So, there’s about a billion places I can go online to shop for 25+ year old Japanese cars & have them imported into the USA.
Does anyone know of a company (or companies) doing the same sort of thing out of mainland Europe?
The particular vehicle I’m looking for made it to basically the entire world, except the USA. I’d really prefer to hunt down a LHD version if I can.
I'm not aware of any companies doing that at the US end. The main issue is usually finding and buying the car at the European end (which is easier than buying them in Japan), there are several companies that will take care of the shipping.
Out of curiosity, what are you looking for? I've got some contacts in old car circles, but mostly in the UK and can probably dig one or two up in Germany.
This is relevant to my interests. Id punch a nun for a LHD R33 GTR - I know theyre only 24 years old at best at this point, but they landed all over Europe as LHD cars. I have been thinking on the EUDM import idea more and more lately as 2020 looms...
It helps if you work with an experienced broker who has buyers in Europe.
One name that always comes up in BMW circles is Will Zaraska (www.willz.ca) from Toronto. I haven't personally used his services, but I know Will personally: he's a long-time instructor and racer with the BMW Club. Good guy with a great reputation. From what I hear, his prices are very reasonable and he takes care of everything for you.
LanEvo said:Will Zaraska (www.willz.ca) from Toronto. I haven't personally used his services, but I know Will personally: he's a long-time instructor and racer with the BMW Club. Good guy with a great reputation. From what I hear, his prices are very reasonable and he takes care of everything for you.
bookmarked...
In reply to 4cylndrfury :
I wouldn't really call them "all over Europe" - I know a handful were officially sold in the UK (but of course those were RHD) and if they were sold anywhere else in Europe (which I'm not sure of), they are rare beasts indeed.
Orchid Euro is popular with the VW crowd in getting oddball cars and parts imported
Get yourself a good broker, pay them what they ask.
We do this a couple times a year and it's not worth blowing your brains out trying to handle the paperwork yourself.
Prepare yourself for export fees, packaging fees, port fees, container fees, trucking fees, fees if the container stays in port too long because the broker used the word "registration" instead of "title" or "proof of ownership" and any other sort of bullE36 M3 fee they can come up with to pick your pocket.
Good luck.
There are a ton of Euro-spec cars I'd love to own, but the thing that always pops into my head is the difficulty in getting parts for them.
In reply to Brett_Murphy :
If they have any kind of following in Europe and are over 25 years old, there is usually a specialist and a lot of them speak English. Yes, one tends to find those who don't take PayPal or credit cards (or don't want to deal with the hassle of shipping outside Europe), but if you're happy to pay for the shipping there are a fair number of companies willing to sell you stuff.
Thank you everyone for the rapid responses!
Orchid Euro appears to be exactly the sort of company I’m looking for; their flat-rate ro-ro service sounds ideal, and I like that they have a presence/store based here in the US. Contacting them to see how much of the initial purchase brokerage they are able to handle, and what their limitations are as far as originating country. It looks like they ship from Germany and the Netherlands so I’m sure those would be the easiest.
The car I’m shopping for doesn’t seem to have a huge enthusiast following; the ones I’ve found for sale on various craigslist-like sites have been very reasonably priced. Hopefully they remain affordable until I can locate one in the right color/condition for me!
I've sailed on a RoRo on that route. Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Felixstowe on the Europe side and about 3 ports on the US East Coast. Forget which 3. We used to get about $350 to bring a car over on the RoRo deck in the mid 80's.
I'm curious what Orchid Euro or the other guy charge to handle it all end-to-end. There's some 25+ year old Lotus I'd not be disinterested in. Eh, probably cost more than just buying local. And I need to wait about 5 more years for a Caldina.
aw614 said:Orchid Euro is popular with the VW crowd in getting oddball cars and parts imported
They brought over my mki bumpers way back when, as well as some other crap that we just didn’t get here. I think my parts shared a container with a MKI polo which is pretty cool.
What I'd be afraid of is a minor fender bender, especially on a car we never got here like an Audi RS2...
BoxheadTim said:In reply to 4cylndrfury :
I wouldn't really call them "all over Europe" - I know a handful were officially sold in the UK (but of course those were RHD) and if they were sold anywhere else in Europe (which I'm not sure of), they are rare beasts indeed.
From what I had heard, Spain got a bunch. IDK how accurate that report is however...
Ivo Christov in the Netherlands has a lot of experience in exporting cars to the US. His specialty is BMW, but he may be willing to find and ship other makes. https://www.e28.nl/en/
Does the 25 year rule apply to trucks as well? I have an unexplainable interest in one day getting a Renault Magnum.
My research told me that Nissan never made a LHD Skyline. The ones you will find are all cars that were converted. There was a company in New Zealand that built some for NZ and a handful of European countries but I think you will have one hell of a time finding one.
NZ is a RHD country.
Still want to put togther a group buy on 2107s.
ErikTheSwede said:My research told me that Nissan never made a LHD Skyline. The ones you will find are all cars that were converted. There was a company in New Zealand that built some for NZ and a handful of European countries but I think you will have one hell of a time finding one.
Henri Helanto, a netizen in the mid-1990s, imported an R32 GT-R to his home country of Finland (pretty sure he was Finnish... okay it has been 25 years or so, cut me some slack), and converted it to LHD using Z32 parts. As I recall, his largest difficulty was the dashboard, so he had molds made. He said he could have dashboards made in fiberglass or carbon fiber. But, the 300ZX steering parts bolted right in.
And that the LHD parts from a Z32 cleared the GT-R's turbos just fine, the "you can't make a RB26 LHD" folklore was BS.
Dr. Hess said:I've sailed on a RoRo on that route. Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Felixstowe on the Europe side and about 3 ports on the US East Coast. Forget which 3. We used to get about $350 to bring a car over on the RoRo deck in the mid 80's.
I'm curious what Orchid Euro or the other guy charge to handle it all end-to-end. There's some 25+ year old Lotus I'd not be disinterested in. Eh, probably cost more than just buying local. And I need to wait about 5 more years for a Caldina.
Orchid actually lays it right out on their site, which I appreciate. This package ticks pretty much all of the important boxes mentioned above.
Our flat-rate importation service for a regular sized passenger vehicle is US $2,600.00. This includes:
hmm Opel Calibra. Most of the early Astra GT/E iterations but they're well over 25. I left at the turn of the century so maybe an early Clio 16v. 306 looks tasty but too sedate. I remember about a decade ago lusting over the German version of Autotrader. 
heck how could I forget the Sunny Gti not the R and the Almera Gti even though the later looked a little plain.
Henri Helanto, a netizen in the mid-1990s, imported an R32 GT-R to his home country of Finland (pretty sure he was Finnish... okay it has been 25 years or so, cut me some slack), and converted it to LHD using Z32 parts. As I recall, his largest difficulty was the dashboard, so he had molds made. He said he could have dashboards made in fiberglass or carbon fiber. But, the 300ZX steering parts bolted right in.
And that the LHD parts from a Z32 cleared the GT-R's turbos just fine, the "you can't make a RB26 LHD" folklore was BS.
I remember reading about this many years ago. That being said, I really don't mind driving on the right. I have plans to import a turbo Nissan Stage at some point in the near future
In reply to therieldeal :
That's not too bad, really. I don't know what the transportation alone is today, but $350 30 years ago is close to a grand today.
Like I need another project.
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