By "illegal" they mean r32's and 34s without DOT bond releases. There is NO WAY for me to get it back as a race car, show car, offroad, etc. The car is not technically significant, prepped for track, etc to qualify for those sections, so i am being forced to export it. Lets not get into the debate about legal versus not legal in this thread. I was just another one of those guys who thought that titled, registered meant legal, but now i know after talking with many head honchos at DOT.

Ship it to canada i thought, but my lawyer says i cant export to NAFTA countries (USA, mexico, canada), which sucks. My plan is to re-import the car when it is 25 years old to the US (100% legal). It is a '90 now and probably built in '89. It is immaculate so i would like to store it somewhere until it is 25 years old.

Now i need some advice/contacts for someone who can maybe "babysit" the car or tell me somewhere i can store it for relatively cheap. I know i could send the car to the UK, just dont know anyone there or what is involved with importing a car into the country.

So any other countries that are logistically easy to get to (virgin islands, bahamas, central america, UK/england, etc). Anyone know skyline importation laws in any non-NAFTA countries???

Here are a few pics of the car the day i had to turn it into customs.

Any help would be appreciated.

Huge bummer.

All I can say is this: When people criticize us for "outing" these wannabe importers, THIS is why we do it.

I'm so sorry to hear of this jam you're in. I wish I could be of more assistance, but once a car comes to the attention of the authorities, you can bet they're not going to rest until they have it in hand.

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Im trying the UK skyline forums as well, hopefully someone there is nice enough with a lot of land to keep it on.

How long will custom's hold it for you to do something with it?
Have they said what they will do with it if you don't ship it out of country? Do they crush it? Auction it?

With zero knowledge of the situation, I would guess that the Bahamas might be your best bet as it's very close to the US and from what I understand, have very few laws regarding importation of cars.

I know that one of NICO's more popular members lived in the Bahamas.. PantherRacer... http://forums.nicoclub.com/zer...15635

Perhaps he still has family there? Perhaps he can lend some knowledge and help you out.

How come sky-kit's website doesn't work???

Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

They did say they would have to crush it if i didnt fight to get it back. Usually they put things back into service if it is US spec, but in this case, they would crush it, a shame i'd say.

I will talk to him about the bahamas, that might be a good choice, however i dont know how expensive a storage unit it there, hmmm.

oh, skykit, they still owe me $14000 from when they supposedly could import me a GTR.

How much money are you out now on this whole skyline importation thing?

$14k to sky-kit who have apparently closed down and likely will never pay you a dime.
How much was this R32 that you have now that might get crushed?

Anyway, as far as importing it into non-NAFTA countries...

I know that in the UK, you can import pretty much anything so long as it passes MOT inspection. MOT is basically a safety inspection, making sure your car is safe to drive. Typical things like working wipers, lights, good tires, etc.

I believe that also, if you import the car into the UK, you MUST register it for road use. I'm sure you could import it as a racecar, but let's face it, it's not, and would probably be a bigger hassle than just registering the car for street use anyway.

I'm not 100% sure on the laws for Caribbean nations, but I believe most follow similar laws as the UK does. Bahamas is actually probably one of the better ideas anyway. Plus it's closer, so you'll probably save on shipping.

I've got a car friend (even a Nissan guy!) who is an American citizen, but Bahamian resident. IM me and I'll give you his contact info and maybe he can help. I'd post it in here but I don't know he'd want the whole world to know him LOL.

I've got another friend who lives in the UK who might also have some connections to storage facilities, and definitely knows the importing laws inside and out there (he used to work for a repair shop that does importing).

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and as someone said before we can import almost anything here so far.

i was gonna say that depending on how much you were selling it that i may be able to find you a sale here,

but not for $40k+

so, best of luck with your situation

1996 R33 Skyline GTS-T
RB25DET mods: HKS GT2540 Turbo, HKS coilovers,5zigen Border304 exhaust, Blitz SUS power filter, ARC FMIC, Blitz Dual Solenoid boost controller, Z32 AFM, Nismo strut bar....too much to list

My cardomain

I emailed you on your profile email address. Thanks for the advice!

Well i am $40k into both gtr's where the first one i never even got the car. I paid $26k for this one. Are there any storage facilities there? how affordable is it?

Well Depends? Motorex Car?

according to DOT, and this is from the horses mouth, only 96-98(forgot what months) are "able to be converted by an RI upon import" to be legal. Otherwise i dont think there is any other way to get it in legally unless its imported temporarily for some significance, diplomat, some other reasons, but that is temporary.

Or it is a DOT bond released motorex car. I believe there were r32s and some r34s mixed in there, but dont know. All i know is that mine was illegally brought in apparently.

If I had a state legal car, I would be looking over my should right now.

