[War_Wagon]

I don't think it will ever get any easier to import grey market vehicles. It was easy here for a while, until someone noticed a loophole: The federal inspection only checked that all the VINs on the vehicle matched the paperwork, and the Provincial inspection only checked things like brakes, suspension, etc. So in other words, no one was looking for things like side marker lights, proper crash rated bumpers etc. Once the powers that be figured that out, they made it WAY harder to import things. And I don't think you'll ever see the police wanting anything to do with the process, mainly for liability reasons. A policeman isn't going to be an expert on federal rules for 20 year old vehicles from Japan, so if he says it looks good, then someone gets hurt in an accident because the vehicle was in good condition but didn't have bumpers rated correctly for crash standards of a north American vehicle of that year, then guess who is going to be getting sued? The police won't want that possible headache.

As for bypassing the dealer and buying direct from the manufacturer? Manufacturers make cars. Dealers sell them. Manufacturers don't want / don't have the internal structure for dealing with getting your financing, dealing with your trade in, etc etc. But let's say this passes, and now everyone can buy direct from the factory. Of the 10 Toyota dealerships (for example) within a 2 hour drive of you, 9 will go under. So now, if you want warranty work done, you wait 4 weeks, or you have to drive to the next state. So people will petition that there has to be service centers opened to allow for warranty repairs. So then Toyota has to pay to open those.

I am not saying buying from the manufacturer is a bad idea, I am just saying that from what I know about the car industry I can see all sorts of issues, and can imagine that no matter how many people think it's a good idea, the manufacturers will figure out a way to keep things the way they are. Because it will cost them waaaaay more money if they don't.