Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Howdy All,

I'm working with Mardy to purchase my first Delica AND I live in Cleveland Ohio. My plan is to incorporate a business in BC for vehicle registration pourposes (because we can't get'em in the states yet). I'll simply title the Deli in the newly formed companies name.

Any how, I didn't want to drive 5,000 miles each year to a AirCare testing location.

Which city should I incorporate in to avoid the AirCare requirement? I was thinking Hope would be good but not sure if Hope will soon require the AirCare testing. I do need to incorporate in BC as there are no Canadian residency requirements to do so (or I could incorporate in Quebec, which is closer)

Any help is appreciated.

Chris

You could incorporate in Quebec, but you wouldn't be able to register a RHD vehicle in that province.

As far as I know, only the Lower Mainland has AirCare requirements. Read here for further information.

Will you use a US insurance carrier for liability insurance in case something happens while it lives in the US ?

Check with ICBC and see if they will cover a Canadian vehicle registered and insured in BC but operated fulltime in the US. I couldn't find anything on their site that shows your L400 and it's passengers will be covered in case of an accident except Vehicle Travel Insurance which can be bought for vehicles registered and licensed in BC that will be travelling outside of BC.

The downside is that it's expensive.

http://www.icbc.com/autoplan/optional/o ... protection

If this is a legal loophole, then I think you'll open the floodgates to others looking to import older than 15yr old vehicles.

To my knowledge, this has not been done as the vehicle's insurance didn't cover liabilty/collision/theft while it's residing in the US.

Have you thought of just importing one into Florida, registering it as a FL vehicle and then taking it home with you ? That may be the best legal way to do this. I'm not certain.

Let us know what you find regarding insurance and liability coverage.

I have a lot of people I'm going to forward this information to if you succeed.

As for aircare, if you google it, it will come up as aircare.ca

In their site, they have a FAQ that gives the area where aircare is mandatory :

http://www.aircare.ca/aboutus-qa.php

The current testing contract with Envirotest Canada to provide light-duty vehicle emissions testing in this region runs until December 31, 2011. The Province has not made a decision on the future of light-duty vehicle emissions testing beyond 2011. In 2009 - 2010, the Province is scheduled to review the performance of AirCare and determine if automobile emissions remain a significant contributor to the air quality in this region and, if so, the most suitable program model for the future.

The AirCare boundaries (from Furry Creek to Flood) were established to address a serious ground-level ozone problem in the Lower Fraser Valley that is caused by the over one million light duty vehicles operating within a confined basin. To date, the AirCare program has not been expanded to other regions of the province because the impact of motor vehicle pollution on air quality is not considered to be as severe. In the future, AirCare-type programs may be implemented in other areas of the province, like Squamish/Whistler, once local officials feel the control of motor vehicle emissions is a necessity to improve their air quality.

I will look into the Florida thing for sure.

My thinking is the Deli won't be "residing" in the US but "just passing thru (for a long time)"

I can get additional insurance for traveling in the US I would think.

I read all the AirCare info last night, but not being too familiar with exact geography of "(from Furry Creek to Flood) in the Lower Fraser Valley" I didn't know which city outside of that area would be good to be incorporated in. I was thinking Hope would be a close city that doesn't require AirCare.

There are people that have brought older than 15 yr old JDM vehicles from Canada into the US but mostly are either offroad use only or they are driving without insurance.

I asked the autoplan agent I normally use how your situation would apply.

She said that ICBC liability, collision and theft are covered if you meet the following:

Owner/operator is BC resident
Vehicle is registered and licensed in BC

If operated outside of BC for an extended period of time, Travel autoplan insurance must be purchased.

She said an example would be if you came to BC and rented a car here. Your insurance coverage applies to you, the driver and the vehicle if you are within the insurance company's guidelines.

I can look into it for you tomorrow when everything opens after Easter.

Based on what she told me, it looks like ICBC will not cover you in the US since you are not a BC resident. ICBC are a malicious insurance company (they all are) and in the event you breach their insurance policy, things can get bad if other people are involved.

Especially when they can see that the vehicle was purchased, registered and insured on X date and then left Canada on X date and has not entered back into Canada for X months or years.

I'm not sure of the road/insurance laws where you live, but here insurance is mandatory and they do everything under the sun not to pay a claim.

Food for thought if you want to be insured down here as a non-BC resident driving a BC-registered vehicle in a BC company under your US resident name.

Sounds like it can be complicated.

I'll look into it tomorrow.

Thank you so much JFarsang!

The owner would be a BC resident as the Deli would be in my BC company's name.
Employee's of my BC company would be the operators, kind of a grey area there.

I would for sure get the Travel autoplan insurance, and general liability for the company as well.

I will easily drive up to Canada on a monthly basis for my newly formed business. Cleveland is only 2 1/2 hours from Canada by road.

The company will be legit as I plan to get into the WVO distibution business. Nothing big, just another company to play with in my spare time.

Do vehicles in Victoria or Merritt require AirCare?

Hopefully I'll be able to get the name "Cleveland Vancouver WVO Inc." for the company.

Vehicles outside of the fraser valley area do not require aircare.

I don't know enough about the .inc business side of vehicles, insurance to give an accurate opinion.

I do know some legal and some not-so-legal under 15years old JDM's driving in the US.

Having all of this information (what you plan to do, intentions, etc..) on an internet forum is probably not the best thing to do since I've heard of instances where insurance co's and customs use net/forums to search for vehicles purchases, etc...

Also I would avoid giving any of this information to the seller as an ICBC adjuster/investigator can easily contact the seller and ask the seller for any information about the transaction. Although it's very rare for them to do this, it's in their limit to do so if they see fit for a claim and can put undue concerns on the seller.

My advice would be to :

1. Call ICBC and tell them what you plan to do. You should get a detailed answer from them.

2. Call customs and ask them if you can except any issues crossing the border as a US resident with a Canadian registered vehicle. This may or may not be an issue depending on the specific agent you get while crossing and how far they dig. That seems to vary a great deal.

3. Get as much info as you can out of this forum and then delete the threads so that neither insurance co., nor customs can come across it via search.

It will come down to what you feel comfortable dealing with or doing.

Thanks JFarsang for the good advice.

I did call ICBC and they said no problem. I just need to be sure to detail how the vehicle will be used so I can be rated correctly.

If you're good with ICBC, then I see no problems heading south.

If you can make it work, I'd like to know the details so I can pass the process along to my southern friends.

Jfarsang,

I'll keep you posted in private.

Then you can share as you wish.

I think I'll incorporate in Kamloops for my registered agent, I assume no AirCare there.

Would be nice if someone could share the whole process of getting registered, insurance and plates. Do I need to drive to several locations chasing paperwork?

Chris

No. The process is quite simple and can be done in 30 mins at a single location.

There are many autoplan insurance agents scattered around. You should have no problem finding one anywhere you purchase the spacegear.

register it in smithers bc or something
no air care up here.

No Air Care in Kamloops !!

no air care in Victoria

I wasn't sure about Victoria but that would be the best. Would I need to physicaly transport the Deli over to Victoria for insurance, plates and such? Or can I do it in Richmond when I pick-up the Deli?

If it's anything like in the US, the seller will sign over papers puting the Deli in my companies name (and address) for which I'd take those papers to ICBC. Then I assume ICBC will issue a new title im my companies name, provide plates and write me up for insurance (and take all my money).

There's alot of lawyers in Victoria for incorporating. And the wife would SO LOVE to go back there for a visit.