Over the weekend I searched far and wide for vehicles to replace my rusty Volkswagen Touareg VR6 as my daily workhorse. Before I landed on a manual BMW X5, I looked for imports, and one caught my eye as particularly bewildering. Someone went through all of the work to import a Chevrolet Orlando from Canada to the United States. Just about all of us at the Autopian are scratching our heads over how this thing made it over the border, and why.
The Chevy Orlando is a crossover that the United States almost got. Back in 2008, Chevy hit the Paris Motor Show with a concept for a future crossover. The Orlando Concept sported muscular bodywork, flush door handles, and flashy wheels.
Americans got to see it the next year at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and the Chicago Auto Show after. Chicago is where a 16-year-old version of yours truly saw it. That was my very first auto show and I still remember being amazed by the Orlando Concept. Its door handles especially wowed teenage me.
On the stage, a presenter stated that the Orlando Concept had three rows comfortable seating so a whole family of seven could travel in comfort. They also touted that the car-based crossover would get car-like fuel economy thanks to a 2.0-liter turbodiesel four making 150 horsepower 235 lb-ft torque. That gave it minivan-like practicality with sleek looks.
When the Orlando finally made it to production, there were a number of notable changes. The muscular bodywork was toned down dramatically, and North American models would not get the diesel engine.
Instead, Americans got the 2.4-liter Ecotec LAF four. And oh, only Canadians got it, not us in the United States. Talking to the press in 2010, Chevy product marketing director Margaret Brooks said that the automaker decided to focus on the Equinox, Malibu, Traverse, and the then upcoming Cruze for the U.S. market.
Built by GM Korea at its Gunsan plant, the crossover landed on Canadian shores in 2011 for the 2012 model year. It was an early success, with 7,199 units selling in 2012. But sales fell sharply from there, and GM eventually pulled the plug after the 2014 model year. Just 12,038 of them hit Canadian roads, and now one has appeared south of the border here in the United States.
The Mystery
The seller for this 2012 Orlando doesn’t know how it made it across the border. But it has a clean Michigan title and a CarFax that claims that it was cleared by Customs back in 2018.
That puzzled us in the Autopian’s Slack chat. How did this car get here, and assuming the CarFax is correct, how did it get cleared?
One popular theory in the chat is that General Motors may have done all of the work to ready the Orlando for U.S. sales, and just decided not to sell it here.
The Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988, also known as the “25-Year Import Rule” bans the sale of imported vehicles in the United States unless that vehicle complies with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. There are a few ways around the law, from converting a vehicle to regulation to temporarily importing as a tourist. You could also get a “Show Or Display” exemption or just wait 25 years. Some importers also say that they can work with the government so that an illegal vehicle may stay, usually after the owner pays a large fine.
But the easiest way would be import a vehicle that meets FMVSS in the first place. And the way that you can tell that is by looking at the manufacturer label adhered to the the B-pillar. The law says that the sticker must say: “This vehicle conforms to all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) in effect on the date of manufacture shown above.”
Alright, so what does that sticker say on an Orlando? I was able to search hundreds of Orlandos currently for sale and sold in auctions. And all of them have variations of this sticker in the door:
That sticker notes that the Orlando meets CMVSS, or Canada’s version of our FMVSS. The language for the United States is missing. That yellow sticker next to it only talks about tire specs. So, that means that the Orlando is illegal for the United States, right? Well, it’s a little more complicated than just that.
Pop the hood and you’ll see another sticker.
The EPA is another regulator that you have to please to import a vehicle. EPA bans the importation of vehicles into the United States for 21 years unless the vehicle is built to EPA standards. The Orlando actually appears to meet EPA standards, which would mean that the regulator likely would be fine with you bringing one over. So that just leaves you with satisfying FMVSS.
There is a clause in importation law that could be applicable here. You are allowed to import a vehicle that is “substantially similar” to a vehicle already sold in the United States that meets FMVSS. This law is largely for folks moving out of Canada who are driving models that are also sold in the United States. CMVSS is similar to FMVSS, and thus, a Canadian-spec Toyota Camry should fall under “substantially similar.”
