hi,

this doesnt neccesarily relate specifically to the FD, but i have seen a lot of talk in here about importing new FDs from japan so i know there are ppl in this forum that are knowledgable about importing. Having read the threads about importing cars from japan, and knowing how difficult it can be, does anyone know if it is equally difficult to import cars from europe?

 

Slug it depends on what car..... There is a list that customs has, and also the EPA...

Search a little, pretty easy to find....

 

i imagine it to be same. emission and safety are the two biggies i think with europe or japan imports

 

Japan imports actually are not that bad to import. There emmisions are more strict then carb. On the other hand, in europe, what is emmisions?

 

I have a question for you guys. My wife is going to be Air Force Pilot. Along with that duty comes free travels to europe and Japan if i wanted to. I would be able to get my hands on a new RX7 overseas, It wont cost me anything to bring over here to the US. I know someone who did the same thing with a TVR Tuscan S.
My question now is, I know for a fact is not requiered for me to do the driver steering wheel swap, but I would have to registered in the US and do the emmissions and inspections. How difficult is that and how much are we talking about, and last who would do this type of work on the car???
Please Let me know, Emmission wouldnt be a problem, because I have a guys who makes my FD pass without even looking at the car for $150. Now will i be able to use him for the Imported car??

 

slug240: Whether a car comes from Europe, Japan, Italy, or any other country does not matter. They all have to go through the same tests in order to be US street legal (assuming that you want to drive the car and not make it a very expensive lawn ornament). It does not make sense to have stricter requirements (in regards to emissions) for certain cars based on their origin. (Does the government issue requirements on immigrants based on nationality such as height or weight? hahaha) And I agree w/ canman6969...please search.

muzik3k: given your military status...you may want to PM Soul Assassin. He is currently coming back to the states w/ his FC. He may be able to answer your question as not many people on this forum have actual experience w/ this.

 

Actually, some places in Europe do have emissions testing:

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...threadid=67865

muzik3k, check this thread:
http://www.preludeonline.com/showthr...threadid=61135

 

Lots of people import cars from Japan into Europe. Lots of companies do it. It's called grey market.
Go pick up a European car mag, they should have a bunch of ads for companies that import grey market cars.

 

It would have to pass many safety and emissions tests.
Motorex had to crash test 10 Skylines to be able to make it legal to import them.
You COULD TRY to bring the car over, go by a wrecked or salvaged FD. Take the VIN off the wrecked FD and slap it on the new one and go register it. Illegal though.

 

Uhhh, he was asking if there was a difference between importing a car from Europe or Japan into the USA.

 

i've had many a dreams like this.

 

why don't you bring the car over, then register as a kit car??

 

muzik3k,

I'm in Italy now (Air Force) and about a year ago I was going to buy a Porsche 911 and bring it back. Not sure how PACAF (Japan) works, but this is what I was told:

In order to import a car via Transcar (the Air Force's main contract vehicle shipper) it must be sent to an authorized conversion company. The one that this particular shipper has a contract with is called Champagne Importation.

This is where it gets fun...the contract for conversion must be paid in full at the time of the shipping (for any 911 '86 - '93 it's a flat rate of $8500.00) This price varies per vehicle. I was also going to look into shipping a Defender 90...$10,000 conversion charge and I could only ship the same model year that was allowed for import '94 - '97 I think.

It was mentioned that Motorex had to crash 10 Skylines...same goes for any car not previously introduced into the U.S. Market. Regardless of previous model year induction into the market (Land Rover for example).

Believe me, if it were easy I would've brought my 16v Lancia Delta Itegrale HF back...but it's not that easy. My advice to you is have fun during your future tours with as many cars as you can and take pics for the memories. I've gone through 12 cars in three years!!! Buy-drive-sell-buy-drive-sell..... And welcome to the family!!! Even though I'm not a zipper-suited sun-god (pilot) like your wife.

 

thank you ianewk for the info. Every bit of information counts. I was looking forward to bring to the US:
TVR Tuscan S,
BMW ///M3
99 up RX7.
One of them or may be 2 out of the 3

Those are my 3 picks. As far conversion prices, im not aware of so obviously im going to have to do some research on it once im overseas.
Now, Alpine said to registered as kit car, what does that ecsactly mean??? dO I HAVE TO SEND it to an authorized conversion company so transcar can ship it out. They dont do any of that when we take a US car out to Europe. Why do they do that when we hae to bring one here??

 

a local shop owner got a japanese supra into U.S., and he drives it on the street daily, he told me he registered the car as a a kit car.

another guy around here got a R33 GTR, and on his windshield, it has a little black plate thing that says 'subsitute for U.S. temporary vin#'

so there must be a way to get the cars streetlegal w/o going thru expensive importers

 

if people can register a pontiac fiero chassis with a fiberglass 1 piece body. I figured a factory built car shouldn't be a problem to register as a kit car?

 

Here's a site where you can get a TVR Tuscan, the shop is in Milan and they export so they'll be the one's to ask for specifics.

http://www.ukgarage.it/

You can get a brand new M3 for $44,000 and change through Pentagon Car Sales at any major European military installation. Yes, I said $44,000. The guy I bought my FD from sold it to me because that's what he was getting (he has a tricked out '94 Supra too...bastard ).

He picked his up for around 45K. Midnight blue...so sweet. Oh, did I mention they're U.S. spec!

You'd have to go to PACAF for a '99 FD...don't know much about it (although I'm hoping for orders there by the end of July)...there are some mil guys in Japan on the forum like soulassasin.

Don't know about the kit car registration. But if you find anything out let me know, I would kill to bring an Lancia Delta Integrale Evoluzione back!

 

Post a picture of that Lancia Delta Integrale Evoluzione.
and do you have a web site for PACAF??? How about web sites for importers

 

Go to the website I linked and check them out. They have an entire listing.

I'm at work so I don't have a pic of my old one.

I have a video from Top Gear (a British T.V. show featuring performance cars) showcasing the Integrale, but it's too big (9.35 MB).

I don't have anything on Japan importation. I've been in Europe for six years. I'm hoping to go there next though.

So...basically, I'm not much help this time around.

 

Just go to that customs web page, trust me guys you can find all your questions there. All the forms you have to fill out. It tell you everything. Customs wont even let you touch it till the EPA testing it done, with in the customs web page it will tell you about 2 weeks, then if it even passes which it wont you will have to have all the MODS done to make it legal in 2 weeks otherwise it is deported, in all this time it stays at customs, there are other ways if you search the Customs web page good, it would be best to get it in on a 6 month pass, and try to get it all legal by then, that is if its even legal since the steering wheel is on the other side.. All this is explain inside the web page..... GOOD LUCK!!

Jason

 

How about importing the car into Canada, and then driving it across the border? No epa to worry about. I'm not worried about emissions in Va or NC...something to think about.

 

I guess if you didnt get caught it would be ok... Sometime or another you will have to register it, so im sure some no life government person has the job in looking for this.... As in VIN##`s I dont know for sure, not many people have the money to experiment with though too. The customs web page has a list of what cars you can drive across the border, and RX7`s on on there till 95.. even for coming from Canada, I mean we all know they dont have BP on the whole line, but is it worth the risk? Once you get it, and if you get caught, your screwed out of you money....

 

That's true...I'd want to simply import my '92 FD. I've grown quite attached to her

 

That should be no problem you can take it straight to a US port, but your still required to get it test before or they can have it done for you. They kind of get you both ways there, they say if it was in the states before you have to fill out only a couple forms, but if it has never been there, then you have to fill out all kinds of ***** still.........I mean you can get the car in the US, but now you just have to get it tested Emissions wise.. BUT i dont understand how that works, they make it sound like the EPA has to do it or assign someone to do it, it kind of reads like stereo instructions on their web page.. You should check it out, LOTS OF GOOD INFO>>>

 

What's the website Jason?