Mark Brader wrote:
J. Clarke:
Now, turns out that (at least according to National) there's a gotcha.
Apparently for some reason known only to the Canadian legislature, a
Canadian citizen can't drive across the US-Canada border in a
US-registered rental car ...

That's wrong -- as correctly stated elsewhere in the thread, the rule
applies to Canadian residents, not citizens. It's a customs issue.

Some years ago I was told by a rental company that it actually did not
apply if the car was taken into Canada and dropped off at the first
convenient point, or something like that. In particular, that it was
permissible enter via I-5, drive as far as Vancouver, and return the
car promptly there. I make no assertion that this is generally true,
or even that it was really legal then.
The last I heard and this was about 7-8 years ago it probably was not
strictly legal but customs inspectors may have some discretion. I know
of at least one case where a family was returning with a rental because
their car was wreaked in the USA and customs made a specific exception.
I think the "drop off at the first convenient point" principle applied.

--
John Kane, Kingston ON Canada