However, the Chevy Orlando is not a vehicle that is also sold in the United States. It rides on the GM Delta II platform, which means that it shares DNA with the Chevy Cruze. But the Cruze is not an MPV, and its engine isn’t even shared with a Delta II platform mate.
Alternatively, if someone did the work to federalize a non-conforming vehicle for importation (like what happened with some first-generation Smart Fortwos) then it could be added to the list of non-conforming vehicles eligible for importation. The Orlando is not on the currently-published list.
It could have also been imported by a tourist or by a member of the military, but those cars are usually required to be sent back to where they came from after a year. The CarFax claims that this car has been here since 2018, so that’s probably out. But the CarFax does state that the vehicle was imported in December 2018, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection declaring the vehicle as meeting FMVSS and releasing its bond in February 2019. So someone somehow pulled it off.
This Orlando
And what did this person get? This Orlando has 189,000 miles and three rows of cloth seating. That’s good for six people, seven if your rearmost passengers are really tiny.
General Motors baked in some neat practicality into this thing, from seats that fold flat to the radio that swings up, revealing a secret compartment.
None of this is extraordinary; I remember driving a rental Impala that had a similar secret compartment. But it is minivan levels of seating in something that at least tries to be somewhat different.
As mentioned before, power is delivered through a 2.4-liter four making 174 HP. This is said to average 34 mpg with the current owner, which is right there with its official highway fuel economy rating. The engine drives the front wheels through an automatic transmission. Amazingly, this crossover was available in Canada with a manual.
The seller tells me that he is not the person who did the importation. The previous owner didn’t, either. And that makes sense, as the CarFax claims that the seller is the third owner since the car came to Michigan and the sixth overall. Another possibility is that whoever imported this got a letter from GM stating that the vehicle meets FMVSS. Sadly, the details on this vehicle’s importation remain a mystery.
I reached out to The Import Guys, a Washington state-based importer. The shop believes the Orlando to meet EPA regulations, but is also unsure how it got through NHTSA.
And none of this explains the question of why? Though, I firmly believe that every car has at least one enthusiast. So, perhaps someone really wanted to have an Orlando. If you’re that kind of person, this Orlando can be yours for $4,950 in Montrose, Michigan.
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The Orlando was meant to be a non-cosplay replacement for the HHR, so I’m guessing it got federalized, but marketing got cold feet.
I rented one once and it was not actually a bad vehicle, but of course, renting for a few days is not long term ownership. I think the packaging was very good, though.
That thing looked familiar and I thought we might have got it here in Spain for some time, but I could not for the love of me remember under what brand it was sold here. Maybe Daewoo? Opel? The usual Lancia’s half-assed attempt to sell some rebadged crap?
Anyway, even though I am a world-class car nerd I had to look this one up, and to my surprise it was sold here under as a Chevy with the exact same model name. Now, I can tell you that you could tell every single person you met every day, for a whole month ” I drive a Chevrolet Orlando” and not a single one of them would know what the hell you were talking about. That’s how irrelevant this car was.
I completely feel like this is just another 2.4 GM shitbox and I would drive it. it looks so useful with the those fold flat seats. I just wish it was the diesel variant., but then it would likely not be able to be imported then.
Here’s a question noone asked and probably noone cares. Does the vehicle have to be fully compliant or the parts? I mean this Orlando doesn’t confirm to similar vehicle but it seems all the parts on it are already approved in other vehicles. The frame, transmission, motor, etc so why not the sum is equal to the parts?
It has to be the vehicle as a whole. A collection of car parts does not in itself meet any safety standards. Most of the safety stuff is part of the body anyway, which is unique to the specific model.
So it’s basically a GM version of a Dodge Journey?
I am Canadian and own a mid-spec 2012 Orlando LT with the Auto, and the 16″ alloys. Didn’t want the 18’s just down to tire replacement cost, and I think the 18’s looked a bit silly.
Around where I’m at they’re surprisingly common, I see quite a few around, in fact when I bought ours there were 4 on the used car lot I was at.
