While importing a car from the United States can save you thousands of dollars, it's important to keep in mind that the process of importing a vehicle to Canada can be confusing, time consuming, frustrating and sometimes costly for someone who is inexperienced.

Accordingly, if you are planning on having a vehicle imported to Canada from the U.S., you may want to consider hiring an expert to handle the process for you. These individuals are often referred to as Vehicle, Auto or Car Import Brokers, and they specialize in bringing vehicles into Canada from other countries. Their knowledge and experience in this area makes them familiar with the rules, regulations, fees, duties, taxes and modification requirements associated with importing your car.

Different Vehicle Import Brokers offer different types of services, so it's important to choose one that meets your specific needs. Some brokers only import vehicles that you have already purchased, while others offer a wider range of services, such as sourcing the car that you want from their network of U.S. vehicle dealers and importing it for you.

Car import services often start out at about $300 for simple importation (plus expenses such as shipping, fees, licensing, etc...) and go up from there depending on your individual requirements. While higher fees are not necessarily an indication of better quality service, you may want to be wary of vehicle import brokers who offer their services at rock bottom prices, as the process of importing a vehicle can be quite involved, and brokers who offer too good to be true prices may not be doing everything they should to ensure your car is imported properly and hassle free.

Before you hire any vehicle import broker, make sure you do your due diligence. Ask them detailed questions about how they plan to handle your vehicle importation and their industry experience. If possible, you should also get references or testimonials from their previous clients.

While it's true that hiring a vehicle import brokers adds to the cost of importing a car, it is usually well worth it in order to free yourself from the time consuming, frustration experience and to prevent costly mistakes that you may have made if you had tried to import the vehicle yourself. In most cases, you can still save thousands of dollars importing a car to Canada, even with the added cost of hiring a broker.