Ghetto cheap 3 cyl Sprint in Vancouver BC

[War_Wagon]

I have been working on my addiction of buying cheap eco cars. And today, somehow, I managed to not buy an original paint, moss covered, 1990 Sprint 2 door, 1.0L, 5 speed with 243k KMs (150k miles). Its not rusty except in the front fenders, they need to be replaced. It has fairly new tires. It's dirty inside, but if you cleaned it up and put fenders on it it would be a good driver. I did not drive it, but it didn't make a lot of noise, it drove through the auction under it's own power, and didn't smoke. It may need axles, brakes, a clutch, I really don't know, but my gut tells me it's got some life left in it, it didn't look trashed or anything. No one else at the auction bought it either, so it will get crushed. Inside info (a.k.a. 10+ years of working at the auction) tells me that I have until about 2pm on Friday Mar.15 to save it before the registration gets stamped "Dismantle Only". So, if you are in the Vancouver area and want a project Sprint, it will cost you about $390 with taxes in by the time I get it out the door. And you have to promise not to sue the company name that I buy it under if you take it and it catches on fire ha ha. Obviously I ain't making anything off this deal, so please don't anyone on this site say I never tried to save this car if no one takes this deal!

Edit: And you have to buy me beer. The less that turns out to be wrong with it, the more beer you need to buy me!

[MetroMPG]

It's a conspiracy, I tell you! It's GM, crushing all the cheap, old eco-cars... just like they took the EV1's away and pancaked them too!

[War_Wagon]

Funny you should say that, it was a trade in from a GM dealership lol

[Rusty94cx]

If I was close

[Insight for life]

war wagon: are you a dealer?

[War_Wagon]

More of an exporter of the kind of vehicles that most people on this site wouldn't want to drive lol. But I go to all the wholesale auctions looking for the stuff I export, and end up seeing cars like this one getting scrapped all the time. I tried being a dealer, but I find dealing with the general public way too painful lol.

[Insight for life]

Originally Posted by War_Wagon

More of an exporter of the kind of vehicles that most people on this site wouldn't want to drive lol. But I go to all the wholesale auctions looking for the stuff I export, and end up seeing cars like this one getting scrapped all the time. I tried being a dealer, but I find dealing with the general public way too painful lol.

Oh cool! Like manhiem or something else. I also got to alot of auctions it might be nice to have a contact up north.

[War_Wagon]

There aren't many Manheims up here, I think only two in the whole country. In B.C. we have ADESAs and Impact auctions mainly.

[Rusty94cx]

How hard is it to import a auto to the USA? what must be done and what let's say I wanted that getto ride 400$ ok $600 to have it hauled here but what about the border and such? Do you know?

[War_Wagon]

Short answer - yes I know what has to be done. Almost as short answer - it's not worth doing for a cheap car. The only way it would be even remotely cost effective would be if a person lived within driving distance of the border, and picked a car up up here themselves and did the importation themselves. And even then it would depend on which state they lived in, as they are all different as to what you can bring in and how you need to register it. Once you get into shipping vehicles across the border without doing it yourself, you need to get a Registered Importer involved. I won't get into what that entails exactly, but they generally charge around $400. Add that onto your shipping costs, taxes, etc and your $500 cheap car just got a lot closer to $2000. The costs are sort of fixed, as in it costs the same to import and ship a $40000 used Escalade as it does for a $500 Sprint, so it might be worth the money you'd save on the big ticket vehicle by buying it up here, but totally not worth it on the seemingly cheap car.