[MJGTOWISH]

Nissian skyline how the heck are they getting these cars!!!

I thought you could not have those cars. on the street. yeah it was a real one right side drive and everything.


I have been seeing a lot lately the ricer envasion is happing!!!! He did not even try. we revved and nothing how rude:lol: maybe he was scared.:lol:

But hey do you think the goats would be better if it was not coverted To left side drive??

 

[EEZ GOAT]

i saw one (g35) may be a rebagging or a g35. i looked them up and dont see any that looks like g35

 

[Justice]

Skylines are the only RHD that's allowed to be imported. BUT, it has to converted to USA safety standards. My friend who is in the USAF stationed in Okinawa, was going to get one and bring it back. There is only one or two companies in the USA that are liscensed to do the saftey conversion. Not cheap. Costs, about $30K to convert, but as my friend friend informed me, the car itself can be had for cheap due to the auto laws in Japan that require a car owner to *replace* the engine after 40K miles. My buddy could have picked up some hopped up skylines over in the $8K range. He just didn't have the $30K to pay for up front for the conversion.

Now, that said, he did also mention that there's supposedly a company in Canada that's doing the conversion process, but for ALOT less, somewhere around $7-8K. He never did find out all the information on the possible Canadian company before he came back to the states.

The military would ship one car of his where ever he was stationed, so he wouldn't have had to pay the $12K in shipping fee's either.

 

[Mad_Dan_Eccles]

due to the auto laws in Japan that require a car owner to *replace* the engine after 40K miles. My buddy could have picked up some hopped up skylines over in the $8K range.

>snippped<
Now, that said, he did also mention that there's supposedly a company in Canada that's doing the conversion process, but for ALOT less, somewhere around $7-8K. He never did find out all the information on the possible Canadian company before he came back to the states.

Couple of points - the Japanese have some very stringent inspections for roadworthiness.

The reason for the rapid depreciation is that cars over about 7 years old are usually required to get major structural work done to pass this inspection. It doesn't mean that Jap imports aren't safe - just that the Japanese inspection is really really tough to pass with an older car,

As far as the safety work is concerned DoT require it to be done by a US registered importer - you CANNOT have it done overseas before it is imported, otherwise it will be seized and destroyed or you will have to ship it back to where it came from at your cost. Cars over 25 years old are exempt from this, but may still be subject to state regulations - e.g. California will still need smog complicance on post 1975 model year cars.

Also be aware that you also need to get the car to comply with EPA regulations when you import and EPA have their own set of regulations which require that the car be brough in by one of their listed vehicle importers called Independent Commercial Importers (ICIs) - most importers are on both lists for obvious reasons

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/ lays out the DOT requirements

Hope this helps