Where there is no substantially similar U.S. - certified motor vehicle, 49 U.S.C. § 30141(a)(1)(B) (formerly section 108(c)(3)(A)(i)(II) of the Act) permits a nonconforming motor vehicle to be admitted into the United States if its safety features comply with, or are capable of being altered to comply with, all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards based on destructive test data or such other evidence as the Secretary of Transportation decides to be adequate. Under 49 U.S.C. § 30141(a)(1) (formerly section 108(c)(3)(C)(i) of the Act), import eligibility decisions may be made "on the initiative of the Secretary of Transportation or on petition of a manufacturer or importer registered under [49 U.S.C. § 30141(c)].
The laws are very comprehensive and very detailed. A Skyline is *not* a kit car or a one-off. Those are covered in separate articles of the USC. If you can convice Customs that all the parts you're shipping over are not from a production vehicle, then you could be on your way to driving a Skyline. If you can't convince them, then you'll be in for quite an expensive lesson. Understand that getting away with something once does not make it legal. The Skyline *is* a production vehicle; regardless of what you can convince one person signing a piece of paper. If the issue ever comes up in the future (during an audit, for example, or at the DMV), you might not be able to convince anyone then, and the vehicle will be impounded, and you have lied on a document you signed that probably states you can be penalized by law for lying on that document.A Skyline is not "substantially similar to a motor vehicle originally manufactured for importation into and sale in the United States, certified under 49 U.S.C. § 30115 (formerly section 114 of the Act), and of the same model year as the model of the motor vehicle to be compared, and is capable of being readily altered to conform to all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards."
The Skyline forum is rife with discussion:
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