One of my dream cars of all times is coming up on the 25 year mark. I always told myself that as soon as it was eligible for import, I would do so.
Does anyone have experience or resources about importing vehicles under the 25 year import rule?
Car in question is a Pulsar GTI-R
No experience at all here but it seems like it would be easier to find one in canada. shipping, payment, paperwork, and communication would be much much easier.
if its over 25yo, I don't think they can do much. You should have the vehicle price, price of shipping, containers aren't cheap, and must pass customs with importation tariffs. Then you're still liable for sales tax when you go to figure out how to even title/register it.
Hmm, still a bit too early to import a Honda Beat or Suzuki Cappuccino.
It is comparatively easy, although in my case it was also easier because I already owned the vehicles.
You do need an experienced customs agent to clear the vehicle unless you have a lot more time than money. Their services aren't that expensive anyway, but they'll make sure that you fill in the correct forms for EPA and NTHSA exemption forms, get the vehicle through customs and all that so you have the correct paperwork. I didn't have to pay any duties but there's a chance you will have to, but again that's something the customs agent will handle, you just have to stump up the monies.
Oh, and make sure that for any car you buy in Japan, you get the correct certificates of deregistration. IIRC there might be issues getting the car out of the country if it hasn't been deregistered correctly and there might be issues registering it here.
If you have the right paperwork, registering the vehicle shouldn't be that hard - in my case, the NV DMV simply treated it as an out-of-state purchase so I had to get a VIN inspection, hand in all the paperwork including the customs stuff and it got titled and registered without a problem. However, in my case the title was branded as a non-US market vehicle and none of the regular inscos would touch the bikes. Hagerty had no problem with that but State Farm, Allstate & friends said "no".
I personally have never bought a car from Japan, but friends of mine in the UK had a side business doing that. You'll need a buyers agent in Japan who can purchase the car at an auction, get it to the docks and arrange shipping. I have no recommendations for them but it shouldn't be too hard to find one.
As to shipping, most cars will come over RoRo and you'll have to arrange for shipping from the docks. Storage at the docks is expensive so make sure it doesn't hang around there for too long (not to mention that in my friend's experience, parts that were attached to the car when it left Japan might go walkies at the dock - happened more than once).
Unless you have unfettered access to a loading dock and a way to get a car from the loading dock down to ground level do not ship a car in a container to your place. You can probably get the container set down at the dock and unload the car there, but if it shows up at your place on a truck and you have no loading dock, you have a bit of a problem. That said, container shipping is a lot more expensive than RoRo, so unless you're importing six figure tuner cars, I'd go RoRo.
Before you get too far, you should check the EPA and NHTSA's websites for information regarding legaly imporing cars.
It's a google search away.
Oh, GO TO THEIR WEBSITES. Not a third party. Their websites have the actual rules that need to be followed.
In reply to alfadriver:
+1, and for the 25+ stuff it is really easy anyway.
There are also a couple of companies that import 25+ cars from Japan on a regular basis, might be worth just giving them a ring to see how much they'd charge to get the car landed with a bunch of their stuff.
BoxheadTim wrote: In reply to alfadriver: +1, and for the 25+ stuff it is really easy anyway. There are also a couple of companies that import 25+ cars from Japan on a regular basis, might be worth just giving them a ring to see how much they'd charge to get the car landed with a bunch of their stuff.
When I've done searches in the past, both the EPA and NHTSA's sites had companies listed that they recommended. Seems to make it pretty easy.
For the OP, the question really becomes- is it worth it? It's one thing to import something worth the import costs. But....
As more and more cars become eligible under the 25 year law, I wonder what their value will be. If a true demand happens, I can see prices moving up when the playstation generation suddenly says " ZOMG I can Haz Skyline?!"
(yes, I would like an RWD R32, but where the berkley would I find parts?...and don't say overnight from Japan...)
Datsun1500 wrote: I imported a mini last year. Find an import broker and let them handle the import. They do everything for you, and you pay them. They charged $200 or so to do it (above all of the other costs)
Exactly. I've brought two 25+ year old cars in, and my broker took care of the import process. It's what they do, and the price was really reasonable. In both cases, I physically brought the cars in before starting the importation. You don't need to go through a Registered Importer as you would with a newer car, any broker can handle the (fairly minimal) paperwork. The purpose of an RI is to make sure a newer car meets the rules for newer cars and make any required modifications. Once you hit 25, that's all gone.
Keep in mind that the 25 year rule is an NHTSA one. It means the car doesn't need to meet crash standards for that year. But you will still have to meet your state's emissions standards, and that may be problematic.
You can see the effect of the 25 year rule on Minis. Ones that are old enough to (legally) get imported to the US are more expensive than ones that are not.
http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/import/
Taiden wrote: Car in question is a Pulsar GTI-R
I see no fault in this ploy whatsoever.
nderwater wrote: Hmm, still a bit too early to import a Honda Beat or Suzuki Cappuccino.
those make Miatas look big IIRC.
