Finally made decision to pull trigger, only to discover the woes in cross border shopping.

After months of deciding wether or not to try McLaren out as brand I finally made up my mind to pull the trigger. I know the 720s will be in my stable one day but to get my feet wet with the McLaren brand I thought I would try it with a new 570s spider.

I reside in Canada in the mid Provinces, there are no McLaren dealers close to me in, in fact closest one is in the US. That being said the prices in Canada on average are 20 to 30% higher than the US, not to mention the inventory is slim to none in what I am looking for.

So I found my car in Palo Alto CA, Curacao Blue with off white interior and orange callipers, being it is a British car those colours remind me of the Gulf Livery colours.

Just about ready to finish deal when I looked on Registry of imported vehicles to Canada and to my disbelief it is not allowed in . Not because of any known issue only because they are trying to keep sales up in 2 McLaren dealerships both of which are 2 to 3 days away from me, one in Vancouver the other Ontario, they both have zero cars that come close to what I want, and they are both slightly overpriced

RIV Canada will allow any and all McLaren up to 2016 including the 570s which unfortunately are all coupe, but no 2017/18 models, only the 2018 are spider which is what I want. There is no difference between the 2016 and 2018 model, this is nothing short of trying to appease 2 dealerships in Canada

NOT HAPPY!!!!!!


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To answer both your questions YES it has everything to do with McLaren, I contacted transport Canada they informed me that McLaren did not provide them with what is needed to import the 2017/2018 line up. In 2 years time the same cars will be allowed in with no questions asked simply by McLaren providing the right information required.

They do this on purpose to accommodate the dealerships in Canada (so Canadians are forced to order from the Canadian dealerships) this isn't anything new, Lambo has done it, Ferrari the same, as well as many others, and now McLaren is following suit.

It just makes me angry as the Canadian dealerships have very little in-store inventory, they want you to buy brand new and actually order the cars from the Factory which increases the cost exponentially.

As far as Palo Alto is concerned they have been fantastic to deal with, it is not their fault at all as they do not sell to Canadians on a regular basis, this was a learning curve for both.

Looks like I am going to have to either wrap my head around getting a 2016 650s spider or go back to either Ferrari or another Lamborghini.

I chuckle when I read this as this is clearly 1st world problems, who really cares, but it just disappointing.

 

The point of me not buying from Canada is they have little to no inventory, I would have to order and wait 6 to 8 months for delivery and end up paying way more $$$$ for a car that is available now at another McLaren dealership.

Answer to your second question is YES that is probably what I will need up doing is buying either another Lambo or Ferrari from Calgary.

To bad I was hoping for a new car experience.

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I am seriously considering it, the leaking coolant clamps scare me a little.

How long have you owned yours?
How far are you from a dealership?
How many times have you had to take your car in thus far?

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Thank you for reply, I will consider the 650s spider.

And I Still have the Diablo Roadster, it was my pinup poster car


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