My Import Saga

[hvymtl939]

Any updates?

[Mr. O]

So any news? any way to contact this guy outside the forums to see if he got anywhere with it?

[jdmvip]

Bump again, have we learned anything new?

[loki993]

Ive done plenty of reading on this over the years. Basically what Ive learned is that its nearly impossible to do legally and probably not with the hassle either.

There is a list of cars that can be federalized, but 99 percent of them you can get in the US anyway, so that doesn't help.

Yes you can try and get a letter from the manufacturer that says it meets requirements, but you wont, because the cars don't. So If you want to bring a car in thats not on the list you have to find someone to crash some for you and certify them, which is very expensive. Then you have to get it certified for emissions as well. Then after that you have to modify it to meet requirements, oh and you cant do it yourself either. A licensed, registered, importer has to.

Do a search for Sean Morris, he was one of the Motrex guys before they went under, and went through the whole thing with Skylines, he knows what hes talking about and even has a blog about the subject. They did all the crash testing for the Skylines and had all the info to federalize them.

There are people that have JDM cars here, but they're probably not 100% legal like others have said. Sure they may be titled but that doesn't really mean anything, just that the state allowed it. Its the fed you have to worry about. If they find you they WILL take your car.

There were some examples of Civics that have been imported and maybe they have been. A car thats available here may be possible to federalize since its on the list. Your not getting a car here thats not on the list though without having to do a lot of expensive things to it.

That leaves what some others have been trying and thats importing a car without drivetrain and also importing the drivetrain for it and installing it here and registering it as a kit car. Apparently the Fed has been seizing those cars as well. Because the fact that it came here in pieces and was put back together here doesn't legally make it a kit car.

Ive thought about one possible way and that may be to import a shell and install a USDM drive train in it, but then most of us want the motor that came in it to begin with so thats a bit purpose defeating. I also don't know if that would be enough to satisfy the fed about it being a kit car though.

So basically I think were all SOL, its just easier to wait until the car is 25 years old then its exempt from everything and can be imported simply for the cost of importing it. No meeting standards, no emissions, no customs hassles, easy.

[rpk2012]

I am going to post a quick reply, but I have an idea that would be VERY far out, BUT if you want it, its a possibility.


Contact commercial exporters from Japan and or any other country you are getting your vehicles from.

I say if you speak with them about a few cars for free (testing purposes) and then speak with RI's or ICI agencies about getting them approved, if might come down to paying NOTHING. The reason this MAY work, is that if you get it legalized, that means more buisiness for them, as everyone with enough dough will be wanting a car. Now people with rare US spec cars may get pissed, but it opens the gates for people who want j-spec here.

Then, when the cars are legalized, purchase through your exporter/importer and bam, your done.

The end.


I understands its more complicated than that, but work a deal, talk the talk, and you might get companies interested in footing the bill to make the big bucks in the end.

[BulldogBros]

Hi Fellas,

Just wanted to jump in here and give a bit of insight on this as someone who has exported multiple cars into the US from Japan.
Basically the 25 year old cars are exempt and are pretty straightforward. As for the legal cars newer than 25 years old listed on the NHTSA site, they can too be brought in but really need to have the correct EPA stickers in it saying it meets US/Cali specs for model year XXXX. If it has these in place it isnt too much of a worry.
A lot of this depends on the state as well as the Registered Importer you have doing the work for you.
As for cars that are neither 25 years old or not on the list well sure you possibly get one in and registered (some states are much easier than others) but you certainly run the risk of having the vehicle confiscated and gone forever.

The only other way is to pay to have the engineering tests and what not done to see if it meets crash/emission testing but you can imagine how silly the costs would be for this. It would only make sense if you anticipated the potential of expensive cars at a decent volume as in the case of the GTRs that were done. Unfortunately they got greedy on that one..

[jdmvip]

Bump, any update from the OP?
Bulldog are you familiar with landing and clearing vehicles into the US?

rpk is having a lot of issues including the US side asking for the BOL before the car is shipped.
http://forums.jdmvip.com/Problems_po...m_Japan-6395-t

[BulldogBros]

These things are not difficult to handle, not sure why it is an issue.

[Beau]

New Member here, trying to take my cars over to the US from the UK.

Does anyone know specifically if the US customs checks how old the vehicles are online on some sort of database.

The reason I ask is, if it could be possible to date back a vehicle to make it seem like it is 25 years or older in order to get it through Customs easier.

[trev]

:facepalm: