MGB: Question for Canadians...using a customs broker !

Went for a road trip yesterday to Michigan with a friend of mine from our car club. He had purchased the "other British marque on this forum", off of ebay. He sent in his paperwork a few weeks back for the customs to check out and he figured it would be faster and easier to use a broker to bring the car into Canada. Good trip until we got to the Canadian customs to clear the car. I am not positive what went on inside as I stayed with the car and trailer (this TR6 is a project car) but it took him almost an hour to clear it. Seems he had to go through the commercial desk to clear the car where all of the transport trucks are cleared through. I hadn't heard of this before and was just curious if this had anything to do with using a broker. I have brought a number of cars back into Canada but never used a broker and I didn't have half the trouble he had to go through. Has any other members used a broker to bring a vehicle in and what were your experiences?

I've brought several in to Canada from the US and UK. Never used a broker. All cases were easy, face to face either at the counter when coming in from the US or a trip down to the 'Customs House' in Montreal for the UK cars. At one point, a broker was mandatory bringing a car in from the US (and probably elsewhere) but I didn't happen to have a car to bring in while that was in effect. I wouldn't bother, though I suppose if you were having a car shipped trans-border you'd have no choice, though the shipper would presumably handle that.

Hi Derek, I sent you a PM, slightly off this topic..... Ralph

with appropriate paperwork submitted in advance, I spent 15 minutes at the US customs and 20 - 30 minutes at the Cdn customs

did not use a broker though


Ed

Same for me no problem as long as you submit a copy of the title to the us port you will exporting it through 72 hours in advance.
The Canadian side was more interested in the actual car not the paperwork.
Gear Heads are every where

Thanks guys. Kinda what I had figured. Like I said, done it before without the broker and it is a 10-20 minute affair.