It’s a decent car with pretty good driving dynamics overall tbh, although the GM 2.4 is prone to timing chain tensioner failure, and it has never met the posted fuel economy ratings.
They definitely at least considered the US as a market, it’s one menu setting away from all US measurements for mileage/speed/temperature/etc.
I’ve actually towed some small trailers with ours with good success.
A deal with one or more of the big rental companies had to have fallen through for this to have never been sold in the US, right? Otherwise it’s hard not to picture a row of these all lined up at MCO just waiting to shuttle families to and from the Disney parks.
So this is a question I can answer from first-hand experience.
Hi. You’ll find my signature on a number of GMs that were originally sold in Canada. Probably over a dozen. See, it was very common practice when I was wrenching on the north coast to import cheaper used cars from Canada and federalize them (which was a very easy process for dual-market models.) GM even had pre-made official checklists for some models.
“But this isn’t a dual-market model!” No, no it is not. But it is subject to reciprocity. US DOT and NHTSA have a formal reciprocity agreement with the Canadian agencies which allows vehicles compliant with CMVSS to be recognized as compliant with FMVSS, as-is, with only minor modifications.
So what this means is that in order to legally import this car, the owner only needed to follow a very VERY simple checklist:
– affirm that the vehicle was for personal use and not for resale (reselling, they must have FMVSS)
– affirm that the vehicle is not salvage, repaired salvage, or reconstructed
– obtain a letter from GM stating that the vehicle complies with CMVSS and therefore complies with FMVSS excluding labels, controls and displays, tires and rims, and lamps (due to Canada’s DRL law); this is actually really easy because it’s just a form-letter they routinely send out, because they are required to do so by law
– fill out form HS7 and select box 2B, conforming vehicle
– arrange with a US dealer to perform 49 CFR 541 (theft prevention markings AKA VIN etching) if needed
– if it does not have selectable gauges, have the metric IPC replaced with a US market IPC and the required odometer replacement labels affixed (where you find my signature.) However this is only required if the IPC does not have dual markings and/or does not display the odometer in miles.
And that’s it. Seriously. That is literally all you need to do in order to import a ‘non-conforming’ Canadian vehicle. The ones we imported were for resale, so we were required to import as 2B but perform certain Federalization (not allowed to disable DRL, required to perform VIN etching, required to replace IPC even if dual marking) before sale but after import.
Sounds like it’s time for me to go searching for a purple, manual transmission Orlando now!
There are only 5 for sale within 100 km of my location, and only 2 are manual transmission (6-speed). However one is silver and the other is black. No purple ones listed anywhere in Canada on Autotrader.
The gauge and odometer replacement thing sounds like it could still get expensive, how is that handled if the whole cluster isn’t shared with anything US or UK market so nothing bolts right in? Newer cars don’t really have individual modular gauges in standard sizes, for the most part
If the cluster cannot be made to be compliant (reporting in miles) then the vehicle must be imported as non-conforming and is then subject to the 25 year rule.
Personal use (non-resale) vehicles however do have an exemption for dual-face gauges (both miles and kilometers) if the odometer can be set to report in miles and the miles-per-hour is not as comically small as most US speedos have it, or if it is a dual-mode IPC.
That’s why GM’s are common imports. GM used common computer code globally for certain functions, particularly in the 90’s and 00’s. One of those functions was the speedometer/odometer. If your GM vehicle has a single set of markings on the speedometer, it is a dual-mode IPC. This means that we literally would do nothing more than take a Tech2 or TIS2000, enter service programming mode, and tell the computer to display ‘MERICA!! units instead of civilized units.
The Orlando however, is truly fucking hilarious. Because you’d think an export-only car would prioritize km/h over MPH on the speedometer, right? NOPE! You grab a UK dash. I shit you not. UK speed limits are posted in miles per hour, and GM shipped the Orlando there with the primary speedometer face being miles per hour, and the secondary km/h.
This gets even more hilarious when you find out that the Orlando speedometer, as sold in countries that use km/h, does not have visible secondary markings. It only has the km/h markings.
