how hard (expensive) is it to get a japan style car in the us?

 

Registered or not? That is the real question. You can get a car imported for the price of the car and the price to have it shipped. Meet them at the dock with a flatbed and tell them it is a race prepped car that will NOT be registered to avoid the docking fees. Then tow back to your garage and you have a Japanese car in the US. I'm sure that there are customs fees and such, but everyone I've asked has said that the storage fees at the dock are what cost them the most. Then again those were Alfas from Europe that were just picked up that didn't have to go through any smog checks or anything like that.

 

you mean like RHD version cars? or cars like skylines and such?

 

Its not an easy task, nor is it cheap. If you're willing to take the time to find the loop holes and do a lot of the "work" yourself you might be able to get away fairly "cheap".

 

eehjay is right.
It's about the price of a car.
A friend of mine, imported a Skyline in and it was about 20k. The car was at the price of 85k. He spent quite a bit, but overall in the end....damn...it was worth it when we saw it.

 

is it true if your in the military station in japan you can import your car over for cheaper?

 

Not by much.
I lived in Okinawa and Tokyo.
My pop was in the military and I was a foreign exchange student and he wanted a BMW from the area and looked at the price.
And our BMW 325I brand new, fully loaded was only 18k. For real.
And we wanted to ship it overseas, to Fort Bragg and found out the price was almost double. Naturally it wouldn't go str8 to Ft Bragg, it would dock in Miami.
Still, tho. 18k for a BMW? Shipping it would have been the s***.

I woudn't recommend doing any overseas shipping, unless yo pockets is that fat.

We tried from Inchon, Korea and the price was still the same.
The most expensive that I have seen someone pay, was like 32k.
Still extremely high.

 

BUT......If you could do a group purchase, and split the costs. You can do that.
That works REAL well.
Imagine you get like 10 cars from Japan and ship them.
The freight charges are the same. It's like 3000 each. Not bad. But....group buy might be the best way.

An old friend of mine specializes in freight as well as I do, but I do more stateside, while he does it internationally and that's all he moves. Cars.

 

I doubt it is worth it. Besides, what are the differences between the Japanese Lancer and ours? I cant imagine any real performance upgrades on the Japanese version. What car do you plan on importing?

 

I just got back from okinawa, and the car thing is half true, you have to be a certain rank for them to ship your car , and even in that situation the car has to meet a certain weight and it also still has to be brought up to us specs even before the government considers shipping it for you....all in all its still is going to cost you an arm and a leg, i mean yea i had a cheap $500 skyline but it wasnt worth shelling out 20 - 30g';s for it...

 

If you can get in good with someone in shipping in the military than technically you can. I believe when you get shipped back to the US you can only bring a certain weight back with you (this is coming from friends stationed in Okinawa, but like Chinos Dad is in the military, so id believe him a bit more). Its not cheap by any means. There were shops in GA that were big into tuning 240's/Silvias and one had a legalized S15 Silvia and sold it for over 30k when that car new in Japan went for around 20k. If you want to do a Skyline or Silvia there are some not so legal ways that people have gotten around it.

Like mentioned above you can go to the docks with a flat bed and pick the car up and then buy a wrecked 240sx. If its a skyline pretty much any year 240 will do, but if its a silvia try and buy the correct year. Then you can just swap the VIN plates, but i do not recommend that. Especially if you have to deal with emissions.

 

I was talking about the Skyline, yo.
That is WORTH every penny.
You got a Japanese spec Skyline in the US?
That is rare.
You know how much a car enthusiast or collector would pay for a fully loaded Japanse spec'd Skyline GTR? Turrbo'd out and everything?
Try looking over $200,000, son.
That is worth it.

On the Lancer?
Bump that.
I wouldn't even bother.

If you can find a freight specialist, you can do it much cheaper.
You have to hire him to do it or contract him out.
Of course you are in a whole new line of work. But, a freight specialist can find a loophole for you and make it happen.
But a large tip is in order.
If you are going to ship a car overseas, it better be worth it.

 

$200,000? Not even close. You can get a street legal BNR34-GTR for around $80k, and one with nearly everything you can think done to it for under $120k. The only loophole you can use to get them into the states and legalized now is to rebuild it as a kit car in Japan, then ship it over, engine-less. There's a company stateside called fast4wheels who is doing just that, and selling them for the prices I've quoted above. A local guy here in the NW bought a pretty nice S15 from them a while back.

I don't think I've EVER heard of a Skyline, no matter the model or condition, selling for more than $130k. You've been extremely misinformed.

Edit: And NO freight specialist can get a car past customs, no matter the size of "tip" you're willing to give him. Seriously, even Bill Gates and Paul Allen have exotic Porsches stuck in customs. I'm thinking that if you can donate a few buildings, fix the monorail for the city of Seattle, and drop a few hundred million into local hospitals, you could afford to pay the freight specialist tip.

Get real, man. The Skyline in the US is a total fanboy vehicle to begin with. If you want real AWD power for a reasonable price, just get an Evo or and STI. With $80k, you could build a killer vehicle that would be nicer than any stock Skyline. If you really want an RB26 powered AWD Nissan, buy yourself an S14, have Full Race perform their R14 conversion (~13k), finish the RB26 swap yourself, and there you go. Unless you live somewhere where you can pick up a stock R32 GTR for under $10k, it's really not worth the effort and cost.

 

Sorry to tell you.
I was there.
Sold in Las Vegas.

 

Just because YOU haven't heard of it, doesn't negate the fact it hasn't happened, bro.
I lived in 44 countries.
And I know what I witnessed.