True, but failing to flip it off costs one battery. DRL basically automate flipping it off when you shut down the car.
Daytime running lights are also a lot less bright than many high beams, especially those blue-white ones that look like pieces of supernova. I suspect that purpose-designed DRLs may be different than low beams as well, but AFAIK low beams do fine as DRLs.
Also, dosn’t Canada require 8-km/h (5 mph) bumpers, and the US requires only 3 mph bumpers, and this prevented many US cars from being imported into Canada?
I believe on Halogens, DRLs are actually high beams, running at a lower current. The DRL module that Crappy Tire installs on your American car is just a little dongle that makes this stay on all the time. HID equipped vehicles may have a seperate bulb for the DRL, but most of these are higher end vehicles that are equipped with them anyway.
Yes, I believe the specific wording is that the dollar amount of damage from a crash at a certain speed may not exceed a certain amount. IIRC The Dodge Neon SRT-4, with the front mount intercooler, did not originally pass the test, and were not allowed into Canada until Chrysler “fixed” the problem by lowering the dealer replacement cost of the OEM intercooler to an acceptable level. (this is somewhat heresay. Most of this stuff isn’t really released to the public)
Man, that’s exactly what I’ve been thinking. Yeah I feel sorry for local dealerships, but the solution is for manufacturers to lower the price of the cars, not invent a load of insulting protectionist crap south of the border.
A bit of a difference we’re willing to stand, but the difference is ridiculous! I’m in Edmonton, so I’m not going to be going on random shopping sprees in the 'states for impulse purchases, but for cars, atvs, bikes, etc. it’s hard to see why I should be buying locally.
This Christmas is going to put Canada Post under unless everyone gets with the program… you so have to send that letter now; it’ll only cost you $1.56 CAN, or $37.95 US.
Okay, I need someone to fight my ignorance here: how is this enforced?
The automakers are the only ones placing limits on who can purchase their cars. So it seems to me that there should be a healthy business of purchasing-by-proxy. That is, some American entity buys the car from the dealer for the “American price”, and then immediately resells it or leases it to the Canadian consumer for slightly more – but still less than the “Canadian price”. The consumer nets a better deal, and the proxy benefits by getting the markup. And there’s already a huge industry in place to provide this service: banking. Can’t Canadian car buyers get around these wacky restrictions by getting financing from American banks? The dealer should only care who holds the title, and if the title is held by an American bank, they circumvent the manufacturer’s restriction, right?
Or is the Canadian government somehow complicit in this too? Will they refuse to license an American-bought car? The linked articles seem to suggest that the safety concerns (running lights, etc.) are regulated wholly by the manufacturers, so the government shouldn’t care. Or if it does care, couldn’t you buy “unsafe” car in the US, pay $200 to get it upgraded, and then have it certified safe?
Denying license plates/registration to cars that don’t meet the standard is the picture that comes into my head.
So what’s the big deal with paying $500* to upgrade to Canadian standards, and then another $500* for a safety inspection and recertification? You’ll still be saving tens of thousands of dollars in some cases.
*or whatever it is
Yes. Actually, if the car is on the “inadmissible” list, it would not be allowed to cross the border without US plates/registration.
The manufacturers are purposely making the 2008 models “inadmissable” by gaming the Canadian government regulations. The biggest feature currently being used (by Toyota/Honda, as per the OP, but also by GM as well) is the so-called “Immobilizer”, an anti-theft device that has nothing to do with highway safety. I have detailed this in my post above.
All this has to come from the manufacturer - that is, the onus is on the manufacturer to document, for Transport Canada, that the car meets Canadian standards, presumably through the process of submitting to crash tests and whatnot. In previous years, most manufacturers actually did this, to facilitate a small amount of cross border trade for dual citizens, etc, and also because the Canadian/US cars are IDENTICAL. If the Manufacture doesn’t want the cars to cross the border, then they’ll simply refuse to do it.
If one were to look on the RIV list of approved vehicles, one notices that almost all 2008 Honda models now fail to meet Canadian regulations, and are strictly verbotten, while 2006 and 2007 models did. It’s plainly obvious what Honda’s intent is here, they also add insult to injury by charging higher shipping costs to Canadian customers than US customers, for a car that was MADE IN CANADA.
Hence the OP’s general ire.
Here is a story about a Canadian who bought a Honda Civic(made in Canada) for $5k less in the US, who is now stuck with an unregisterable car because 3 weeks after he bought it, Honda told Transport Canada that the 2008 Honda Civic was now inadmissible. Together with the BS on anti-theft devices.
Well, you’re gonna want the clear-coat, obviously. Lots of problems if you don’t get that clear-coat.
TM - thanks for the scoop. Again, I’m totally ignorant this issue, so I’m happy to be corrected if I’m off base here.
It seems to me that the upgrades required for importation are not prohibitively expensive, and are certainly less than the margin between US prices and manufacturer-enforced Canadian prices.
And there is a fairly straightforward process to getting your car safety certified once it’s been upgraded. There is a list of inadmissible cars, and the '08 Civic is on that list*. Toyota only has 4 of it’s '08 models on the inadmissible list (Yaris hatchback; Corolla; Prius; and Matrix). Any other Toyota can be bought cheaply in the US, upgraded, certified, and driven legally in Canada.
The protocol for making your US car Canada-kosher is here:
http://www.riv.ca/english/html/how_to_import.html
I can’t figure out how much the safety inspection is, but there are many many places, both government-run and independent, who will do the inspection/certification.
ETA: *…along with almost all other '08 Hondas, which I agree is pretty lame.
Can you explain this? I’m guessing that the Canadian Postal system has prices in USD that are way out of whack with current exchange rates, but I’m not sure I’ve got it right.
Lots of people are ordering stuff online in the US and having it shipped here, causing delays in the system.
He means you’ll have to send your Christmas stuff early to get it here in time. 
Reminds me. I should order the yarn I want so it gets here in time for me to knit those last Christmas presents I added to my list…
You guys should make a slogan out of that.
Funny this should come up. My parents are in the market for a new car, and flat out rejected Toyota after seeing their ridiculous prices.
They’re looking seriously at a Lincoln. Why? They dropped their prices.
When turning signals and high beams are your only light concerns you will bow down and worship the greatness that is DRL. 
They are legally required on vehicles older than the mid 90’s (I think) so free switches are moot anyway.
Until a couple of months ago this was the exact scenario! I know a couple who bought a Honda Pilot this past summer who made those few adjustments, paid the import fees and still saved over $8,000.
Well, this actually makes sense.
Once you allow Canadians to start buying snowmobiles, next thing you know they’ll start getting around on snowshoes and skis, and pretty soon they’ll take up hockey, curling and other winter sports.
We don’t need that kind of societal upheaval.
And before you know it, they’re writing poetry about it and commemorating it on their money.
Only if the car was designed by a moron: Why don’t auto headlights go off when you turn off the ignition?
Partly you should mail stuff now, and partly I’m trying out the old “how much is that in real money” gag. I know you guys wore that end down to a stub, but this end is still has the showroom shine. 