Hi,

All the posts Ive seen so far regarding importing a car over to the US involve lots of hassle and headache but none seems to answer this question, and if one has I apologize. Ive recently taken a look at several sites with several diffrent jspec cars for sale, I like nissan's so natrually the silvia s15/skyline etc. have taken precedent. I have gotten several costs on the importation fee's alone etc. And I have taken a look at a lot of the websites dealing with issue's regarding importation of vehicals.
Now here's where it becomes intresting to me at least. Buying a old used s13/s14/s15/180sx seem's to be relativitly inexpensive, so is buying an old beatup skyline gts-t over in japan, Some places you can find great deals for these cars. So....

1. Has anyone investigated the possibility of buying a car whole in japan and then performing swap's of all the equipment into a car with an accepted/legal chasis ie 240sx. This is obviously done with front clips and engine swaps. How do the importers get frontclip's in for So cheap, how can I import a front clip of my own, what liscense does it get, Salvage? If its salvage can I import a car designated with a salvage tag?

2. If someone wanted to do a full jspec conversion on their 240sx or some other car, it seems to be the most economical way would be to buy the entire car from japan at like 2-5k (i see lots of s13/s14/180sx/GTS-T at this price ) pay the cost of shipping it, and part it out as neccesary.

I know this didint have alot to do with skyline's in specific but this seems to be where importation is discussed the most so I thought id give a shot at posting here first.


Thanks
-i1l

Does the cost also include the dereg paperwork? Also unless you are purchasing from a very reliable source such as an auction house, Nissan, etc you are gambling with your money.

This is an interesting question in deed. It is something that has been going on here recently in New Zealand since our lovely government passed the frontal impact standards law. Which by they is tougher than any civilized country in the world!

There have been a few places bring in R32 GTR's for wrecking purposes only. I know it is coming in under that sort of "title". You would best talking to a reputable RI or even contacting the DMV directly. This way you are getting the right information, especially since you will be dealing with customs.

Which by they is tougher than any civilized country in the world!


:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:
Its not that bad! Well it sucks actualy, but its also based on almost entirely on a Japanese standard, so if you think you have trouble with a Skyline, then think how hard it is to bring in an older Lambo, Ferrari, or Lotus, cars that were often never tested to meet the Japanese regs.


Importing a wrecked car into any country from Japan is the same as importing any kind other kind of frieght.
You still have to pay any taxes and dutys your governtment may charge, as well as all the handling fees, from getting it onto the warf and onto a ship in Japan, to getting it off the ship, and off the warf at it's destination.

Here in NZ there is a huge amount of frieght, used and wrecked cars included going between NZ and Japan, and so the process is very refined and relativly easy to get into. Costs are low because of the high volume, and we have very low importation dutys compared to a lot of other nations (the US for example).
But the biggest thing that helps is having people in Japan, you will find that most of the importers operating in the US will have someone working almost full time in Japan sourcing cheap useful wrecks, and ensuring that take the most efficant way to the boat.
Doing it all from America would be a nightmare, even something as simple as putting the wreck in a contianer will suddenly cost more.

Funny, I have seen this first hand. Like I have said I spent years working for a classic car \ motorcycle auction. Well one auction we had there was a aussie guy there. This guy spent the better part of a mill. on classic hogs from the 50s & 60's. The next day he had a over seas shipping box dropped off in the parking lot. He opens the doors puts a small ramp down and grabs the first bike. What came next almost killed him :banghead: He takes the bike and starts running at the ramp. Just at the ramp he just lets the bike go. It gose all the way up to the front & crashs into the front wall and falls over. He dose it again this one hits the first bike on the ground and falls over. Now keep in mind there are people watching. Bikers that had just spent years of there lives redoing these very bikes he is crashing :screwy: I run up and grab the guy and take him inside before he is jumped. I asked what in the hell he thinks hes doing. I was thinking this guys gotta be drunk or :smokin: . Anyway he pulls out a book of vin# for every bike he had for shipping with NEW paperwork for far less money for salvage bikes :naughty: He said the guys @ the port in aussie for tax's will want to look and see there not good bikes. So if he bangs them up he can save HUGE on import tax. Even with fixing the damage he dose to the bikes he said he saves well over 100 grand in taxes. :naughty: Well I talked him into waiting till most of the people had gone before "loading" the rest.

This way of getting your parts in is a viable way that is being used by people who purchase front clips. You can buy a car in Japan if you want and have them torch it in half and ship it. You just need to get a hold of a frieght company that will ship it and find out how much. Before I found out I was moving to England from Japan this is what I was planning to do with my car to get the parts to the US for an S13 or S14.

The only thing, the car cannot be intact. If it is, it MUST go through the import procedure. If you find one, you'll have to find a salvage place or junk yard (possibly through the dealer) that will do the dereg and cutting for you. The dereg is easy, the road tax for the vehicle is actually refunded and there are no other costs usually. If you search the internet, there are actually a lot of places in Japan that you can choose junked and salvaged vehicles that they can have cut and shipped for you.

As far as having a US car taken over there and the parts swapped and then returned, that would be very expensive due to import fees that Japan would demand.

Hope this is the info you're looking for.