Japanese Imports

Hello every one,
As I'm sure you all know, myself and a few others have been hashing over some ideas about bringing Skylines (Other Japanese cars for that matter) over to the US and giving Motorex some compitition. Now let me just say that this is still in the budding idea stage of things so lets not get over excited. However I think that this would be a very profitable venture if it was undertaken. I am new here and you all don't know me so I don't expect you to start throwing money at me all I am looking for is some support and information.
I have been digging around trying to find some info on Govt. grants that would apply to a business like this and, while I haven't been able to talk to any one who could give me a definitive answer, the people that I have talked to said it shouldn't be that hard to get the amount of money needed. If any one knows a good deal about Govt. funding of private businesses, please drop me a line.
As far as the logistics go, I have talked to someone who knows a man in Japan who owns an established car exporting company who would be interested in partnering with us. When I say us I mean any one who is envolved in this business if it gets started.
What needs to be found out now is this.

1) how to register the cars in usa.
2) cash flow to process this business.
I am working on this right now with the Govt. grants.
3) how to buy and export good cars with reasonable price.
the japanese contact can do this area.
4) how to sell in usa.
We can manage in usa.

Any way, if any of you out there with experience that could come in handy in this venture would like to help out, please drop me a line at [email protected]

Thanks for your help,



Matt Kafer

What about insurance? I mean both on the business end and also for the consumer. Im pretty sure my insurance agent is clueless as to what a Nissan Skyline is. And I would be willing to bet that this would be the case with most of them. Also youd need to have good insurance for your stock and where-ever you intend to keep it. Id be willing to bet that Motorex would be more willing to employ a devious way of dealing with competition rather than lowering prices.

If this ever gets off the ground, I want one. But only if prices that beat Motorex's are invoked.

Oh, one more thing. I dont know about you, but where I live, we dont have emissions testing, and Im pretty sure that Skylines would probably meet the lowest US standards, so it might be more worthwhile to undertake this business in an area like mine(Pensacola, Florida) where you dont have to have the cars meet high standards, such as Californias. That way, you wont have to do any work on them, just bring em in and sell em.

Thats very true, no insurance company I have talked to knew what a Skyline was either.
One other thing I've been wondering is exactialy WHAT is the info that Motorex is selling for 1.5mill? Is it exactialy what has to be changed to make it US legal?

EEEHHH????

1.5mil???? Holy @#$%

You can buy an excellent condition 2000 GTR34 V-Spec II for about $30,000-$40,000 from Japan.

Considering the import and reg charges, you should not go much higher even with mods. So I think you would be looking at about $60,000. So maybe $70,000 retail with a $10,000 profit.

CIN

From what I've gathered by talking to people there are two ways to insure a skyline. You can do it as a special edition 240sx or as a grey market car in which case I believe you tell the insurance company how much you want to insure it for.

Do some research on becoming a registered importer first, then look into the modle you want to import. As far as MotoRex is concerned they send the car to a sub contractor to do the legalization, they themselves are basically a middleman. You can appply for the crash data from MotoRex's testing through the www.nhtsa.gov website under the freedom of information act, however know that the cost for doing this is not free, I was quoted $250 just to get the initial paperwork started.

TC

Originally posted by super 96 accord
From what I've gathered by talking to people there are two ways to insure a skyline. You can do it as a special edition 240sx or as a grey market car in which case I believe you tell the insurance company how much you want to insure it for.

from what i have read, insuring is done under what you value the car at, so grey market
btw, i am new, and importing a skyline w/o going through motorex is my goal

Im with Smokin Dave here. I refuse to pay Motorex's prices for a Skyline when I can get the model I want in either Japan or NZ for way under half what they want. I will have an R32 or R33 GTS-t and I wil not pay Motorex for it. Hell, I was on Autopoint.co.nz the other nite, and I fpund shitloads of them for way less than they want on Motorex, now all I have to do is get one to Florida and insure it. Maybe we could import them to Mexico or somewhere, and bring them up that way. Do they sell Skylines on the South American Continent at all?

i know you can have them shipped to the bahamas
i suppose we could get them their, and them sneack them across the border, i wonder what would happen if you ever got caught here in the us w/ an illegaly imported car? or if anyone would even know

off to lunch, have more to say, but will be back. btw i am not a troll, just new, w/ lots of info in my head. took me forever (2 days) to find a skyline forum.

