Moved to the US from Canada and have a cdn. leased car

Hi Everyone,

I moved to Massachusetts 6 weeks ago from New Brunswick on a TN visa. Now that we are settled with banks, social security and rental we need to sort out our vehicle situation.

We have 16 months remaining on a Honda lease and really no interest in keeping the car. Originally the plan was to turn in the car at the end of the lease but the job situation has changed.

Does anyone have any insight into the legalities of this or the options below?

Turn in lease early?

Just use the car in the US?

Implications on insurance?

We also are cutting ties to bank accounts in Canada as to avoid any potential of dual taxation.

Thank

You have already done enough to become non-resident, so no need to inconvenience yourself for that reason.

If you want to keep the car, you need to plate and insure that car in US, whicch means formally importing the car, which means gettin ga letter from Honda that tells feds that your car is imprtatble. AT sme time Honda will let you know if they will let you drive the car in US because of the lease (I seem to remember that Honda is pretty nasty about this).

So, you may have to turn it in.

OK. This must be an unusual one based on the feedback on this site.

We are going to call the finance company and tell them where the car is and ask for their suggestion. It does say in my lease "only for use in the US with prior written consent from xx finance company". After we talk to the lease co and the insurance co I will post the respective replies.

Where I do not own property in Canada and does not seem logical to leave the car behind. It also does not seem logical to turn in the car early and pay a penalty of 16 months x the monthly payment and have the lease co benefit at our expense.

Best case we get authorization form lease co, put the car on lease busters and offer a nice cash payment for someone to take over the lease.

The lease is only one issue. You need to also get the NHTSA letter from the Cdn carmaker to import it.

We just went through this when we moved in March: You cannot bring a leased Honda vehicle into USA I'm sure it is outlined in your lease agreement that the car cannot be in the USA for more than XXX days. The "with permission" is a joke. My dh asked them how many times they have given permission an dafter a long pause she admitted that she's never heard of anyone actually getting permission to do it. You would also have trouble at the border where they would not let you bring it in. Because of your new status, they will assume you are importing the car. Legally, a leased car is not yours. It belongs to Honda Finance Canada. Honda Finance canada is completely spearate to Honda Finance US so you can't work out a deal, either. You can't import something that does not belong to you. Also, many states require you to liscence the vehicle there within a short amount of time.

Believe me: I speak the truth. I had a Honda Civic on lease when we moved and this was one of the most complicated issues in our move. Here's what you can do: put the car on kijiji, free release or lease busters. Offer $1000 for someone to take over your lease. If your mileage isn't over, and you offer a little money, you might be able to get out of the lease. Warning though: the new lesee has to go to Honda and have a successful credit check + there is a fee from Honda to do this. Your only other choice is to buy the car from Honda for the residual.

Sorry to be so pessimistic, but been there and done that with tons of frustration to show for it!

Good luck!

Thanks Canadian, yours was the correct answer.

We offered a large cash incentive and someone bcd in Canada took over the lease. We did also purchase a vehicle in the US.