Import Woes
 

Well today I called 2 Idependent importers to see about importing my 1990 eurospec RX-7 Cabrio Turbo TII. The news was pretty bad. I would cost me about 12,000 dollars to bring it to the US. So I've pretty much given up on doing that. The places told me some things that would blow your minds. Here is a basic list of the things that I couldn't believe:

1. The basic cost for an import to be checked and made to meet US specs is $7,800. This does not include parts and the shipping cost to bring it to the US.

2. Shipping is anywhere from 700 to 1000 dollars.

3. All parts not in US spec must be bought "Brand New" from the Mazda directly.

4. Catalytic converters even if already on the car must be new and are replaced by them only.

5. The car since manufactured after 1989 must have a drivers side airbag installed. this doesn't matter if the car was manufactured with one or not. The cost for that alone is around 5000. Most of the shops won't even look at the car if it doesn't have one

6. All work must be done at the inspection station where they will take parts off of the car to complete inspections, basically they disassemble the car.

7. All glass and lights must be changed to US spec. Once again they must be brand new from the factory.

I think this is rediculous. One thing we have too much of in the States is regulations. It's cheaper to just buy another car in the US. So my hopes of having a factory turbo X in the states. If anyone knows anything about beating this let me know.

Later.

DUH. Why do you think they have all the import regulations?

import it as a race car.... that way you dont have to do any Regulations Matching. If its not driven on the road they can't touch you. yes you might have to pay customs and for shipping but the rest wouldnt apply.

Only problem would be not being able to drive it on the roads. Definitely not what I was thinking. I was just amazed at the costs. I don't get it. I know there are several right hand drive rex's in the US but how did they get here?

import it as a race car. Go to a junk yard, buy a completely trashed 2nd gen ($300 tops) and switch all the VIN's. Then bribe...err...pay someone to have it checked out as being "restored" to drivable condition.

All cars made after 9/89 have to have a SRS system. SRS can be either the stock US spec Mazda mouse belts, or an air bag.

But it is not manditory that it be an air bag unless it is a convertible.

Since they didn't know that, they probably either are clueless and don't know, or they are trying to jack up the price. Either way, if they missed that simple thing, how many other things did they miss.

They did mention something about the belts but they weren't real clear on it. Something like a automatic seat belt is what they mentioned.

Now this information came from 2 totally different importers in 2 different states.