I wasnt thinking about doing it illegally. But I do know this. Motorex is in a tight spot. They have to not olny make the cars conform to US emissions standards, but Californias as well. And we all know that Californias are tight. Anyhow, I do know this though. Here in Pensacola where I live, we dont have to have our cars tested every year for emissions, and I know that outside of Chicago and the suburbs, Illinois doesnt test either. So therefore, for those two places, youd only have to conforms to US standards. What I dont get is how Japan has managed to have tighter emissions laws than us for a long time, yet the car has to be brought up to our stnadards.

As for getting the car into the States, Theres lots of ports along the Gulf Coast between the Texas/Mexico border and Florida. Theres also olot of ports on the east coast as well. I know we can do this, and for alot cheaper than Motorex.

Sorry for the lack of updates guys but I haven't had any time to do any more serious research guys. I'm in the process of moving to a new apartment right now but when I get done I'll get back on it.
As far as what happens to an illegal import. It get impounded and sent straight to the crusher, no questions asked :P
Also, I'll look into the S. America idea, I hadn't thought of that. Good idea

You are close on the emisions part. I'm 99% sure that all of Illinois has emisions testing, but most of Indiana doesn't. One of the advantages to living here in the Hoosier State.:D :D :D

Remeber its not as simple as ringing a japanese car company and getting them to send you some cars over, now that many countries are starting to import from japan its getting harder and harder to find what you want, especailly the higher end stuff like GTR's

:eek: The problem with the skylines in the U.S. is that the only legal ones are from Motorex and the HAVE A MONOPOLY. we need to take it AWAY.:finger: yes. They can charge $1000000 if they wanted but if you want a skyline , thats how youre gunna get it. Thats why I want to get into this (and the money) but I WANT ONE MYSELF. One thing I cant get over is that someone owns a Ford dealership and buys a corvette. There is no loyalty on anything. Just bring in the money. One guy bought a R32 GTS-T (something R32) for $15 !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Motorex is charging over like $40 000 for a R33 GT-R so they are moking up to $20 000 off each one. I think not. :bloated: kinda sucks when youre suckin' theirs.:licker: you dont want to be that guy. Think about it. Right now Iam spreading the word and I garentee that THIS WILL BE HUGELY RECEPTED. Peace Out.

A skyline has never been sold in Japan for $15...Cars are exported all over the world not just the US, theyre sold at auction so sell for market prices.

Yes MOTOREX is probably ripping you off but not by that much

Here we go..

Brand New 2002 Skyline GTR V-Spec II 5,791,000 Yen or $46,600.10 (USD) or $90,118.20 (AUD)

Motorex used 1999 GTR V-Spec II $92,000 (USD) or $177,915 (AUD).

If you buy your own in Japan add the shipping, 1K and bonding of 15% of the car's market value, it comes to a little over 50K then give Motorex another 25K to convert it.... Come on... Thats half what the car cost, New...I'm not even going to get into getting a USED Skyline and how they rip you off even more...

All I got to say is if you don't know what you are talking about, don't post.

Peace

Originally posted by GTR-33

All I got to say is if you don't know what you are talking about, don't post.


I take it that was directed at me.

Im not in America so I dont know soem of the things like exactly what MOTOREX charges or exactly what is involved in converting a car so its US legal.

Im saying that second hand cars dont sell for $US15 in Japan and its not as simple to find cars in Japan as you may think (believe me I know about this part). Even over here the purchase price of the vehicle is only part of the total cost, I dont know if you have GST or anything on Imports but we do that adds 12.5% onto the cost before you even try to ship it or compliance it.

Im not trying to cause an argument or anything, just posting my experiences on Importing a car from Japan.

