The Canadian Dollar vs. The American Dollar
 

After much climbing (and falling, depending on your currency), the Canadian dollar has at long last passed the American Dollar. As of now, one Canadian Dollar = 1.00140 US Dollars. For eBayers, this is good. However, it can cause more complex issues related to international trade.

I'm not sure when the Canadian dollar was closest to the American Dollar, nor by how much. I'm also not an economist, so I don't know all of the reasons for this, but I know America's intense international debt is a factor. What are your thoughts on the issue?

A weak dollar is great, though. It has never been cheaper to spend holidays in the States. I should go there right now.

It sucks here in the US because we get all these Eurotrash fags clogging up our national parks with BO and poor driving.

You are saying that to a German? O.o

I'm saying that to all the Frenchies (sorry niki).

Hey awesome. We're better than the americans again. Its really not that much more than the american dollar though. It doesn't make much of a difference right now.

I think it's kind of worrying that most of the change hasn't come from the Canadian dollar, but from the US currency which is crashing in value. I think it's safe to say both countries are fucked if the Middle Eastern countries or China decide that they don't want to carry a currency that's losing value constantly.

f u rr.

The company I work for relies on the dollar vs. the euro. It used to be that the conversion would SAVE us money. Now, it costs us.

It's not a substantial cost, as it only cuts into the profit we make, but it's still a loss comparatively.

Ebay here I come!! America is the place to shop!

it's great for those of us in Canada looking for a new car!

Why would you want to get an American car???

There was actually a thing on the news the other night saying that GMC and Toyota [and maybe some others] in the US will NOT sell their vehicles to Canadians, which is utter ridiculousness.

I mean, they profiled one car, the Subaru Impreza, I think, and showed that it cost $25k in Canada, and the same car cost $17k in the US. If you bought it in the US, you'd pay your taxes [GST, whatever] when you crossed the border, saving you about $6000 if you're lucky. But no, companies are starting to say that they won't sell you that car AT ALL if you're Canadian. Bah.

In other light, eBaying is going to be more fun for a while now. :D

There's alot of cars they sell here that they don't sell in canada, or if they do sell them, they are so expensive it's silly.

The thing that's really bullshit is that the cost of books in Canada compared to the US is at least a 40% markup still. They drove it way up in the late eighties when the dollar was at it's lowest and they've never evened it out. So, a book that costs $14 in the states usually costs about $21 here. It's even more ridiculous with textbooks.

What I read in the newspaper here, was that the car manufacturers were fining the dealerships if they sold cars to someone in Canada. Simple way around that though. Get someone in the states to buy the car for you, and then just give them the money. lol.

How's that going to work? Cars have payments, so good luck you're finding someone who's dumb enough to be a proxy-buyer and depend on you for the payments or else see their credit get ruined.

Yeah, the same sorta thing with magazine subscriptions. For example, I saw one the other day where one issue for Americans was $5.00 USD, but for Canadians it's $20.00 USD. What gives?

Yeah we're all capable of looking that up, thanks.

When news broke out of this, I think something like 10 co-workers jumped on eBay just erratically purchasing things from US sellers they've been putting off. It was pretty crazy.

I suppose it has it's ups and downs, depending on how you look at where you put your investments. Heck, I might even bite the bullet and buy an HDTV.

It was 31 years ago when the Cdn was equal or better than the US Dollar. The reason why it happened back than was the the US was printing up money to help pay for the war in Vietnam which the US had just ended. Also, it was a tight time for the US Economy due to the energy crisis over the early 1970s. In order for Canada to allow their exports to increase to the US, the Cdn Government ordered to print bills to weaken our dollar. Hence the reason why the CDN dollar was about 30% exchange for the longest time and as low as 61 cents about 6 - 7 years ago.

History repeats itself?

I'll be honest, I went into Canada last night with some friends, and it was pretty convenient paying for drinks in US dollars without any worry. Although it was pretty funny when one of my friends payed for a drink with a $50, and the bartender couldn't immediately tell that it was a $50, due to the lack of color coding.

Check out this blog that was posted to autoblog about buying cars in canada compared to the US

The Clever Shark » Blog Archive » Canadian Car Prices File: an experiment

So imagine if you're a European and come to the states looking to buy one of those $32,000 Audi's to bring back home with you...

for every 10,000 dollars, you would save about $3,000 because of the euro to dollar ratio. I'm unsure about the price of cars though in Europe, maybe they're a lot cheaper than in the states, balancing it out...or maybe they're like Canada! making it even worse.

I know when I came to Europe, my $120 became 80 euro real quick. It was fucking depressing.

No, what I meant, was someone from Canada, going down to the states and buying a car. And then bringing it back. Obviously if you are going to do that, you are going to be paying for the car in a lump sum, not payments. So you would give the money to your proxy, they buy the car, and then you just go down and pick it up. Essentially buy it off of the proxy, and then bring it back up north. obviously there would be duty to pay.