modoman

iTrader: (6)

just browsin around and happened to find a few good deals in the uk for some suhweet specimens


http://www.hyeline.com/import_sale.htm

tripledoublegs

iTrader: (11)

nice. wish I still lived in europe

Nodnero

iTrader: (8)

That fairlady Z is screaming my name!!!!!! Cant be that much to ship over here. . . hmmmm . .

LogicWavelength

iTrader: (2)

yea... ship it over here and you'll get two halves of a fairlady handed to you. I tried for about 6 months to import a silvia. it was impossible. customs has a lock down on any whole vehicle entering the US. there are two exceptions - racing use only and if you are moving over here and are bringing your car too... in which the car can only stay for a certain timeframe, then is either shipped back or destroyed.

the one way to illegally legally import a car.... it has to have a visual double in the US (a fairlady is a 300zx, a silvia is a 240sx, a gto is a 3000gt, civics, integras, etc) you import the car as either a parts car or racing use only. you then buy the US double of that car from a junkyard. you then apply for a salvage title and just say that the jdm car is really the one you bought at a junkyard. you say you used a JDM front clip, so theres no VIN but that it truthfully is the USDM car. (this is where it becomes hard to explain the RHD)

now the catch is that any engine not sold in the US is illegal for street use. so importing a silvia for example, it would need the USDM motor (the KA24 i think it is) in order to be registered. you then would have to swap back in the JDM motor... but if you manage to pull this entire feat off, whatever state you live in would actually rivet a VIN plate inside the engine bay and away you go.

there are a couple of other backdoors, but they all involve faking the cars identity as a USDM car. now you know why there are so few intact street legal JDM cars in the US. getting the car whole isn't hard, but registering it is.

just figured i'd share with everybody...

modoman

iTrader: (6)

very interesting indeed... thanks for the info. ive always wondered about shipping cars over and why more people didnt do it, i just figured it was too hideously expensive for most people.

LogicWavelength

iTrader: (2)

well... it is. If by some freakish chance you were given permission by US Customs to perform a naturalization to a JDM car.... aka converting its emissions to US spec and verifying crash data for a RHD vehicle to the DOT standards for this country.... (i think there are like 10 tests) then yes its rediculous. Motorex charges 15 or 20 thousand dollars for converting a skyline if you buy one on your own.... thats because they had to crash how many of the things to get DOT approval as well as the research and testing to get the car to pass emissions standards... we're talking stupid amounts of money.

my way of getting a JDM car here isn't very legal, but its how alot of them get here. the legal way is to basically repeat what Motorex did with the skyline.... and probably dropped a million or two to get that far. you can buy an R34 Skyline GT-R (not the V-Spec, but still its a GT-R) for like $25-35,000 US. It's the conversion charge that kills it.

xam

iTrader: (10)

its cheaper to move to the caymon islands in the caribbean sea. all jdm cars there woot

CuRiOuSfIsH

iTrader: (13)

so true..... a few years back, I was in my home town, and they were selling Supra's, Gt-Rs, Evo, Sti's for very low prices.... but also a lot of them are crashed but restored.

centurioncivic

you can impport cars over here, you just have to use alot of leg work. My friend is picking up his r32 tomorow from new orleans. It took forever for the car to get there but it finally happened. You just gotta work at it