Originally posted by NIF
You are close on the emisions part. I'm 99% sure that all of Illinois has emisions testing, but most of Indiana doesn't. One of the advantages to living here in the Hoosier State.:D :D :D

Unless you live in Chicago, its immediate surrounding suburbs or Rockford(and even then, Rockford is sketchy...) there is absolutely no emissions testing in Illinois. I remember what the stickers look like, and once you left Chicago and the Suburbs, no one had any on their cars. My sister used to live in Peoria(in fact she just moved here last week) and she never had to take her car or her van for emissions. So therefore we have the same advantages living in the Land Of Lincoln that you do over in that place where there is supposed to be more than corn(obvious play of words on the Indiana Beach comercials) in Indiana.:D :D :D :D

You are right, shortly after posting I talked to a relative who lives just outside of Peoria they don't have testing. But ponder this for a moment, there is more than corn in Indiana. There is this place, 2.5 miles around I guess they have some race called the Indy 500 :ylsuper. What outsiders don't usually realize about Indy is that there is a whole racing/high-perfomance industry here(built around the speedway). If I were looking for a place for a shop it would be here (hopfully will be soon) and not just because I am already here.

I was only messin about that corn thing. I hate those commercials for Indiana Beach and discussing Indiana made me think of it so I had to throw it in.

If I could only shoot that crow...:mad: :mad: :aug2:

actually, the cars over here aren't that expensive if you know where to buy them. there is a huge car lot about ten minutes from where i live here in japan that sells used, but still top of the line skylines, for very fair prices. i was there last week and found a BEAUTIFUL tommy kiara edition r34 gtr for around $50,000. that to me is just tits. i found my 1990 gts-t for $1000 at a local dealer. i LOVE living in japan!!! if anybody needs jdm parts for skylines or any japaneese cars drop me a line and i'll see if i can hook you up.

have fun back in the world

Originally posted by GTR-33
.... bonding of 15% of the car's market value.....

actually it is 1.5 times the vaule of the car, or 150%.

The Skyline is Just plain old UNCONKABLE!

Conk Out...

I should've clarified on the 15 dollar thing. I won mine in a raffle for 15 bucks. Thats why Im sending mine threw motorex. But cars are cheap over there. I lived in Okinawa for 3 years and every week the rest of the military guys that are leaving sold cars all the time.:sun:

Guys y'all are focusing on EPA. Emissions are anooying but their easily fixed with a few simple conversions. The problem is DOT (department of transportation) they're the hard ones to get around. I'm not exactly sure what the laws are and I've been trying to find out. Most people won't bother to type them up 'cause they change so often. Its just better to call Dot can get the current laws. As far as emmisions Califonia has the toughest laws for emmisions because of all the tree huggers out their. They caused the rolling blackouts. But with that in mind I'm betting the price to ship from Japan to California is so much cheaper than shipping to Florida. If it weren't cheaper they would probably ship them to Florida with no emmisions. I do know it's easy to get cars into Mexico I think it would be easy to get skylines and any other imports into Mexico's Pacific coast do any work that needs to be done to them there and bring them through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas. I'm betting those states emissions requirements are pretty low due to having a relatively small population compared to California and this just isn't a problem that they really are anticipating (japanes car imports through their state).

i could probably help out on this end. i found a 2000 r 34 gt-r vspec last night for 4,300,000 yen (USD$34,705) in a used car mag with only 14,500k's on it. pretty good deals over here if you know where to look. keep me in mind.

same bat time...

R34 GTRs in great condition (4.5) and low milage(=<15000) go for about 4,000,000-4,500,000yen in Japan. So you then need to add the shipping charges and all the duty tax and other fees the US imposes.

We here pay 12% duty, 15% VAT, about $14000+VAT on registration and the shipping charges. That is if you import normally. If you have a Car Hire company you can register the car on the company and you only pay a very small amount of the import fees. Not to mention that you can alter the invoice to reflect a lower price. HEHE!!! :D :D :D

CIN

You guys are missing one major point here.

The conversion to the GTR must be certified by an RI. There is only one RI certified for GTR mods - Motorex. Period. They have to sign off and certify the mods. It is not a monopoly, if you say that, then you do not know what a monopoly is. They have simply done the work to have the GTR's certified. IF you have spent the time and $$ then you can have the info too.

Until there is competition to Motorex, you cannot have a street legal GTR in the US. Until another group of investors steps up and does exactly what Motorex did, there is no way top comply a GTR in the US.

I would love to support a method around this problem. But as of right now, only Motorex has the requried mods for the GTR, and they are classified as a trade secret.

