anyone import a US i3 into Canada

BMW i3 Forum

Help Support BMW i3 Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mnztr

New member
Joined
Dec 8, 2017
Messages
1
I am very interested in doing this. Of course it will be a rex as driving it back will already be a epic journey with a rex and almost impossible without. It will also be kinda fun :lol: :D :| :(
 
I bought a 2014 i3 REX in Victoria which was a California lease return. I had to jump through a few hoops to get it registered with BMW Canada since the local BWM dealer isn’t licensed to sell/service the i3. However, I love love love this car. Did you buy yours yet?
 
I bought mine in the US and imported it back into Canada last August.

Be prepared for a lot of work and you need a broker for the paperwork, I am in Vancouver
and can give you a lot of info if your going to cross the border here. If your doing it to another
province then I am not sure who to recommend.

You can phone me at 604-644-4040 for the details.

Dave i3 Rex 2014 owner
 
I recently purchased a 2014 BMW I3 in Quebec imported from U.S. There was a local limited pilot project to get more electric vehicles on the road. A subsidy was provided. I bought the car at a non-BMW dealer. I recently had the car serviced at BMW dealer due to a problem with the AC. Repair done under guarantee. Great service! I am trying to get the car connected to the online services IE I connect. I contacted BMW North America. They referred me to local dealer for the set up information The local dealer says getting a new user name and password for the car is not possible. Has anyone else had this issue??
 
I recently bought my 2015 I3 Rex which came from California and imported into Vancouver. The car had only 20,000kms on it and I got the dealership that imported it to put new tires on it. It was imported by Westwood Honda in Port Moody. They bring in truck loads of these on a regular basis.

The only challenge is getting the connected services to work since the car is under a current "electronic subscriber agreement" which runs for the first 3 years. They need a US address for the transfer to happen. BMW US and BMW Canada are separate which is why this is a challenge to complete.

I was able to work with a colleague who has a US address to help me out. Then I hope to get the remote app working on my iphone.

Here is another place to start: https://www.riv.ca/Contactus.aspx
 
On another point , do the i3 s coming up from the USA have TPMS as opposed to the other flat monitoring system ? If they do have TPMS , I wonder if they can be converted to using coding .
 
CanisLupus said:
On another point , do the i3 s coming up from the USA have TPMS as opposed to the other flat monitoring system ?
All U.S. i3's have TPMS whereas Canadian i3's use tire rotation rate differences to infer low inflation pressure (i.e., no TPMS).
 
alohart said:
CanisLupus said:
On another point , do the i3 s coming up from the USA have TPMS as opposed to the other flat monitoring system ?
All U.S. i3's have TPMS whereas Canadian i3's use tire rotation rate differences to infer low inflation pressure (i.e., no TPMS).

I will have to check to see if these were deleted from mine as part of the import process but I expect that they are still there. I don't recall seeing anything in bimmercode referring to the tires.

The TPMS that we have in the Honda is a real pain. The winter set of wheels triggers the warning because the sensors have to reprogrammed into the ECU when ever I switch wheels. The mini uses the rotation of the wheels so it is not as accurate but nice to be able to swap wheels whenever we want.
 
On a modern BMW, you can reset the TPMS system easily from the i-Drive menu...I just did it this week as I swapped on my winter tire set. Plan to drive at least 10-miles or so after resetting for it to finish up. There's a percentage readout that will guide you in how close it is to finishing up. It pauses when stopped, and resumes again when you start moving. Because the tires warm while driving, you want to finish once you've started.

One neat thing you can do from the Bimmercode app is to have the status display not only show green, amber, red status, but also the actual pressure in each tire. That's normally not shown, but able to be programmed.

NOte, pressure changes about 1#/10-degrees F, so if it's warm, say in the garage, when you mount the tires, you will probably want to let it cold soak outside and recheck the pressures before you reset the sensors. It also changes a bit with altitude changes, but most people won't be driving big enough mountains to make a difference.
 
