Car broke down on the way to Canada

Hey guys, I posted in the Canada board not too long ago because I was wanting information on how to cross it up the border from the United States. Well, I managed to get everything figured out. I've been up here for about a month (in Canada) while my car has been getting ready to come up with my storage (my girlfriend has been doing a lot of work cleaning it up and doing whatever maintenance it might need. The idea was that the car was to be pulled behind a moving trailer, the guy driving the trailer was going to disconnect the axles somehow since the car is front wheel drive (so as to not damage the transmission).

Well, today, about ten minutes ago, I found out that the front axle on the car broke. The guy driving everything up noticed because a tire blew out on it and when he went to change it he noticed that the whole thing was loose. This is all somewhere near the border of south dakota and north dakota (travelling from colorado to saskatchewan). He said he's going to stay at the closest town and we'll figure out what to do tomorrow. Since it probably won't be something he can just fix it will more than likely end up staying there. He might be able to find the part at a junk yard and then take it to a shop, but I can't reenter the united states, to pick it up anyways.

I'm asking for advice or options you guys. I guess also if anyone is interested in buying it then let me know.

It's a red '88 Toyota Celica GT with about 120,000 miles. I don't want to abandon it, and it pains me to sell it. I'm barely a half hour into Canada and I hate that I can't just drive down there and fix it myself.

 

why cant you go back into the states?

 

I guess I should explain. I'm a Mexican Citizen, I was born there, but I grew up in the United States. I decided to leave the United States due to the increasingly polarized political atmosphere that was really starting to affect my legal situation (especially since my visa expired). I started a process to move into Canada, but moving there actually required me to return to Mexico City first (where I'm from). This is the reason why I had to leave my car in the United States in the first place, as I could only fly to Canada on a plane that made no stops in the United States. I'm currently in Canada and have no means of getting a Visa to enter the United States, hence why I had a friend drive up all my stuff. It's a shame really, it's all politics. I mean I lived in the United States from the age of one, I speak much better English than I do Spanish (to tell you the truth, most people don't even know I speak Spanish).

I hope this doesn't change the way you think about me.

 

I don't know, the guy only said it broke. He was also saying that I would have to take out the engine to repair that, I don't think that's the case either. I should have a good spare in the trunk, so that shouldn't be a big deal.

Thing is by now it's probably been towed and impounded, I don't think they'd just let it sit on the side of highway 85 for this long. I didn't do anything at the time so as to not give out my contact information to the towing company. I think they also have a policy of not turning a car over to anyone but the owner (which isn't possible since I can't physically go pick it up). The last thing we want is to get a bill from a towing company for having the car impounded when we aren't really able to do anything about it, especially since they have a tendency of being really expensive. This added to the work on the axle, paying someone else to drive it up, importation tax in canada, the inspections (country + province), might all end costing more than it would to just buy another car up here.

 

That's what I figured at first, but they do an inspection at the border and if anything is broken or badly out of shape then they won't let it pass. It's actually for this reason that we bought new tires for it right before it was to be brought up.

 

As far as I know, no. Or at least that's what I was told by someone else up here (who immigrated and brought their stuff over the border). They said that no matter what if the car was ever a salvaged car then it cannot be imported. I don't know if that's a general rule, or if it's only the case with me being an immigrant rather than a citizen.

Well, that thought had crossed my mind, thing is I can't cross back and do the repairs myself so I'd have to pay a mechanic to do them. I've had bad experiences with mechanics (actually the reason why I found this site in the first place). I'd worry that it would be some crazy expensive cost for the parts and labor just because they're in the middle of nowhere and know I can't do anything but pay up.

What exactly will this accomplish?



Either way, it's been a week now since I left it there, I think it might be too late to do anything anyways. I'm still working out my immigration situation so it's not a certain thing that I'll be staying in this province. Just a heads up, you guys may see me posting at a later time from a province near you looking for another car.

 

Yea, I'm in Weyburn Saskatchewan. Right by the border.