me and I can register it in Ontario ? I'm missing something here. Ooops...I just noticed your model year is 1984/2010. What's up there ?Thanks.

David, I though (and I could be wrong here) that Intermeccanica could sell new IMs in Ontario.  I know they can sell used ones, because Bob (a member on this forum) bought one from Henry within the last two years.

Residents of B.C. can buy new IMs.

Mine is/was a 1984 model.  I owned it for three years, sold it, and then bought it back after it suffered a serious engine fire.  I then had Henry do a complete restoration, including a new VIN number, which resulted in the car being registered as a 2010.

 

Interesting stuff and thank you, Ron. I'll quietly research more. My tunnel vision back about three years ago only led me to the fact that Imported replicas must be over 15 years old was fed by the idea that a chance to buy a Canadian replica was remote at best and any short term opportunity was South of the border. 

Thanks everyone.

 

Based on my research Vintage Speedsters is based on old VW chassis whereas Beck/Intermannica is based on tube frame.

 

If the car is based on old chassis, is the title going to be based on the year of that chassis ?

Normally, yes. I think that that's a major attraction of VS & JPS in California, because they are titled as old VW's and are, therefore, exempt from emissions laws.

With that being said, people have registered these cars almost anyway possible.  Some legal and, well...

My Beck is registered in Michigan as a "2010 Assembled Vehicle."

Every state is different & it often depends who us behind the counter.

Not always. My car came from Idaho and there it was registered as a 1983 Intermecannica and when I got it into Canada and registered it in Ontario it became a 1983 INTR simply because they abbreviate the Mfg's name here.

 

Not sure, but something tells me that if you brought a Speedster replica across the border or tried to register it in a Province as a "whatever" year VW and came across the wrong person behind the counter, you could be in for a world of trouble. These people can be finicky and they're not stupid. They know the difference between a steel bodied Beetle and a glass Speedster and you may  have bought something that is not able to be registered up here. A nasty can of worms indeed. Personally I wouldn't chance it unless you got written permission first from the border and your local DMV.

Mine is a real anomaly.  The pan is a 1972, the body is a 1984 and it's registered as a 2010.