You might be able to get one from Canada as well. There are a few about here and the ones in the country tend to cost less than importing a fresh one.
I am waiting patiently for a Mitsubishi Delica. In January I can get an 89 model year version. Vancouver is where I will be looking.
R32 Skyline FTW! Just a few more years!
Are there any well known Canadian importers? I'd rather go straight to them instead of deal with landing one overseas.
Maybe one that also specializes in Euro cars? I'd love to snag a LHD Pulsar GTI-R right off the bat. It probably costs more, but it might be worth the extra money.
In reply to Taiden:
Did you go to the link that Kieth posted? In there, there's a list of approved importers.
Like I said, go to the EPA and NHTSA websites, they will answer your questions.
Yep, I found the link to all the USA importers. I'm going to try to look into Canadian ones as well, as it seems some of them land Pulsars regularly.
FYI, it makes no difference from a paperwork standpoint if the car comes from Canada or overseas. The rules are the same UNLESS it's a Canadian market car. But these aren't. It is physically easier to get it into the country, but remember that you're paying the price for already bringing into another country.
Gearheadotaku wrote: As more and more cars become eligible under the 25 year law, I wonder what their value will be. If a true demand happens, I can see prices moving up when the playstation generation suddenly says " ZOMG I can Haz Skyline?!" (yes, I would like an RWD R32, but where the berkley would I find parts?...and don't say overnight from Japan...)
Apparently they're common enough in the Great White North that finding a pre-imported one for sale is no big deal. I saw a GTI-r this way. (And after seeing it in person and in action - do not want 
)
Years back, there was a guy in Finland who was a regular on the various rec.autos.* newsgroups. (His name was Henri Helanto, not sure what he's up to these days) He had a thing for turbo AWD vehicles, including an Escort Cosworth, a Typhoon, and an R32 GT-R. He converted the GT-R to left hand drive using a 300ZX rack (bolted right in, apparently) and he was quick to point out that any claims that the turbo placement prevented the steering from fitting were pure, unadulterated BS. He also made molds for a proper LHD dashboard.
Anyway, from his first-hand experience, the Z32 parts mostly worked just fine in an R32. I'm all but convinced that Nissan only made one RWD chassis in that timeframe and they just tweaked the track width and wheelbase as necessary. Makes sense when most of your market is niche vehicles.
Keith, good point. Thanks.
Knurled, what were your reactions to the GTI-r?
pulsar GTIR isn't legal yet just FYI.
Two people here at Las Vegas have them somehow, both are in the military.
They are manufactured starting in 1990 so you will have to wait until 2015 if you want it to be legal for real unless you have some kind of trick like those two people must. Other than that I talked to one of them, the one whose trick I know and whose trick is illegal so I wont go further, and he says they are a sturdy car that is fun to drive.
If you want a car like that which would have immense cool factor, can be had for a low price, and is actually legal to import right now i'd look for a Delta Integrale 8v. They are actually available in Japan so if you are on the west coast importing one would be easier/cheaper from there than from europe. I've seen them for sale at good condition there for as low as $7k-$8k. 16vs are more money
If you want to wait a few years for the GTIR to be legal also you may want to look at the Mazda 323 GTR as well as it's similar.
If you want to go for a small car like those Kei cars above and you want to bring something interesting to the US in the meantime find a Nissan March/Micra Superturbo. They are hilariously awesome. 0.9l 8000rpm screamer engine with a supercharger and turbo and they look crazy weird and sound awesome
R32 Skyline FTW! Just a few more years!
Few more years? More like a few more months. Their manufacture date started in may 89. So starting may 2014 they begin to be legal.
I am so glad here in canada cars only have to be 15 years old to import. I'm glad we don't have to compete with America for first pick at the pristine jdm imports. We get to mess around with them for ten years before you guys get them. I'm a former owner of a gts4 skyline, current owner of a legnum vr4. My brother in law has a gts type m skyline, and my sister has an all-trac celica. All fantastic cars except the celica which has turned out to be a bit of a lemon. All cars imported with less than 65,000 miles.
Taiden wrote: Knurled, what were your reactions to the GTI-r?
The intercooler is basically bolted to the valve cover with no good air intake or exit strategy. We were doing an autocross-like competition and he'd get half, maybe 3/4 of a run in before the intercooler was heat soaked. Then he'd have to drive it around in the pits for a while (missing runs in the process) to try to cool it back off.
The car struck me as a homologation special in the sense that it has all of the necessary parts, but wasn't thoroughly engineered because the purpose was to allow the manufacturer to go racing and they could fix the glaring deficiencies there with variances.
They were reputed to have weak transfer cases in Oz. Not personal experience just a reputation FWIW
Aussie's who rallied imported cars avoided them like the plague
I would go this route
http://www.tradingpost.com.au/Automotive/Classic-Unique-Cars/Hot-Custom-Street-Cars/AdNumber=TP005445861
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