I’ve done it on the dirty end as an importer when we moved to the States. Saved me a ton of typing. It’s a fair stack of paper, but generally very easy to do.
Yeah. I’ve looked into it a few times, and it’s really pretty much just a matter of “follow these very simple directions, stick it all in a folder, and you’re done.”
I was in the market for a wrangler JK and about every third one was Canadian. Could tell because the heater control was in Celsius. Dash had to be replaced when imported so they were on my no go list. Also every single one was run through an auto auction in either Ohio or Washington state.
Replacing the IPC in Canadian imports is really, really closely monitored because dealers were rolling back odometers like it was a fucking contest when the doors opened. Which of course caused all kinds of migraines and quite a few dealers were shut down permanently for participating in those shenanigans.
And every single odometer rollback scamhouse uses the same garbage Chinese units. They leave very, VERY obvious evidence of rollback if you know where to look.
But you super don’t want a JK anyways. The NSG370 sucks.
I wish it were easier for European spec cars. You have no idea how much I want a Chrysler 300 Estate with a CRD.
The Orlando is interesting purely because it’s a rare car you could buy painted purple.
I saw these in the showroom when shopping in 2012. It wasn’t a consideration for me as I needed a good towing capacity.
It’s a great size, real roomy and decent looking inside, but, it’s not good looking on the outside. The proportions are weird. It looks like they part binned the Chevy bowtie on the grill from a 3500 series truck. It’s HUGE.
Had it been better looking, it probably would have done better here in Quebec, as smaller vehicles sell very well.
I still see one now and then around Montreal.
If not for the 2018 Carfax entry that says it was imported and cleared by US DOT, I would have thought this was just driven across the border and then the state somehow let it get registered, as some states *cough*Florida*cough* don’t seem to care about federal legality.
Well I’d guess the further you get from the border the less concerned tye DMV gets. I mean do you think the Nebraska DMV is up to date on all the laws on imported vehicles? Florida is probably really knowledgeable on boats but really noone is driving a car over from Cuba.
South Florida is like 30% Canadian during the winter months
Like the Patrol I saw with Florida plates.
We have a LOT of really, really red counties in Michigan. Just speculation, but if some local dude wants to register an otherwise perfectly OK car in some of those counties, I’m pretty sure the local SoS office would be happy to accommodate.
I like the Orlando more than I should.
Fun fact: they were available with a manual transmission and a third seat! 3 rows, 3 pedals. If you’re lucky, you can even find one with a sunroof!
The Orlando probably does meet US standards. GM considered selling it in the US but pulled out at the last minute. The decision not to sell them down here was probably made after getting it certified.
A few months ago, I saw a second-gen Kia Rondo for sale in Virginia on Craigslist.
Michigan seems kind of lax when it comes to titling/registering Canadian spec cars. When I lived there, I bought a Canadian 1983 Volvo 242GLT with a never-sold-in-the-US B23E engine, which was less than 25 years old at the time.
It came with a clean Michigan title, and not a speck of paperwork from Customs, or NHTSA, or the EPA. The PO simply drove it across the border and took the Ontario title to the Secretary of State (Michigan’s DMV) and transferred the title into his name.
This car was announced the same year we had our second kid, a period when I was quite MPV-curious. I knew we didn’t want/need a full minivan, and neither of us would ever tolerate an SUV, but we thought our Passat wagon might be too small long term—we had visions of the kids fighting over which one could bring a friend to the beach or whatever.
In practice, nobody ever made an MPV that checked all our boxes* and our second kid was kind of antisocial, so we just drove the Passat into the ground.
*Orlando—not imported
Ford C-Max Hybrid—friends test drove one and said the interior quality was comically low
Mazda 5—friends bought a manual, reported it was grossly underpowered and got blown around on the highway. They ditched it and bought a…
Prius V—I like to drive cars
I live in Canada, I’m a car person and I never knew these existed – I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen one, if I did, it didn’t register. So, I’m reading this article assuming it must have been a Central or South America model; imagine my surprise…
You’re not the only one.
I have seen exactly one in Ontario. A friend’s elderly mother got one. Perfect car for an old person who occasionally drives the grandkids around.
