I am little late in posting this, but I thought I would share my story as it might help someone from Canada wondering about buying from the US.

I bought a pre-owned Red Luxury package RX450 (with ~3,000 Miles) from a Dealer in Milwaukee, WI and imported it to Ontario, Canada four months ago. It didn’t need any modifications to import to Canada and the process was very smooth, and the great news was that I ended up receiving a $2,000 hybrid tax rebate from Ontario, which offset part of the 6.1% duties I had to pay at the borders because the car was made in Japan.

The final cost (after duties and rebate) was around ~$49.5k, and currency was almost at par. Just to compare to Canadian MSRPs, a basic new 450h goes for 59.5k, and I gathered a similarly loaded one to what I got would go for around ~$65k

Here are the exact options on the car (and some pictures attached):
- Luxury Package
- Mark Levinson Sound
- Intuitive Parking Assist
- Remote Engine Start
- Tow Prep Package and Tow Hitch with Ball Mount
- Accy Pkg and All Weather Mats
Initial MSRP was $57,786.00

So far we love the car; it is our second Lexus; we have a 2008 IS250 AWD. The RX is now the "family" car, as we just had a baby in May.

Anyways, if anyone needs more details about the exporting/importing process, let me know.

 

chad, congratulations on your baby and welcome to the h club! Glad to hear you had no problems bringing the RX back to Canada. It boggles my mind that you have to pay so much more for the same car and with limited options

 

Chad
You got a great car in a great color for a great deal

Congratulations. Gosh, did the dealer allow why someone let it go with only 3,000 miles ??? Whatever it shouldn't be your problem. You did well.

 

It could be a demo car. Dealerships like to flip the cars like that. Depreciate the car for a bit and then sell it as pre-owned and still make a lot.

 

Thanks for all the replies

well, at least the story I got is that the previous owner had 3 kids and realized after buying the car that the car wasn't big enough for the kids, so they ended up trading it in

regarding the price they were initially asking $4k more than I ended up paying, but the car didn't sell for a few weeks, and I kept negotiating. It might have just been the timing, as this happened right in the middle of the Toyota/Lexus fiascos earlier this year.