Kevin

Thanks for steppin up and saying that Shooter Boy, I was pretty sure that was the case but not totaly sure. Now I think the pertinent question is what exactialy is envolved in finding out for yourself what these mods are? Does DOT simply tell you what results must come out of a crash test and you have to figure out what needs to be done to the car in order to produce those results? I guess that is the case as it would be to simple and there would be other RIs if they told you what needs to be done. But they probly don't know what has to be done as they havent crash tested any GTRs.
Now what about all this talk of GTRs registered as 300Zs or 240SXs with Skyline kits? I think this sounds like you may get to register your car but if you wreck or some one looks closer they will see whats going on and you will be fugged.

BEcuase there is a corporation whose sole business is based around the importation and modification of GTR's, the information is a trade secret, and not publicly available.

Two ways - crash test 3 GTR's yourself and get the data from a test lab.

Pay Motorex their asking price for the information.

I was going to post something in the way of an argument, but I digress. Im just gonna say this. This is all bullshit. Motorex, the laws that bind this, both emissions, and dot/safety, and even importation. Its all just one big line of bullshit. Trade secret my ass. But thats all I have to say about it anymore, as I have given up on a Skyline. I no longer want one, as I am unwilling to do business with Motorex, and unable to generate the cash flow it takes to do it myself. Im gonna stick to a good 'ol 240SX/Silvia conversion until I can afford to stuff an RB series engine into a S-13/S-14 240SX or 300ZX(maybe even an S-12 Silvia/200SX with an SR20DET/RB series...). But, I just dont know anymore. Maybe if you are like me, 26,000 for anything from 1992 is a little much, especially when I know it didnt cost the company selling it that much. So until they become widely available or somehow miraculously legal, and much cheaper, I will not be buying one. And to think, all it would take to satisfy my need is a simple R32 GTS-4 or an R32 GTS/GTS-T. Oh well, fuck em.

Do you know what a trade secret is? If you did, you would not call it bullshit.

The laws are the laws, there are nothing that we can do about them except elect people that will change them (not likely) or live with them.

True true, although it sucks for me and alot of other people, thats the way today's economy works. Without it we wouldn't have the standards in our business because competition would be as strong seeing as all the products would have the same design.

there is a loop hole to get around anyone I was looking on the Sun International website the previous importers of the Lotus Elise. On there site they also sell cars such as the Ford RS200 the super europe only rally car. they had a link to a dot page that said that as long as the car can be certified as historicly or technologicaly significant and had a run of less than 400 cars like all Tommy Kaira GT-R's, Nismo 400R's and I think certain years of Type-M and V-Spec but then you can't sell the car for a certain number of years and you can only drive 2,500 miles a year If you wanted to import legally couldn't you just weld in a rolcage reinforce the bunpers and that should be enough to comply with regulations I'm not sure but just a thought also I live in Indy to and think that it would be a great place to open a shop to do conversions

Originally posted by skyline R-36
there is a loop hole to get around anyone I was looking on the Sun International website the previous importers of the Lotus Elise. On there site they also sell cars such as the Ford RS200 the super europe only rally car. they had a link to a dot page that said that as long as the car can be certified as historicly or technologicaly significant and had a run of less than 400 cars like all Tommy Kaira GT-R's, Nismo 400R's and I think certain years of Type-M and V-Spec but then you can't sell the car for a certain number of years and you can only drive 2,500 miles a year If you wanted to import legally couldn't you just weld in a rolcage reinforce the bunpers and that should be enough to comply with regulations I'm not sure but just a thought also I live in Indy to and think that it would be a great place to open a shop to do conversions

Can you post that link? Not to knock your post, but I seriously doubt that it's as easy as it sounds :( If it was Motorex would be out of business :D

Oh and about the roll cage thing, the things that arn't in complience are all over, such as bumpers, somthing with the seat belts, other things I don't know, and thats just to satisfy DOT, then there is the EPA :p :p

*Edit*

I found the page on the DOT page, I suppose you could, but unless you wanted to go the illegal rout and play with your odometer, you could only drive it the 2,500 miles you mentioned :( :(

I think one of the stupid things that has to be changed is the "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" crap has to be put on one of the mirrors. Like that's really something that needs to be done!!

