I can get skylines in CALI!!!!!

Allright. Here's the deal.

I can get skylines.
They would be registered and insured as 300Z's.

For the price of the car in Japan, or wherever else you can find it, plus about $15K I can get it shipped and registered in CALI! This goes for 32's, 33's, and 34's. Don't ask how it gets done, just know that it does. I currently have a JDM Honda Del sol over here registered as a Cali Civic, still right hand drive and everything!! I'll get pics if you want. Let me know your ?'s and comments.

so..... what ur sayin is that for example

i get a r34 for 20K in japan. I tell u where it is and u import and make it leagal to drive in the us with an additional 17K

20
+17
37


so if i pay u 37K then i could get the car then? and does it matter weather if it is new or has a lot of mileage on it ? Do we have a any tax to pay for it ?

FINAL so ur sayin for 37K u could import a street leagal r34 skyline gtr into cali ?

Great deal.....get motorex out of buisness huh...? hahahaha

Originally posted by bbb

FINAL so ur sayin for 37K u could import a street leagal r34 skyline gtr into cali ?



Sounds like a great deal. :)

Well I might have spoken a couple days premature. My bud who has a shop and imports cars for race and parts has a way to do this. He's going to get me some definitive prices but actually he said it'll prob be about $20K to do the stuff. Which is sure a helluva lot less than anywhere else that I know of. He has done this exact same thing several times with civics/integras and a couple Evo's. I'm gonna hopefully be his first guinea pig with the skyline but we forsee NO problem at all with it. I will definitely keep ya'll updated with the progress and hopefully we can get some GT-R's runnin the streets!

Motorex charges 15,000 to import through them. How is it any cheaper? Plus it is registered as a skyline. It sucks having to pay that much but at least it will be legal and you won't have to worry about losing the car down the road. The A.F. is telling me I can ship mine back for $1500 because the shipping laws have changed hope that is true and I don't have to go through motorex.

In the US through Motorex, I thought the Skyline is registered as a special edition 240SX? What if I want a R32 or R33? is the 15K a flat rate?

HMMMMMM Interesting propostion wonder if that would fly in NYC neway ill be paying attention cause that would def. rock. later

Great...so you can import a GTR as a TT 300ZX...oh, but wait a sec. What happens if you
get into an accident? Lemme see... your insurance company is going to tell you to go f*ck
yourself for entering into a contract under false pretenses (you're insured for a 300ZX)...
If someone hits you, their insurance company is going to do the same thing. Not to mention
the officer who fills out the police report is going to figure out pretty quick you weren't
driving a 300ZX....I believe that's a $500,000 fine and up to Five years in prison.
Either way...you've lost your $30,000 dollar investment.
Motorex registers them as a Skyline GTR. Check your local DMV (Cali, Maryland, Oregon)
...you can see yourself. They're also insured as such. If you don't have the money to
pay Motorex, I guarantee you don't have the cash for its upkeep.
For example. You should replace your Air Flow Meters every 3 years or 30k miles...that's
120000 Yen. 950 bucks...not including shipping, phone calls etc.
Gas (at 14 mpg) will cost you in the neighborhood of 2.50-4.00 a gallon depending on what
mods you put on your car. Insurance, you had better have a perfect record....or access to
USAA coverage...Ken (from Motorex) wrote me and told me he was paying 3g's a year for
coverage. On top of everything else...you need cash for your entire purchase as no
bank in their right mind is going to lend you that much money for a car that isn't able
to be registered or insured. Motorex, although expensive, is the financially sound choice.

Not to mention You are not going to find a r34 for 20,000 you are lucky to find r32's for that. Most r34's go for around 55 to 65,000.

It's a 300Z w/a lot of heavy mods :) Anyways, sorry I even brought this up to ya'll. Just forget I said anything about it.