Hate to tell you " I told you so , but I told you so".

http://gtrusa.blogspot.com/200....html

And not to be a dick, But doesn't Dept. of homeland security have bigger **** to worry about then a couple of car enthusiests? i mean ****ing christ. it's been how long since we started looking for Osama bin Laden but nooo luck finding that go so lets go over to the next biggest threat ILLEGAL NISSAN SKYLINES get a ****ing life. someone really needs to email some news channel (CNN/FOX/MSNBC) and see what they say on the subject.

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Which register guy ? Someone that had some stuff to do with Evos ?

I cant say i dont agree with you. Most of us are average joes working our asses off, paying our taxes, etc. Why punish us? probably because we are an easy quota and easy targets. The middle class always gets f#$ked the hardest. I am an enthusiast, all i wanted was my damn gtr, i had it for a week, saved up for years, then taken away.
Yes, they do have better things to do, but this seems like something to get thier moral up to make them feel more important i guess. Hell i dont know but we should be concentrating on drugs, machine guns, and illegal people. A car is just a car, hell it was practically just a paperweight in my garage, i drove it once before they took it.

Sorry about the bad news, have helped a couple GTR's go to the U.S. recently.

Anyway shoot me a email my friend in Japan can handle the car. He is an exporter himself but is more than happy to help.

email: skylinegtr20[@]hotmail.com

regards,

Local thread talking about it, has link to car still on their website too.

http://www.mwir.net/forum/inde...yline

When i saw this thread and pics of the car that was my first thought of the GT-R at the autobarn. but that had differant wheels and seats.

Most all the cars that come from Japan have that blue ID tag. It's got the chassis code, engine code, engine displacement, paint code and something else, but I can't remember.

I wonder if that "Florida guy" might be our resident know-it-all-importer Celm? Wouldn't surprise me in the least if it was.

he made a comment of gtr uk i dont think it was him.

Quote, originally posted by EliteGTR »

he made a comment of gtr uk i dont think it was him.

a coment related to ....

Modified by EL MAMITO USMC at 3:35 PM 6/15/2008

I cant say i dont agree with you. Most of us are average joes working our asses off, paying our taxes, etc. Why punish us? probably because we are an easy quota and easy targets. The middle class always gets f#$ked the hardest. I am an enthusiast, all i wanted was my damn gtr, i had it for a week, saved up for years, then taken away.
Yes, they do have better things to do, but this seems like something to get thier moral up to make them feel more important i guess. Hell i dont know but we should be concentrating on drugs, machine guns, and illegal people. A car is just a car, hell it was practically just a paperweight in my garage, i drove it once before they took it.

For others who may be viewing this thread from other forums (and I see there are a few) and want to know about the Skyline importation issue, you can view this link: http://www.nicoclub.com/articl...shtml

Anyway, good luck and definately keep us updated as to what is happening.

Looks like there were some other having skyline problems too:
http://www.honda-tech.com/zero...68656

US Customs is part of Homeland Security. OK... People seem to think that Homeland Security is separate from customs.

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/about/

"CBPis one of the Department of Homeland Security’s largest and most complex components, with a priority mission of keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the U.S. It also has a responsibility for securing and facilitating trade and travel while enforcing hundreds of U.S. regulations, including immigration and drug laws."

Are you in denial ? I don't have proof right now, other than a phone call from a guy that said he had his car seized, and he said 6 other people did also.

I have heard lots of rumors. At least one of them mentions Andre/Franz. He was the guy that had the 3 R34's and the S15 impounded earlier in the year. The other mentions "Skyline King". Good for both of them.

Nine years now I have been talking about this. Trying to educate people.

IGNORANCE OF THE LAW IS NOT AN EXCUSE.

its not denial but ijust wonder what they did to get caugt because im sure that homeland has better things to do than just go after some car, their is more involved . hope this doesnt happen to no one else

Yeah, it is something they did. They bought an illegally imported vehicle.

Saying "I'm sure that Homeland Security has better things to do than go after some car" is as ignorant as saying "A cop won't pull you over for speeding because I'm sure they have more important things to do like fight crime."

The Department of Homeland Security is not just 5 guys sitting around twiddling their thumbs until there is a terrorist threat. It's a massive organization, that probably employees hundreds of people who's job it is to do nothing but track down illegally imported vehicles.

As much as everyone hates it and think the government is just out there to **** us over, those people need to educate themselves. Laws are laws, and not meant to be tested. They are there for a reason, and if somebody is illegally importing vehicles, what's not to say they aren't illegally importing nuclear weapons as well. This whole situation isn't even about skylines, it's about illegally importing goods, which is a MAJOR crime.

That paragraph should be seized and deported as well. Good lord man spellcheck!