I live in Canada and a couple of weekends ago my partner and I bought a 1998 Civic in the US for my partner's 19 year old daughter who has finished school and is now working. We are having great difficulties trying to get the car imported into Canada.
The Canadian government requires documentation to show that there are no outstanding/open recalls on a car brought into the country. I called Honda USA and they won't provide such documentation to Canadians because they frown upon Canadians buying their cars in the US.
So I was told by someone how I could retrieve such information from a web site. Low and behold the car has 2 open recalls. One is an ignition switch recall and the other is a floor mat issue on the driver's side. I checked with 3 Canadian Honda dealerships and they all told me Honda does not permit Canadin dealerships to perform recall service on US cars and therefore they couldn't do it. So my wife and I drove for 6 hours (each way) last weekend to get the recalls done at a US Honda dealership.
They could only do the ignition switch. They said the parts are no longer available to do the floor mat recall and in any event they say the recall has expired. The floor mat recall is interesting-sort of. On some models the original Honda floor mat would/could possibly slide forward and be a safety issue with the pedals. The fix is to install a couple of grommets on the floor mat and a retainer or 2 on the carpet. The interesting thing is my car isn't one of the cars with that issue but the recall is a "blanket" recall. One dealership told me about
30-40% of the cars weren't affected by the recall and mine is obviously one of them.The Canadian government has given me several options:
-get the recall done (I can't because the recall has expired)
-get Honda or a dealership to put in writing/fax/email that my model is not affected by the recall(so far I haven't found a dealer willing to do this-they will say my car isn't in the recall but they won't put it in writing)
-buy the parts from Honda and pay to have the work done and then submit the work invoice as proof that the work has been carried out. (That seems simple enough. Yesterday I ordered the few retainer and grommet parts-probably cost about $5.00 total. Today I went to several junk yards to pick up a floor mat but didn't have any luck. So I called a delaership to buy one. Not only did they not have one but they are no longer made and a search of all dealership's inventories came up empty)
Here is where I need some help. Does anybody know how I could get a Honda dealership to simply state in writing/fax/email that my car is not part of that expired recall program. (Keep in mind that my Civic doesn't even have the floor mat in question.) or Does anybody know where I can find an original (as in Carpet style) driver's side floor mat for a 1998 Civic DX 4 door model. I believe a floor mat from 1996-1998 would do the trick. Then I could pay to have a dealership do the required work.
We have a car that we are not able to use because we can't get it registered and licensed for the road. All 3 of us would greatly appreciate any help or suggestions you could offer. Thanks Greg