Free Trade!!! What A Laugh

George Iny, the director of the Canada-based Automobile Protection Association, a consumer advocacy group, says the difference in cost is unfair to Canadians.

“I know that’s really galling for Canadians,” Iny says. “You might be punished if you brought in a new vehicle from the U.S. depending on the brand you’re buying.”

“The manufacturers want to protect the price in the higher-price market as much as they can,” Iny adds. “Our sense is that it’s a strong-arm tactic and it’s an indirect way to restrict the trade of vehicles.”

Iny says it’s up to the government to step in to protect consumers.

“It’s absolutely designed to restrain the trade of vehicles between the borders - and that, that’s an element of equity,” he says. “The carmaker benefits greatly from free trade in cars and car parts, and the customer should at least be entitled to that benefit as well.

“If we are going for free trade for the carmakers, then it should to some degree be free - equally free - for the consumer,” he adds.

While cheaper car prices in the U.S. keep him in business, Rogers says that the difference still surprises him.

“I could never find the reality, the rule where they come up with pricing them differently,” he says. “It’s strictly just a fictitious line that prevents us from driving across. Why is there this huge discrepancy in cost?”

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Vancouver resident Caitlin Mayne, comparing prices for a new Volkswagen Beetle, found that the car’s MSRP was about $3,000 less in the U.S., only an hour’s drive from her home. “That’s a lot of money,” she told Marketplace co-host Erica Johnson.

In one case Marketplace found a Dodge Grand Caravan listed at an MSRP that was approximately $7,000 cheaper in the U.S. than on Canadian lots.

Steve Rogers, who runs a business that buys cars in the U.S. for Canadian consumers, says that the price difference can run even higher. Last year Rogers bought his wife a new car, taking advantage of lower American prices.

“The car was $60,000 in Canada and I paid $40,000 in the U.S.,” Rogers said. “You know, I have a hard time with the fact that I’m paying more as a Canadian just because of where I live.