Forgotmyoldlogin wrote:I've been told to stay away from cars out of Okinawa first of all due to price and the fact that most are rusted to hell.

fast.six wrote:yeah i'm looking into this as well.

i'll probably be rotating out from okinawa around '15-'16 and '14-'15 is when the '89-'90 GT-R's will become legal to import. I picked up a 1990 R32 GT-R from johnnys outside kadena. A bit more expensive then i wanted to pay for it but they are increasingly harder to find on this rock, you can find them up near Nago but i heard they're pushing closer to 20k usd.

I actually emailed the NHTSA for further information regarding this, as soon as i receive a response i'll post it. I will get my 32 home to the states, how easy it is has yet to be determined.

Ramonesfreak2010 wrote:
Also, question: Does the 25 year rule apply to the year the car is sold under, OR the year the car was produced. For example, if a GTR is a 1989 Nissan Skyline GTR was produced in September of 1988, does the 25 year rule apply in September 2013 or 1989?

wheatie wrote:Keeping with the topic, one thing I've been trying to research and haven't found a definite answer on is the VIN numbers, will it be an issue that the car has an 11 digit VIN when registering in the US, or is this just not an issue at all?

usafdarkhorse wrote:

Ramonesfreak2010 wrote:
Also, question: Does the 25 year rule apply to the year the car is sold under, OR the year the car was produced. For example, if a GTR is a 1989 Nissan Skyline GTR was produced in September of 1988, does the 25 year rule apply in September 2013 or 1989?

They will go by the no-joke month of manufacture and they didn't start making R32 GT-Rs until August 1989 (a 1989 in Japan is just that...a 1989). If you bought a GT-R with a manufactured month of November 1989, it would not be legal until November 2014 and I would even give a buffer month of December 2014 to be absolutely sure it would clear.

FWIW, I do remember some caveat about reimportation and origins where Canadian cars would not be legal for import, but the 25 year thing may make that null. Ask someone up at NHTSA if you can even get ahold of them on this issue. I don't think a Canadian car would be in as good of shape as a Japanese car though.

Forgotmyoldlogin wrote:Ok obviously unless it changes before then, you will be able to legally import an 89 r32 in 2014. I've done my share of research and weeded out illegit statements and all of that so Im a little less ignorant than some others, but definitely don't know it all. I was trying to get a gtr before 2014 but I can't justify the risk... As a matter of fact there is one in my town sitting in a garage for $10k (on the dl) but it's a Florida state illegal car, anyway... I am new to looking into legally importing a 25 year old car so I have a few questions.

A) price... Someone already started a thread on the price of an 89 gtr once they are legal. Goo-net cars seem to be priced on the high side compared to other Japanese sources I have, so the base price would be what you could find one for. Aside from cost of the actual vehicle, being that the car will be exempt, what are the other fines you will incur and are they flat rate or based on something (type of fine/fee and cost or % would help).

1 of many sites I've found significantly cheaper than goo-net http://www.tradecarview.com/used_car/ja ... r/all/all/

B) preferred method of purchase... Buy one here, buy one from Japan and ship it sight unseen, or buy it from canada and ship or pickup. I've been told to stay away from cars out of Okinawa first of all due to price and the fact that most are rusted to hell. If I buy a car in the us that someone else imported I'm sure the final price will be higher but at the convenience of being able to inspect the car personally before purchase. What documents would I need to prove it was legally imported and exempt with no risk of it being confiscated? When buying a Canadian gtr legally what is the proper process, just buy it and drive it through or still go through the hassle of customs, etc. for to be 100% legit. I'm not sure how to go about purchasing a car from canada in the first place, say a civic or whatever and bringing it down so any enlightenment on that would be great. Lastly and seemingly the most risk oriented option would be to buy one from Japan, hope the car even exists, possibly have a broker or something similar ($$$) go inspect the car prior to purchase, buy or rent a container ($$$), hope it makes it to the us without shipping damages including falling off into the ocean or being "misplaced", then deal with the governments bullsh*t once it's here, and if you're lucky drive it home one day months or years after the initial purchase.

C) anything else helpful... ?

fast.six wrote:I'm currently trying to find someone with access to Nissan's FAST database to look up what month my gt-r was produced. One way or another this car is coming home with me in 3 years, I've waited too long to own one to just leave it here.

Omalika wrote: If you give me the number I can go to the Nissan dealership down the road and they can look up the year of manufacture. Number should be something like BNR32 004-229.

themadscientist wrote:Canada trick won't work. You can drive all over Canada and you might be able to visit the states with it as a plated and registered Canadian car, but you cannot emigrate the car into the states that way. It's seizable and crushable even if you pull a Jedi mind trick on some podunk DMV worker and get it registered and plated in the states.

Guio, no, you can't legally bring it in until it's actually 25. You would have an unregisterable car that would similarly be in jeopardy until 25 and even then would have to be exported and then reimported to become legit.

Now, you could possibly import the car to Canada, store it there and wait until the magic hour THEN officially import it to America. That might work.

themadscientist wrote:I don't think the car must emanate from the country of manufacture. I've seen European cars leave Japan for the states before. That TMO was willing to do it does not necessarily mean it's acceptable, however. They expect the owner to do that research. It's the age that's crucial. I would hope Sean could weigh in on that specifically.

themadscientist wrote:If that will be possible, then a smart fella would pull together some venture capital, procure a fleet of cars before they are overpriced and store them awaiting the trigger date. Keep the supply network warm and use that initial profit to pay expenses and restart fresh importation of new stock.