if you are just going to use your skyline as a trailer queen show car the way listed above would be the way to go the reason the skyline costs so much to import is it dosen't have an American cousin car other cars they can just take out the non-complying parts and replace with american spec for all we know the skyline might pass all crash and emissions tests with flying colors but we don't know cause we didn't import one like motorex did and test it even if i met crash tests though it would still need a speedo in mph instead of kmh, american spec seatbelts (easy enough for the R34 as I heard both can be took almost straight from the new maxima) and other various shit

ruff

Originally posted by Gonthrax
True true, although it sucks for me and alot of other people, thats the way today's economy works. Without it we wouldn't have the standards in our business because competition would be as strong seeing as all the products would have the same design.
Would you think Motorex would have invested a lot of money in crash testing and certifiying GT-R if the information would have then been available to everyone? Lets just thank Motorex for bringing in the Skyline GT-R!

I had been thinking about importing GTR's and other for a long long long time now, but the thing is the importation law and the EPA is a bitch... motorex was able to get the exclusive license is because they were willing to test crash something like 10 skylines or something to do it.
I know they are overcharging, but hey, they sacrifice alot of money to bring to the US public the chance to own a skyline.

I can get ALOT OF japanese import cars for CHEAP!!! from middle east. Port of UAE. they import them straight from japan.

hey, I am in Kentucky too.. I am in lexington.. holla at me sometimes...

Eddie:devil:

Originally posted by butterdogg
I can get ALOT OF japanese import cars for CHEAP!!! from middle east. Port of UAE. they import them straight from japan.
Be careful, there are a lot of stolen cars in middle east.

Originally posted by sami

Would you think Motorex would have invested a lot of money in crash testing and certifiying GT-R if the information would have then been available to everyone? Lets just thank Motorex for bringing in the Skyline GT-R!

Of course not :D I don't have a problem with Motorex, I have a problem with myself for not having enough money:rolleyes:

i understand how frustrated you are about motorex's price. they are ridiculous. i live in the carribbean and have a R33 GTS-T and am trying to get it to florida. it seems expensive but i think it would be worth it.
fyi- shipping from japan to the carribbean was $1,100 us, believe it or not. and the cars are pretty cheap. you can get a 95 or 96 GTR between 15K and 20K US without shipping from an auction site. there must be a way to get them to the US without using motorex, especially in other states where standards are no where near as high as california.

hmm....Lets say most people will treat these as Lambourghinis (they cost as much as one almost)(they will only drive them once in a while) so how long will it take to get 2,500 miles? I think that would be the best idea.

When importing the govt sets up limits of how much to be imported. Basically so American companies dont start screwing American labor and so on and so forth. However Motorex has a monoply in the market. Giving you the advantages. The basic HHI index for motorex is 10,000, a perfect monoply. For the Skyline. However the govt may base it on nissans or maybe Japanese cars in general.

The first thing you need to do before you import a car is choose the importer and then aply through the DOT for a vin #!!!

I am planing on bringing my 90' R32 GTS-t Type-M back to the states from Japan.

Anyone have any info on gauge faces????? I'm trying to do most of the conversion here so I don't have to pay that much for converstion rates. Oh and by the way I'm not going through Motorex:flipa: .lol.... their are a few importers in Washington, and Origon that will do it for under 7 g's. Oh and one other thing Motorex cannot corner the market on importation of skylines (hint Monopolies are illegal in the US) but they can copyright converstion parts to accually do the converstion. So if anyone asks them and they tell you that they are the only ones that can import them and that they have purchased the rights to import a ceritain car then they are lying and you can report them to the Department of Transportation and US Customs athourities!!!! Bottom line you cannot purchase rights to import a specific vehicle, but like I said earilier you can purchase the rights to the parts that make that vehicle legal!!

Eric

hey ericherm1 we need to talk man i'm trying to do the same with the same car. where are you at in japan? i'm in sagamihara right now. i am at [email protected]

Originally posted by ericherm1
Bottom line you cannot purchase rights to import a specific vehicle
No-one has claimed you could, not even Motorex. Anyone can import a Skyline to US and you could also make it street legal. The catch is that you would need crash test results to do it. Motorex has crash tested them and since they invested a lot of money to do so, it is a trade secret. In order to get crash test results you would need to purchase them from Motorex, or do your own crash testing.

