I thought I’d share this story for my Canadian friends as it may be useful to understand how Summit Racing ships to Canada. This is not intended to be for or against Summit. If I had known this information previously I would have placed an order back in the fall so that I would have the parts when I need them. I’m currently installing Vintage Air in my wagon. I had a compressor bracket that I thought would work, but I found out on the weekend that it was the incorrect application. Monday I tried to order the correct bracket through Summit since Vintage Air doesn’t ship to Canada. The Summit website shows 9 in stock with an international shipping date of the next day. However when I went to purchase the bracket it said estimated delivery May 6 which is more than 12 weeks away. I contacted Summit and they explained that they can only ship to Canada from the Ohio warehouse, and that the bracket I need is in the Texas warehouse and none are available in Ohio. They can’t ship any of the ones in Texas to me in Canada and they can’t transfer one from Texas to Ohio. Summit explained that if I order a bracket for delivery to Canada the Ohio warehouse will have to order one directly from Vintage Air which has a 12 week lead time. Now that I know how this system works I know to order parts way in advance if I need them by a specific date to be ready for the driving season.
Try Jegs? or another vendor. I’m lucky as I only have a 35 minute drive to cross the border and pickup shipped parts.
Jegs doesn’t have the part in stock and the only option is “email me when available”. My current plan is to ship it to a hotel where a friend is staying on a business trip to Florida.
I recently made a few purchases from the big auction site that everyone seems to hate. I have been driving to Sweetgr*** for a couple decades but recently decided to try out the international shipping option on that big auction site. You need to shop around for a decent shipping price that you are willing to pay, and they give you the option of paying any import fees or taxes up front. The most I paid in import fees was 14 bucks per package which is a far cry from UPS 75 bucks the last time I used them, a couple decades ago. There is nothing fast about this system, as my parts originated in California, and were shipped to somewhere in Illinois to their international shipping terminal, then across the border into Canada, then shipping back west a couple thousand miles to me. Took a couple weeks, but every package arrived on my doorstep trouble free. I kind of like it, and it is pretty much just as cheap as me driving to the border and back. As my friend Larry says, your mileage may vary.
I’ve used the auction international shipping a few times and it works well for me. I like that the duty, tax and brokerage is paid upfront. I ordered a $100 part from speedway directly and UPS charged me an additional $85 on top of the $40 I paid speedway for shipping. Speedway also sells through an auction store and when I bought something that way there was no additional charges.
The Jalopy Journal
