Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Hi,

I am real sorry to be bringing up this awful topic. I have been an AVID Delica fan for many, many years. I am finally in a financial position where I could purchase one. Plus my trusty 13 year old Civic is starting to pack it in so here I am finally back on the forums and lo and behold, I nearly fell off my chair reading all this BS news about a potential federal wide ban on RHD's.

A few questions. If the ban takes place, will existing vehicles be grandfathered in? Anyone out there still importing any Delicas? Has their priced dropped while everyone sits and waits or is it still business as usual? Any updates on the battle? Does anyone know if ICBC will still insure RHD's? It would really suck to spend $10,000 on an un-insurable vehicle.

Sorry if these questions have been covered previously. I am real saddened by these news and I hope some sort of sense will prevail.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide.
Emmanuel

It's all propaganda BS.

Business as usual.

Shop for a good one

Don't worry about the ban, it has been discussed for years, and will be discussed for more.

Even if it does go through, it will end up like Quebec where everything was grandfathered for those owners there.

Take Jesse's advice: Go out and find yourself a good Delica. :)

Do not worry about it. Buy a Delica.

The biggest problem is you will be really frustrated if a ban does come along. Because once you drive a Delica you will realize how frustrating it is that we cannot get these great vehicles in NA. And a ban would mean you will not be able to buy another one to replace it.

Love my Delica....As close to perfect as you can get for a production vehicle for my lifestyle.

My thoughts are, if and I say if the ban comes and you already own one of these master machines the value will significantly rise. So any of you who are the verge of purchasing you may want to consider it as an appreciating asset unlike the North American Domestic vehicles.. Another forcing mechanism to get you off the pot

Best Vehicle I have ever owned. Three words for you..... PULL THE TRIGGER!
Good luck
Mike

"....My thoughts are, if and I say if the ban comes and you already own one of these master machines the value will significantly rise. So any of you who are the verge of purchasing you may want to consider it as an appreciating asset unlike the North American Domestic vehicles.. Another forcing mechanism to get you off the pot ......

You are assuming that any legislation if/when passed would allow for the re-registration of a grandfathered vehicle to a new owner. No so sure that is a given.

Rod

drrod wrote:"....My thoughts are, if and I say if the ban comes and you already own one of these master machines the value will significantly rise. So any of you who are the verge of purchasing you may want to consider it as an appreciating asset unlike the North American Domestic vehicles.. Another forcing mechanism to get you off the pot ......

You are assuming that any legislation if/when passed would allow for the re-registration of a grandfathered vehicle to a new owner. No so sure that is a given.

Rod

If push comes to shove, you spend the $350 (?) to register a corporation with the gov't of BC, 100 shares total, each share is worth 1% of Mitsubishi Delica van, VIN# xxxxxxxxxxxx

Then when you sell the vehicle, you just sell 100% of the shares in your corporation to the new owner.

BONUS - No tax applies. Saves more than the cost of registering the corporation.

It's called a Single Asset Corporation (SAC). The rich boys do it all the time when they sell their big toys (yacht, etc.). There's always a way around things.

ICBC deciding not to insure them would be the biggest hurdle, but I don't think they have enough hard data to warrant non-insurance of vehicles. As a Crown Corporation and the sole insurance provider for vehicles, I think they have to provide a much stronger case for insurance disallowance, as opposed to somewhere like Alberta, where private insurance companies can choose to insure or not as they please.

But As Jesse says - Life goes on.

And X2 on my L400 being the best vehicle I've ever had.

So, do you transfer the Delica into a SAC now (and incur the intial costs as well as the ongoing costs of maintaining a corporation) in case the regs change or do you wait and take a chance that you will have a window of opporunity to do it if/when the time comes?

I agree that insurance will probably play a bigger role if changes are coming.

Rod

The corporation part is simply physical ownership (buying and selling an asset). That can be done any time with whatever assets you want (I'm not actually a lawyer BTW... free advice is worth every penny you pay for it... )

But the registration for liability purposes is done thru ICBC which would be the greater hurdle - along with the abscence of insurance - if *they* decide to pull the plug.

However IMHO not an imminent enough possibility at the moment for not owning one of these vehicles.

Tony,
I live in Alberta and already own a Delica so I may not be talking apples to apples. My question had more to do with when/if do you transfer ownership of a currently owned Delica, to an SAC, in order to be able to sell it down the road. (Assuming that you could not transfer a "grandfathered vehicle). It costs a couple of hundred dollars per year to maintain a corporation here in AB so eventually it does play a part in the cost of ownership.
A lot of "if's" and "assume's" there and it probably will not impact my current machine but may play a role if I "upgrade" down the road.

Rod

ps - I agree with you about the insurance thing. Unfortunately, the insurance people do not have to wait for any change in the import laws before they change their criteria. You may still be able to obtain insurance but it will become cost prohibitive to own a RHD.

ICBC already did their 'study' and eventhough it's flawed and misleading, they continue to insure RHD vehicles as do the other provinces regardless of bans (future private registrations).

Because there will always be government/commercial/testing RHD vehicles on our roads that are and will be insured by ICBC, they will have no choice but to continue to insure.

The rates may go up but only for the vehicle itself which they need to provide concrete data for collision, theft, etc.... as an example, Nissan Skyline rates will probably go up because they are a sports car whereas a Delica will not go up because it is a passenger family vehicle. This applies to all vehicles regardless of where the steering wheel orientation is.

There are too many RHD vehicles on the road today for ICBC to attempt an insurance block. 'if' they try, they will be taken to court and loose.

So long as we don't get into accidents and loss/theft in the Delica's, rates will not change drastically.

The other thing is that there are many other imports/manufacturer's RHD vehicles here in Canada from long ago. Early Morgans/MG's/Mitsu Jeeps, etc... have been on our roads for quite some time.

The only thing that is a possibility, and this is an extremely complicated process that is unlikely to change in years to come is that TC pushed to change the import year limit from 15years old to 25 years old.

Two things here. That would mean you can still import 25 year old RHD's (which they 'consider' safer than 15 year old - this is in their report) and people can still import LHD vehicles from the rest of the world (there are many to choose from).

End result. Continue on driving/buying RHD's as you like. This RHD ban in BC has been circulating around for over 5 years and just keeps going round and round and round.

drrod wrote:Tony,
I live in Alberta and already own a Delica so I may not be talking apples to apples. My question had more to do with when/if do you transfer ownership of a currently owned Delica, to an SAC, in order to be able to sell it down the road. (Assuming that you could not transfer a "grandfathered vehicle). It costs a couple of hundred dollars per year to maintain a corporation here in AB so eventually it does play a part in the cost of ownership.
A lot of "if's" and "assume's" there and it probably will not impact my current machine but may play a role if I "upgrade" down the road.

Rod

ps - I agree with you about the insurance thing. Unfortunately, the insurance people do not have to wait for any change in the import laws before they change their criteria. You may still be able to obtain insurance but it will become cost prohibitive to own a RHD.

I understand your question; if you are really that concerned, I'd ask at the local university law school - often the law students provide some low-risk pro-bono Q&A sessions for general law stuff. May as well ask an expert before they can charge you for it...

Here in BC, it's definitely different re: insurance, since we have the single Crown Corp. that handles it all. But as Jesse alluded to, I believe they, like other Crown corporations, are under certain obligations as part of the deal of having a monopoly on insurance, and they couldn't just arbitrarily decide to stop denying coverage, unlike private companies.

Kind of like BC Hydro (our electricity provider). It is my belief that if you generate more power than you consume and it's fed back into the grid, not only will your power meter run backwards, but BC Hydro is *required* to buy that power from you at their going rates.