Is it a sin to covet your brother’s new Mastercraft wakeboard boat (pictured above)? Actually, it’s not brand new. He bought it used from a dealer in the United States. With a strong Canadian dollar, a lot of loonies are flocking south of the border in search of cheaper boats.

But are boats really less expensive in the US? And how much hassle and cost do you incur bringing them through customs?

Are Boats Cheaper?

To find out if boats are cheaper, I decided to go online and do some price comparisons. The first boat I looked at was a used Malibu 2005 XTI. It is listed on a Canadian site for $52,995. The same model is listed on Boats.com for $39,999, that’s difference of $13,000. With the exchange rate and trailer fee of $207 (you don’t pay duty on boats manufactured in the US), the boat works out to about $42,600. You still have to pay PST and GST, but you would have to pay these regardless of where the boat is purchased. Buying the Malibu XTI in the US would save you over $10,000.

The second boat I compared was a 2003 Mastercraft X30. One is listed on AutoTrader.ca for $55,000; the same model is listed on boattrader.com for $46,000. With exchange and trailer fee, the US boat works out to $48,967, a savings of $6,000.

I also checked out eBay.ca for used boats, but most of the ones listed there are from US dealers. Our neighbor at the cottage bought his boat on eBay. The bidding had closed but the boat had not sold, so he contact the seller directly. He got the boat for a great price, but he also had to travel to California to pick it up.

There are more boats built and sold in the US, resulting in lower prices. When I tried finding used boats for sale in Canada, there was very little inventory and it was hard to find them, as least online. Autotrader.ca and boatdealer.ca were the only online sources that I could find. A lot of marinas also list their used inventories online, but this can be a time consuming process.

If anyone has purchased a boat recently, I would love to hear from you, especially if you bought it in the US. On Friday I will discuss the best time of year to buy a boat and what you need to do if you bought your boat in the US.

Cheers,

Julie

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 7:56 pm and is filed under Boating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.