Today I mounted the BMW M&S winter complete wheel set # 3611 2 455 050. The label on each tire also says “RDCi i3s” so I’m assuming it’s the package released for i3s models? Anyway, it fits, runs well and looks slick imo.

It has the metal valve stems which it should being RDC however the temperature or pressure in numbers dont show in iDrive. I’ve coded the car to show both tire temperatures and pressures but nothing. Other than the green coloured tire graphic.

Could it be that I need to code something else because this is a Canadian i3??

Hope someone has the answer.
 
The i3 requires a module with a receiver and (probably) the coding to enable it. If you're lucky, just adding the receiver may make it work, but that's unlikely. The wiring harness for it probably isn't there either.
 
jadnashuanh said:
The i3 requires a module with a receiver and (probably) the coding to enable it. If you're lucky, just adding the receiver may make it work, but that's unlikely. The wiring harness for it probably isn't there either.

Well that would be quite unfortunate!! :( Thanks for the info.
 
I just installed my winter set that I got from BMW (Black #428 with Blizzaks). They had a notation that they were for an "i3s". I asked if they had the TPMS installed and the parts department said they did. I replied that I understood that TPMS was not used in Canada and they said it is now on the newer cars.

It worked out great for me as I needed the sensors for our US version car. I installed the wheels and reset the system and they are working perfectly.
 
FWIW, the quick way to tell (almost) for certain if a vehicle has TPMS installed, is to look at the valve stem. All TPMS have a metal stem. While you can get a metal valve stem, they aren't really all that common as the rubber coated ones are much cheaper. When servicing a tire, you almost always end up replacing the stem, so with the TPMS, that part unscrews from the sensor itself. A rubber one just would be problematic which is why they went with a metal one.
 
Hello
I imported my 2014 i3REX from California in Dec. of 2017. In order to transfer the warranties to BMW Canada and to subscribe to the BMW Connected app, I had to pay $500 +gst to BMW for a "compliance letter", and was told in writing that my Connected Drive subscription was good for 10 years.

The app worked great until March of 2019, when it stopped functioning. My car appears to be totally offline.
Eleven months later, I am still waiting for BMW Canada to resolve the issue.
Here is a link to all of the features which are being denied to me:
https://www.bmw.ca/en/ssl/Learn%20more_Connected%20App.html#/bookmark=aHR0cHM6Ly9ibXdvY2MuY2EvZW4vaG9tZS9jb25uZWN0ZWRpZnJhbWU=

Has anyone else had the same issue?
thanks
Doug McDougall
Edmonton
 
Hi Doug,

I am 2 months into getting mine completely switched over to BMW Canada. Some of my services expired in Dec and I am waiting to get those back online with BMW Canada. I still have all the connectivity, I just lost the realtime traffic updates. and the connected drive services. I can still operate the remote options in the app and see my car info and location. I don't really miss the dropped services so I have not been in too much of a panic to get this fixed. I should follow up with the service tech at BMW Langley to see what is going on.
 
So I contacted the connectdrive people who are based in Florida. I needed to get my address changed from a Seattle address to my actual address in Vancouver.

They asked for some proof of address so I sent them my extended warranty contract and they are processing this now. Then I should be able to get the new services from the Canadian site.

One thing to note is that my tech at Langley BMW had the VIN number added to the Canadian database? I think this may be why this seems to be going as planned,

Fingers crossed!
 
Reviving this thread as I am considering importing a 2019 i3 from the USA into Ontario (Toronto). Do I need to use a bmw retailer in the import process and what modifications if any are required to be made to the car (eg daytime running lights)? Suggestions as to any knowledgeable bmw dealers in Ontario to use for this process?
 
Mine came through a Honda dealership. I am not too sure that BMW would want to bring in used cars to compete with their local car sales but it may be that they are okay with it.

Ours is a 2015 and came with the eyebrow LED’s on as well as the tail lights. These are always on when running. I am sure that there is coding to turn the lights on as well.
 
Back
Top