Doesn't hurt to throw out ideas....maybe it will give someone else the way in to the right
idea. I'm just worried people will try to bring in a GTR and get stuck. Now that would suck!
What WOULD be a good idea is to get ahold of someone with a legally imported Skyline who
is willing to give the information about what exactly was changed....that will probably prove
very difficult to do....

tofstchvy: Where are you getting your info? 55-65K? They cost 45K new....

Gtr2.7L:Gas (at 14 mpg) will cost you in the neighborhood of 2.50-4.00 a gallon depending on what mods you put on your car.
The price of gas doesn't change because of your mods... The Skyline also gets a little over 20MPG if you drive it properly (no need to floor it every time the light turns green). There is a HUGE difference in paying 90K and 50K or LESS. Alot more people can shell out the money for a 50K car. Put it like this, Just because you cant afford a Ferrari 355 (150K), don't mean you can't afford a Dodge Viper GTS-R(75K)...

Hopefully things will change in the near future...

Peace

The RB26DETT's required fuel will go from 97 octane to 100 if you boost over 14.7 psi (1 Bar)....otherwise, stand by for knock. In the US...there's a big difference in the costs of gas between these to octanes.

Here is some prices. As you can see stock r34 v-spec are going for 45 to 48 and modded cars go up to 65 or so. Can't find any ads that show mod prices in the mag I have here with me.

I'm talking about owning a stock GTR V Spec II... If you boost, you still don't have to go up in octane in US. The gas here is alot better than most countries. Aus. 97 octane is about a 93 octane here. At most you would just need a fuel additive. Just to let you know about gas prices here. 89 oct 1.15; 93 oct 1.19; 97 oct 1.25; 110 oct race gas 2.55 i think... Thats in Chicago BTW. A couple cents more here in Milwaukee...

4,889,000 Yen is not 48K, its 38,937 USD. Even the most expensive one in your book doesn't break 40K USD. 1 USD is 126(125.56 actually) JPY
What mag is that BTW? Options?

Peace

I forgot about the exchange rate. It is usually around 115. But when you live here you start to treat it as 1 to 1. That is the Skyline GTR mag:D

Well for those of you who might be interested. It seems as if the only ones that will be worth doing will be the R34's. We are going to have those more than likely at about $60-65K. I'm sure this is going to start up more :flamer: but that's ok because I have unlimited :rocket: sitting here waitin for ya!! :smoker2:

Who do you have in Japan looking for the cars. For a flat rate of 1000 dollars per car, My wife can find and ship the vehicles to MOTOREX. 38-45K for each car including shipping.

I WANT A SKYLINE :cry:

If you get caught misrepresenting yourself to Customs, DOT and EPA, not only will you lose your car with no money in return, but you also face heavy fines and potential jail time.

If you think it is worth it go for it, but the amount of the fines is huge compared to what you will pay for a LEGAL GTR in the US.

Ok, I seem to remember somthing I read on a govt. web site about importing foriegn cars and if you plan to leave the country agian with your car in one year you don't have to triffle with DOT or EPE and such. I don't know if that is my skyline deprived mind making stuff up or if it actualy said that. Can any one say yay or nay on that?
Here's another idea, as far as I know, if you build a car yourself you don't have to crash test it, it just has to have seatbelts, signal lights, cat converter, and some other little things. What if one was to say....... take a skyline apart down to the chassis, ship that, then ship the engine and other powerplant parts, then all the interior parts, and all the drive train and suspension. Then put it all back to gather and call it a kit car sence thats basicaly what it is. Now this is a little far fetched and as far as practicality, its about as unpractical as you get. But hey, I don't have a skyline, so I'll think of anything:alien:
This may be the stupidest idea you've ever heard but it sounds like it could work to me so :flipa: :smoker2:

Actually, that sounds cool as hell! Sounds like a lot of fun too! Then afterwards you can ask everyone, 'What are all these extra parts for?'.:D
Peace

Actually I have been told that I can take the wheels and tires off my car and ship it as a kit car! Whether that actually works or not I will find out next yr.