I had actually looked this up a few weeks ago, after there was some note of desire for something like an M340i or S4 wagon in the US (so, to see if a Canadian-market C43 AMG wagon could be imported). Apparently Canadian-certified vehicles can be imported for personal use, provided it’s not salvage, and if you can get a letter from the OEM stating that it effectively meets FMVSS except for a few labelling requirements.
That said, if you want a Korean MPV, the Rondo is the one to get (I haven’t tried the second gen although it’s reasonably handsome, but my mother-in-law had one and it was a perfectly fine vehicle).
https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/documents/vig_canada09122017.pdf
A few years ago, I saw a bunch of Chevy Captiva cars for sale, which appear to be similar cars that were sold in Canada, but I was seeing them around Pittsburgh.
We never got the Captiva in Canada (short of in its previous life as the Saturn Vue, just the same as the US), but it was sold in America as a fleet-only model for a couple years.
Yep. A friend of mine owned one. Terrible vehicle.
Ah yes, the “Craptiva.”
The Captiva was sold in the US to fleets only
That there’s one of them Day-Woos, isn’t it?
Yep, based on GM’s Delta platform – same used for the Cobalt. I wonder if it has the same ignition key problem since it wasn’t on the NHTSA recall list…
Delta II, so Cruze. Those have ignition switches that just work. Since Korean GM handled the body and American GM handled the drivetrain, those Delta II cars are pretty decent vehicles. Way better than any other GM small car.
I mean, by then, Daewoo was really just GM Korea, and was pretty integrated with the rest of GM. Note the corporate electronics, in particular, which were very different from prior Daewoo products, like the original two Aveos.
I remember a decade ago, I saw a Y-61 Patrol driving up the mountains to Indiana (my then gf was from there). Anyways, the Patrol had Florida plates (front and back). I know that model wasn’t eligible for the 25 year import rule, so I don’t know how they snuck it in. I thought it was a bit screwy since in Florida, we do not have front plates. I wonder whatever happened to that truck. I did see a three door Patrol here in Tampa once but it had French plates (assuming it belonged to someone in the military since Macdill is closeby).
I actually wanted one of these before they decided not to bring it to the U.S. If it was priced around what we thought it would be priced at the time, it would have been a good vehicle for what we needed it for. Cheaper than an Equinox, but roomier than the HHR it would have pretty much replaced. Too bad they ended up watering down the looks a bit.
Orlando-no-you-didn’t…
It’s also possible that this vehicle slipped through the cracks, doesn’t meet the requirements, and is just a whistle-blower’s phone call away from the crusher.
Not that anyone would bother.
Never underestimate the pettiness of some people. Just ask this article’s author.
This is what I’m going for – someone at CBP saw it was an innocuous looking Canadian market Chevy with an EPA sticker under the hood, figured that was good enough, and let it on through. But Customs and Border Patrol are only the front line enforcers, NHTSA makes the rules, just because Customs cleared it, doesn’t mean NHTSA did. Could still be flagged by them and subject to seizure unless they specifically say otherwise
I never understood why we didn’t get these in the US. Sure, it’s not going to set the world on fire, but it would have been an inexpensive family option for GM diehards.
I remember when I saw a Chevy Orlando in Orlando, it was kinda like inception that day or another XZibit meme if that’s your preference.
When I was in Malibu, CA in a rental Malibu, I didn’t see a single other Malibu. I think they were a little bit “low rent” for the area.
I used to see the Orlando occasionally in Detroit, but they always had Ontario plates and were just over the border for work.
Or a Pontiac Lemans in LeMans or a Bonneville at Bonneville or a Chevy Monza at Monza.
I’ve seen a Bristol driving around Bristol (UK).
I suppose they were afraid it would cannibalize sales from the Equinox too badly, and that was the more profitable model. Canada’s always been a friendlier market for small, cheap vehicles (for Quebec alone, if nowhere else), and automakers still sometimes feel the need to have something like that there to win conquest sales they wouldn’t have otherwise gotten, but we don’t have the same pressure in the US
Well now that you’ve outed it….