importing JDM FD's for U.S. street use
 

hi, im sure this has been asked before, but in a year or so i will be getting another car, and the FD is the only option heheh. my problem is that i am both irrational and insane when it comes to these things and i cant just be satisfied with what mazda has so kindly brought to the u.s.... i must have a RHD JDM FD. i have contacted several european importers about shipping a car here to the u.s. and none are the least bit interested. so my question is does anyone know of an importer they can direct me to where i could import an fd? also EXACTLY what modifications (5mph bumpers, u.s. emissions equipment etc.) would have to do to make the car legal for street use in america. i know its been done before... hell even elliot from shinkairacing.com has a street legal JDM silvia so it cant be that hard. and yes i do realize that buying a used fd can be notoriously tricky and much hassle if it has the many problems the cars are prone to but im willing to take that chance. also i realize i would only be able to get 93-95 since those were the only years it was available in america. thank you so very much for your help.
mike

Approximately one year ago I was contacting DMV about importing RHD vehicles as I was living in Japan and wanted to being a piece of it back with me :D. Here's is exactly what they told me...
RHD drive cars are required, now, to have their own set of crash test results. If none exists or can be provided, then the car is not able to be transported to the US.
I even looked into getting it shipped purely as a show/demo car and noone would still touch it. All the shipping companies told me that they had to get some kind of verification from DMV to import vehicles and that because it was a RHD, the DMV wouldn't approve the verification request.
I called at least half of the automotive importers on the DMV site, they all gave me the EXACT same answers. Only one place actually did any research though, they ran into all the same obstacles.
That guidline isn't very old as it was jsut implemented a couple months before I was researching on how to import my car. Anyone that has a car imported, from Japan, had it done before this timeframe unless it's a Skyline. Motorex has done the testing reults for Skylines and therefore can import them.
I talked to Motorex about crash testing cars and they said just for the Skyline that the testing ran approx $750k. I'm not totally positive, but I believe European cars can be imported with less hassle due to equal or superior safety requirements there? Don't quote me on that one, but that's how I've understood it, unless they were talking about importing them before this new rule took effect.
If you find any information that would otherwise allow the shipment of RHD cars from Japan, please let me know. I have a few friends in Japan that would move back if they could bring their cars.

it's not worth it at all unless you are getting a car from canada. the customs agents will rip you apart and charge you something like $15k just to make the car legal here. I've looked into doing this with a supra if you go onto the supra forums and do a search there's some real good info and links about importing cars here.