Hell I don't know, it sounds like it could work, I'll have to call customs and the DOT, see what they have to say about kit cars.

That's pretty much what I was talking about. Except that you don't need to totally strip down the skyline, just enough so it'll pass that it's coming in for parts. That way it dissapears as soon as it comes through. Then instead of building your kit car starting from nothing, you just use your 300z or 240 as a base :) That's all I've been sayin.

Ok, I see what your saying now. I hope your right, for my sake, I wonder how that would fly with the law though. Like I said before, I'll make some calls today, I'll let you guys know what I find out.

Also, exactialy how much would you have to strip in order to have it classified as parts?

Not sure on that yet. We kinda maybe figured the doors would be enough of an indication. Anything is ok except the engine. We want that brought over w/out being touched at all. I know our guy over there won't take the time to label everything and since we won't be the ones taking it out.....

Yea, that sounds resonable, the only problem for me would be finding the help to put it back togather. I know enough to get me by fixing my car but not enough to put an engine that I've never seen before into a car I've never touched before.

Putting it back together wouldnt be to bad, atleast for a R32. I swapped engines and did all my mods myself. It was pretty straight forward. Before that I stayed away from working on computer controlled, fuel injected cars. Ive rebuilt my blazer and worked on friends muscle cars so I think any garage mechanic could do it. As for shipping them in pieces, I know for a fact that if your going to try and ship it on military orders you have to show that it is going to an RI, and that all conversion fees are paid before it will ship. I worked Transportation on Okinawa as HHG QA, so I dealt with shipping cars, bikes and everything else.

Z:alien:

regarding the bringing car here, then shipping it back in a year, that has to do with foreign government and military officials, i don't think your average civilian can do that, also, there is a contract in doing that guaranteeing you will ship the car back in a year. regarding the kit car, you can't just take the wheels off and have it be a 'kit car'. in fact, i am pretty sue, no more than a certain percentage of the car can be assembled (and i know it is a low percentage) and i doubt that you, or even your local mechanic will be able to get the thing put all back together and running the way it is supposed to without significant work and money. just my $.02

Thanks for the info on the one year deal. As for the kit car, I was thinking more like taking out the engine, exhaust, turbos, doors, wheels, and perhaps seats. Now I don't think it would be to hard to find some one who has worked on 300Zs or perhaps Supra TTs (Just for the experiance with TT cars and such) to put it back togather. I could put the seats, wheels, and turbo's back in. Sure it would cost a good amount in labor but I know its not going to cost the 15-20k you would have to pay MotoRex to convert a skyline:mad:

Funny to sit here and read though the posts to the Automotive forums. Funny to read about people talking and talking about trying to bring cars here - bringing them illegally and all that.

Our prices aren't cheap , but the process and what it takes to make the cars legal is not a cheap process. The Skylines are not for the people on welfare. Most of the people that complain the most are probably 16 years old and couldnt even get financing on a Kia....

Before we legalized the Skyline - the car was not in the US legally . Not at any price legally. We had lots of people tell us it COULDN'T BE DONE. Guess what - it could - it just took time and money.

How many other people had the "balls" to try it ? Seriously before us it was not even possible , now we got whiners like the people on this forum complaining about how much we charge.


1) Lets see how good you guys are at research. These are easy questions - just to see what people can find out . You can find the answer . It does exist on the internet.

How many other vehicles that were not orginally certified for the US can be imported to the US ?

What is the DOT website ?

What is the EPA website ?

What are the California requirements for direct import vehicles?

What is FTP testing ?

How many miles is the drive cycle ?

What are the requirements of becoming a Registered Importer ?

What is an ICI ?

What is the Skylines VCP number ?


Lots of people talk the talk - lets see some people do some research and walk the walk...

