Even though I'm Canadian, I spent much of my adult life living and working in the US, and buying most of my cars there. And let me say how much it sucks to buy cars in Canada. Ironically with the crap exchange rate, cars are significantly cheaper in Canada, but way less room for movement, and dealers generally make that up with higher interest rates. And then we get the bonus of higher sales tax. But amazingly, we pay about the lowest MSRP in the world, and in the end it more than makes up for all the negatives.
The US Sport costs $52.6k equipped the same as my Canadian $53k (except the US one gets the upgraded stereo). They are basically the same price! Taxes are higher in Canada (12% in BC) but varies in the US (6.5% in WA, 0% in OR). But the rates in the US are 0% at 48 months, 0.99% at 60 months. $53,000 CDN is $40,000 USD. But they'll get a little more back with the +2% financing, but in the end, still way cheaper in Canada.
While it doesn't apply in this case, it is not viable in Canada to go to a bank get a competitive bank loan so you can just go to a dealer and negotiate cash price, which greatly simplifies negotiations and gives the dealer an opportunity to beat the bank rate you got. This was very frustrating for me and the main reason I didn't get the Q7. In the US, a good negotiator can expect to get effectively 10% off MSRP at nearly any dealer, except for high demand redesigned new luxury vehicles. In Canada, it is much harder to get near that mark, because dealer margins are a lot lower.
Basically I got a loaded Sport out the door (after all fees and taxes) for less than $46,000 USD. Even if I bought the car in Oregon and paid no sales tax at all, I still would be spending $53,000 USD for the same car. And if I bought in Seattle, it would have cost me $56,500 for it, which is probably more typical.
