Importing an EG6 SiR-II

Hey all,

I was just on ebay watching an SiR-II in seattle only for the guy to sell it out from under me without giving me a change to bid or make an offer. So, I'm wondering if anybody could give me some help in locating an importer. I've been having a lot of trouble finding an SiR-II anywhere and freaked out when I saw one ALREADY in the US.

Any advice or links are welcome.

hmotorsonline.com has some imported cars every once and a while; they've only got an EK4 listed right now though. But a friend of a friend is getting a jdm evo sent over here sometime by summer, so I'll see who he's going thru and if they can import civics too. From what i've been told is that he has to pay around $10,000 extra to ship it over here; get it changed to left hand drive in order to pass inspections for the states, and then have it turned back into right hand drive. But maybe that's just cause it's a 4wd (awd i get so damn confused between the 2). I'll see what info i can find for you; but hopefully someone else will be able to help you a lot more.

I have a friend that found some random place that will export cars in japan and they have a few EG6 SiR-IIs, but I'm so scared that I might get scammed or get a POS car. Any advice there?

Also, they're only charging like 122,000 Yen to ship to LA. Anybody think that sounds as wierd as I do?

What other charges and paperwork will I have to do? b.c if I do import one, I'd _ideally_ like to be able to take a plane out there and drive it back.

Finally, anbody know anything else on there being problems wth RH drive cars? I had a friend drive a mailtruck back in the day and that was ok that it was RH drive. So what exactly are the laws on that?

Thanks

It is a REAL pain in the ass to import a RHD civic. My advice would be to buy a front clip from one, and swap out the firewall, and all the other components (steering rack, brakelines, motor, wiring harness) and just convert yours.

You will not be able to drive the car till it males it through the import process, this usually takes a few months, and cost around $6000, on top of shipping charges and vehicle cost.

do you know what that $6000 entails?I wanna get a feel for this because I really want all the parts in the rear section that are on the sir-II and not on the us models in addition to the RHD and the engine. Would there be some reason it would be cheaper if I _am_ in japan? It sounds like I'm going to be living there for a while starting summer 2005. Also, I'm interested in working with a genuine sir-II ... kinda like those morons who spend bajillions of dollars on spoon or mugen stuff.

On the note of fees, how does the tariff come into play?

Aight, so I was doing research at customs and the epa and does anyone know if an SiR-II would be a "Vehicle Emission Controlled" vehicle that I don't need to use an ICI (Independant Commersial Importer) to get the car in here? sounds like that's a bottle neck. HELP!

I live in Nassau Bahamas and Im getting a SiR-II from Japan now through this site called daishintrading.com. The guy is really helpful and got my car pretty quickly. My car is comin on the boat from Japan on feb 7 so by the last week in march it should be in my driveway.
the cost was 300,000yen - 2,600
shipping was 1,050
boat insurance was 30
and when it gets here i'll have to pay a percentage of that for customs...im not sure what it is though.
Heres the car...hope its not a POS but I doubt it will be because my boy got a prelude from this same guy and it was in good shape.
http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/bulkupload.php?ppaction=addphotos&do=preview&photopath=127291&upuser=&notify=no&defcat=503&deftitle=&defdesc=&numprocess=10&processall=

800 to start the petition to import the car, $2000+ in EPA fees another few thousand for DOT compliance. Tack on Registered Importer fees, tariffs, shipping cost, and you are WAY past what a 92-96 Civic is worth RHD or not.

Yea it sucks how hard it is for you guys to get japanese cars...I see all kinda guys going crazy over japanese civic ferios on jdmcivic.com but they're running around here looking like P'sOS i really dont understand all the hype behind it...I guess the difficulty in getting it makes it all that much sweeter even if it is a POS ferio

I have an EG6 for sale if anyone is interested. Let me know!!

how much, and what's it got on it? mileage/parts/damage

www.inlinefour.com has a jdm civic for sale on their page last time I checked, they're in california.