You could probably do that IF it wasn't RHD. That is a dead giveaway.

 

i bought mine 2000 Type R JDM FD for $45000. Of course here in Cyprus we drive RHD and import from japan is easy, but i bought the car in Japan for $25000 with 26000Km in excellent condition and with the duties,de-registration taxes,and transportation i paid total $45000. A skyline here is double that.

 

But why spend all the time and money to import a car and drive it in the US only to have it impounded and, on top of that, to receive a Federal criminal record? The whole thing seems foolish. I mean, on balance it just seems like the reward does not justify the economic and personal risk. I think a better decision would be to maybe import the parts that make a US legal car similar to the J-spec, or, simply buy a car here and spend whatever money is needed to create the vehicle t you want.

 

i understand the fear of getting cought, but when i weigh the actual chances, it seems almost impossible.

it's basically within the law to drive RHD, and do extensive body work. so it would be very hard, and very under the radar for most officials to try to convict you. expecially if you have a stripped chassis sitting in the back of your yard (i have more than enough room for that) with the vins of the car you imported as a race only chassis.

if you import it through legal routs, with the proper paperwork that shows that the car is 100% NOT stolen, i seriously doubt anyone would care what you do with it once you get it here, including "stripping it for parts to put on a rebuild".

 

I understand that you believe the likelihood of being caught is low. My point is that is only half the equation. The severity of the penalty if you are caught is, in my judgement, severe.

 

i think you guys are missing the point here. i was in japan this summer and have been thinking about importing fds ever since. seeing 99 and 00 with low kliks selling for 17 large just seems unreal. these cars are very similar to ours and adding the equipment to make them legal would only add 2 maybe 3 grand to the price. shipping is quite reasonable and if one gets imported and federalized/epa then the rest can piggy back(there was an article in autoweek recently about 959s). i think we should be convincing someone with the resources that low miles, late model fds would sell in the states for 25k ! the salesman i talked to in a tokyo suburb was importing them to australia-what a waste...how come those aussies get to have all the fun?

 

Uh..."make them legal" for "2 to 3 grand"? You might want to look into the costs for EPA certification. Definitely a big market there; again, that's why the former "grey market import" car business is a decaying corpse of what it once was 10-15 years ago...

 

Because he is 17 years old and is concerned with impressing high school girls with driving on the right side of the car.

Who gives a flying ****.

 

and whats funny is you don't know the real reasons... most fd's i've found in japan have less than 30k miles on it... its incredibly hard to find one in the US with that little miles and if there is, the price is jacked up like no other... yeah and i guess you could say it would be cool to drive to school... but just remember you brought my age into discussion and that was completly uncalled for

 

I'd say it's pretty easy to figure out that the VINs have been switched. Stolen cars go through the same process...VINs are swapped and sometimes they get away...but not all the time. I'm sure you'd be facing almost the same penalties as someone who stole a car and swapped the VINs, which is definitely not worth it. You might as well steal a lambo, switch the VINs and pray for a miracle...other than a APB looking for that lambo, you're in the same boat.

 

To be honest, if you want a RHD RX-7, just talk to a registered importer (RI), DOT, NHTSB, etc. If anything, they would be able to provide you w/ more info, then all of us here ever could.

We get this sort of question every so often in this forum. Instead of asking us, go to the source and ask them.

 

The reason you cannot import 1996+ cars is due to OBD II regulations and crash testing. As of 1996, all cars sold in the USA must meet OBD II testing. The RX7's were not tested, so they would need to be tested. Also, they state that the cars are vastly different enough that you have to crash test them before importing them. After that, the car's emissions needs updated to meet current regulations, and the glass needs replaced with safety glass.

Tim