Sean
MotoRex

Why do you put spaces before punctuation? :confused:

LOL, just kidding. :D Welcome to AF! :D :D :D

Ahh drat! I was halfway through your questions Sean and my browser crashed. I will post agian with the answers but first let me say this.
In no way am I trying to put down what you or the company MotoRex is doing. In fact I think it is good that some one, how did you put it... "had the balls" to do it. If it wern't for you guys there wouldn't be any completely street legal Skylines here in the US.
Now I will tell you up front that I do not have the money to do business with you and buy the car of my dreams. Knowing this,(the fact that it is out of my reach for the time being) it is only natural for the mind to mull over other options, no matter how far fetched they are. The fact that you are working them through in your head does not mean that you are intending on leaping up from your chair at this very instant and taking action upon them. I am sure that you have seen somthing that you wanted but couldn't have for whatever reason and emediatly came up with atleast three outlandish ways that "Perhaps this would work!!". I am also reasonably sure that you did not act on your outlandish ideas.
As far as why your prices are what they are, I fully understand what is envolved in arriving at a price to sell an item at. I am also fully aware of the cost envolved in importing a Skyline and making it street legal. On top of all those things Motorex has to make a profit off all of this, after all, thats why you all are doing it in the first place is it not? I don't have a problem with this, its capitalism, its how our economy works!
Now as far seeming need to stereotype anyone who is trying to find another way to bring a GTR into the "16 years old and couldnt even get financing on a Kia" group. I am not going to dignify this with a reply, there was no need for that.
I'm sorry if I sound a bit sarcastic or antagonistic, but I was a bit peeved by your sudden defensivenes and haste to pidgeon-hole any one who cannot afford to pay $80,000+ dollars to buy a new car.

Ok, now to the research... It seems like some one doesn't want me to reply to ya Sean, first my browser crashed halfway through, then I get a page cannot be displayed when I hit "Submit Reply" so I was forced to hit back and lost everything I had typed:devil:

How many other vehicles that were not orginally certified for the US can be imported to the US ?
I'm not sure but that is trivial information, I'll move on to the important stuff:)

What is the DOT website ?
http://www.dot.gov/
http://www.dot.gov/sliced_images/logoslicewhite.gif

What is the EPA website ?
http://www.epa.gov/
http://www.epa.gov/epahome/images/epasplash_logo_epaseal.gif

What are the California requirements for direct import vehicles?
1. Health and Safety Code Section 44202 requires all used direct import
vehicles, not previously registered in California prior to 5.31.1988, to
submit a Certificate of Conformance before such vehicle can be
registered in Californis. H&S Code Section 44200 defines as a used
direct import as a 1975 or later model motor vehicle, not originally
intended for sale in the United States, which is at least two years old
2. Certificate of Conformance issued by a laboratory authorized by the
california Air Resource Board (ARB). For further information call the
ARB at 1 800 242 4450
3. Copy of the documentation showing modification cost
Additional fees will be due for license fees based on the modification
costs

What is FTP testing ?
FTP stands for Federal Test Procedure. This is refering to driving and Air-Conditioner Usage for Passenger Cars, Light-Duty Trucks, and Medium-Duty Vehicles Under 8,501 Pounds Gross Vehicle Weight Rating and their emissions. For example it was discussed on July 24, 1997 by the State of California Air Resources Board. Members present were:
Hons. John D. Dunlap, III, Chairman, Joseph C. Calhoun, P.E., Lynne T. Edgerton, Esq., William F. Friedman, M.D., M. Patricia Hilligoss, Barbara Riordan, Ron Roberts, and James W. Silva. (Just thought I mention them, you may know a few of them.


How many miles is the drive cycle ?
A drive cycle test is a function of the vehicle on board computer that includes the testing of the monitored systems that requires a start up -- from a cold engine to a warm engine -- and the vehicle being driven. I was unable to find a standerdised drive cycle test and from what I've read I'm lead to beleave that there is no set distance, only a group of conditions such as Speed, RPM, and the like. I may be wrong on this one Sean, please correct me if I am.