See, there is no monopoly in the market, just no-one else willing to do the crash tests.

I, sincerely, wish you good luck in importing your Skyline!

Ok let me be more clear, once you pay for the crash testing you turn your results into the Department of Transportation for approval. Once that is done it becomes "public record". They wont just give the information to you, you have to be a RI or you can do the next best thing,

File a claim under the ----- Freedom of Information Act -----!!

By the way I do work for the Government and have researched less accessable sources for this information.....trade secrets exposed.....maybe, maybe not, I will let the majority decide !!!!
:eek: :eek: :hehe:

This is just knowledge that I have learned and am willing to share with all wanting to import like myself!!

- Eric

Is there anotherway??
I was wonderin.... Say I were to import a R33 GT-R 1996 skyline. Say I bought it for $20,000. Now, how much would it cost to get it into the US? After importing it, I would obtain the crash test results from Motorex, or through The Freedom of Information Act. Then I do the mods myself, and that would probably cost no more than $4,000 for parts. Now calculate......

20,000+4,000+(Importing Fee's...)=About $35,000 at the most.

Am I correct?? Also, would it be more effective if I bought the Cheapest R33 non-GT-R and drop a RB26DETT engine in it after doing the mods??

:bloated: :confused:

Originally posted by dejoux
Im saying that second hand cars dont sell for $US15 in Japan and its not as simple to find cars in Japan as you may think (believe me I know about this part).Actually a mate of mine picked up a Supra Twin Turbo (Old Model) from japan n got his brother in law to keep it at his place until he went to japan and picked it up...

he payed 2400yen for the car which is about $19 US i reckon lol oh and the money transfer fee was 600 yen, and yes the car worked and was in pretty good nick, the seats needed to be changed though, as did a couple of panels, it had been in an accident and had since been repaired, that's why it was so cheap.

When he brought it back to Australia though, he had to pay a lil bit for compliance etc.

Originally posted by G20
20,000+4,000+(Importing Fee's...)=About $35,000 at the most.

Am I correct??
I'm afraid not. To get the Motorex data, it costs you $16k+, there is no way around it.
Originally posted by G20
Also, would it be more effective if I bought the Cheapest R33 non-GT-R and drop a RB26DETT engine in it after doing the mods??
Absolutely not. It's not the engine why GT-R is famous, it is the whole car and you only get that with the GT-R.

Hey I'm a Canadian that looking to import an 96 R33 GTS-T into Canada (duh!). Was that $16,000us for the crash test data or $16us? I hope $16 b/c my plans are kinda hinging on getting their data. SORRY MY MONITOR IS MESSED!

Has anyone heard of anybody who has successfully imported a skyline into Canada??? PLS HELP!

:flipa: :flipa: :flipa: MOTOREX:flipa: :flipa: :flipa:

Im with Smokin Dave here. I refuse to pay Motorex's prices for a Skyline when I can get the model I want in either Japan or NZ for way under half what they want. I will have an R32 or R33 GTS-t and I wil not pay Motorex for it. Hell, I was on Autopoint.co.nz the other nite, and I fpund shitloads of them for way less than they want on Motorex, now all I have to do is get one to Florida and insure it. Maybe we could import them to Mexico or somewhere, and bring them up that way. Do they sell Skylines on the South American Continent at all?


I need the same here too man. I got the money already, i want to buy a GTR- R33 and bring it to Miami, FL because there is where i live. Is Motorex the only one that can legalize skylines for real?? I mean, no other import dealership in America can't do the same??. About importing the Skyline to South America, i've seen some japanese exporters that have connection with countries such as Peru, Venezuela in the south. In the caribeean, the Bahamas is the place.

Eric, holla at me boy. What's the name of those Importers that you're working with to bring ur Skyline to the U.S man??? I Refuse to go to Motorex, i don't live in California, i'm a redneck straight up from FLorida. Anywayz, share info man, WE NEED IT!

mY e-MAIL IS [email protected] or [email protected].

Oh boy two posts and trolling already. Dude first welcome to AF, second leave old threads dead unless a sticky.

Cheers and enjoy.