Is there a family-sized car for the eco-conscious?

We started this blog because we really want a vehicle that will accommodate three car seats. As an environmentally conscious bunch, minivans really don’t have the fuel efficiency we want. Sedans and station wagons are often too small, as are many smaller SUVs.

In our past posts, we’ve explored the Toyota Highlander Hybrid as our best option, but having learned that this vehicle is not manufactured in North America (yet) means that a great deal of energy and effort must go into shipping it overseas for sale here. We’re also in a unique circumstance where whichever car we purchase while living in the U.S. will eventually move back with us to Canada. This adds some considerations.

When a car is imported to and registered in Canada, owners must pay tax (PST and GST) on the value of the car, and duty (6.1% of the value) on any car manufactured outside of North America. So ideally we’d purchase a North American manufactured vehicle. This rules out the Highlander Hybrid if we want to save the duty fees. We’ll see.

Still a major price difference between Canadian and US car dealers

My father-in-law keeps encouraging us to buy a car in the U.S. because the prices are so much better. He’s right. I just priced out the Highlander Hybrid Limited in Canada (through a friend’s dealership) to compare against the U.S. version I posted yesterday. The price difference is about $10,000. That’s substantial. Here’s a screen shot from the Toyota Canada site.

Highlander cost estimate from Toyota Canada