What are the requirements of becoming a Registered Importer ?
My computer has reciently crashed and I do not have Adobe Acrobat installed yet so I cannot read this page. However, I am sure it will list all of the requirements for becoming a RI. If it does not they could be found by calling the DOT at (202) 366-6018.
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/maninfo/Ripkg0011.pdf

What is an ICI ?
You've got me stumped on this one, the only thing I could come up with was Imperial Chemical Industries and I know thats not right:D

What is the Skylines VCP number ?
VCP numbers are eligibility numbers are assigned to vehicles that are decided to be eligible under 49 U.S.C. § 30141(a)(1)(B), based on a petition from a manufacturer or registered importer which establishes that the vehicle has safety features that comply with, or are capable of being altered to comply with, all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards. The Nissan Skyline GT-R and GT-S's VCP number is 17.

If I'm wrong on any of these things please do correct me Sean. Now lets just hope nothing goes wrong with my post this time:D

Originally posted by Gonthrax
Ok, now to the research... It seems like some one doesn't want me to reply to ya Sean, first my browser crashed halfway through, then I get a page cannot be displayed when I hit "Submit Reply" so I was forced to hit back and lost everything I had typed:devil:


VCP numbers are eligibility numbers are assigned to vehicles that are decided to be eligible under 49 U.S.C. § 30141(a)(1)(B), based on a petition from a manufacturer or registered importer which establishes that the vehicle has safety features that comply with, or are capable of being altered to comply with, all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards. The Nissan Skyline GT-R and GT-S's VCP number is 17.

If I'm wrong on any of these things please do correct me Sean. Now lets just hope nothing goes wrong with my post this time:D



Good to see that you can find the information.... its out there.... it exists. Now you have to take all the information and put it together into some useable knowledge.

Like you said the Skyline is VCP -17 . Which means its the 17th petition to go though under the VCP regulations for the DOT . Most of the cars are G-Wagons , couple trailers , Citroen , some random stuff.

The drive cycle is found at 40CFR Part 86.537-90 .... Tell me how many miles...

ICI - give you a clue it stands for Independent Commercial Importer.

FTP - is most used within the EPA stuff to talk about the procedures for certifying cars.

Oh boy!! More CFR to much through:D Actualy this is kind of fun, I've learned more about import regulations and complience packages then I have in days of looking! Guess I just wasn't lookin in the right places.
Hmm, all I can find is Subpaft F dealing with Motorcycles. But the distance on them is 7.5 miles (6.8 for class I, whatever that is:D ) on both the cold start test and hot start test.

Heh. The first guy sound BS. There are 0 legally running Evos in the US. There some, but those are not street legal. You cant drive them like u can do it with the GT-Rs from Motorex. Yeah, they are expensive but GT-Rs are not Civics. They re in the M5(3)'s pricerange or more. So if u cant afford those cars then forget about the GT-R. I doubt Nissan would have been sold the GT-R for less then $45k if it would have marketed over here.

I'm talking about owning a stock GTR V Spec II... If you boost, you still don't have to go up in octane in US. The gas here is alot better than most countries.

Actually nope. US has the dirtiest fuel. It has ver high Sulphur fuel rate, while Japan has the lowest in the world then Europe. EU wants to reach Japan's level around '04.

thank god u guys brought the skylines over here.. its just to bad that i cant afford one... looks like somday i may be livin in japan jus for my car

Hey I can't afford one myself either....I just drive everyone elses.... Well I do drive our drag car...

But realistically - the pricing is on the level with a used NSX which the Skyline competes with well.


Sean
MotoRex
96 GT-R 10.71 @ 137

o dont get me wrong... the prices are just fine.... one of my favorite cars.... just in other countrys u can get much cheaper if u just live there...

u said whats worth the price right there in your signature.. 10.71@137 mph!...

Originally posted by maceez13
o dont get me wrong... the prices are just fine.... one of my favorite cars.... just in other countrys u can get much cheaper if u just live there...


Right - a Viper or a Corvette are expensive in other countries and dont sell well..... but here they are USA's supercars..


Sean
MotoRex
96 GT-R 10.71 @ 137

After looking through various websites, I found that MotoRex's pricing is not too far from what folks in the UK pay for theirs...

are u sure about that? dont think thats quite true

are u sure about that? dont think thats quite true
After looking at the www.prospec-ms.com website, it seems to be true. Granted, the prices vary more, but they are definitely comparable to MotoRex's in many cases.

o ok.. they have alot of 2001 GTR R34's on autotrader.com.uk for like 33 UK dollers... dont know how much that is in american $

Agreed. The R34s are definitely WAY more expensive for us in the States. I was comparing prices on R33 and R32 to ours. 33K British pound is roughly US$47K.

oh ok...

....

I guess prospec ms is overpriced. How much can you get a nice R32 for?

...

Originally posted by R34_GT-t
Medici78:For good quality R32 GTR in England you would pay around £10,000(14,400 dollar). If want R32 GTS you could pay in the region of £3000-£6500.(4,300-9300 dollar)

Yours,
-Elliot

That strikes me as kinda funny, you can't get an R32 GTR that cheap in NZ any more what with the pre 96 import ban. And here I am trying to move there when the fact that I could get a cheap GTR played a big part in my plans:devil:

...

Originally posted by R34_GT-t
well for average R32 GTR you would pay around 14,400US$

All I can say to that is :( :( :(

I am a US Marine stationed in Iwakuni, Japan. For some of y'all dying to know some information about Skylines, just shoot me an email at McMahonMJ@1MAWMAG12.usmc.mil and I can probably answer them for you. You had better hurry up though, because I leave soon. Oh, yeah, and that guy who said skylines cost like 45 thousand USD over here? Lay off the crack pipe. Granted a brand new R34 is going to cost you about 32-35 depending on the yen rate( it changes day to day and can range anywhere from 123 to the USD to 139) but there's a highly (and I'm talking about 650hp highly) modified R33 with about 65K kilometers on it for 22,000 USD out in town. If I had the money I'd buy it. I've been over here long enough to just about ship the weight of a car back to the states for virtually free. Well enough rambling for me for now. Email me if anyone has any questions

Originally posted by SkylineUSMC
I am a US Marine stationed in Iwakuni, Japan. For some of y'all dying to know some information about Skylines, just shoot me an email at McMahonMJ@1MAWMAG12.usmc.mil and I can probably answer them for you. You had better hurry up though, because I leave soon. Oh, yeah, and that guy who said skylines cost like 45 thousand USD over here? Lay off the crack pipe. Granted a brand new R34 is going to cost you about 32-35 depending on the yen rate( it changes day to day and can range anywhere from 123 to the USD to 139) but there's a highly (and I'm talking about 650hp highly) modified R33 with about 65K kilometers on it for 22,000 USD out in town. If I had the money I'd buy it. I've been over here long enough to just about ship the weight of a car back to the states for virtually free. Well enough rambling for me for now. Email me if anyone has any questions

Mmmmm. Makes me wish I had the werewithall to get a GTR going on the racing circle :( To bad that damn thing called money is standing in my way :D


Welcome to AF also :wave:

Originally posted by Gasara
Heh. The first guy sound BS. There are 0 legally running Evos in the US. There some, but those are not street legal.

When I was looking for a site that had info for importing Lancers,I found a site that costs $38,000 to import an Evo VII even tho the V is best....

I have four guestion for all this !!!! (I am talking about a Skyline GT-R R34)

1. How strip does the car have to be ???

2. How good a mechanic does it need to put the car back together ???

3. How much would it cost to get it strip in Japan, get it shipped and labor in the US ???

4. Can it even be done ???

DemoX aka Bo Sørensen / Bob

I just proposed the same re-assembly idea in another thread and Sami informed me that it wouldn't work. (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=109007&goto=newpost) Oh well :).