Shipping Cars into the States

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ae6zn6
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Shipping Cars into the States

Postby ae6zn6 » Fri Jan 24, 2014 12:06 am

Hi there guys,

The name is Robbo, I am an AE86oholic...

I live in Australia and there is a chance that I will be moving across to the States some time in the not too distant future. I thought I might ask around here what process I would need to go through to bring my car across the Pacific.

It is a track car that I am near to finishing and I am not too fussed as to whether it can be registered or not once over there as it is likely to remain as purely a track car.

As I haven't lived in the States in my adult life please assume I know NOTHING about how things work over there.

If you want to have a look at the car itself here is a linky linky.

There are also a couple of links in my sig in the other forum to some of my other builds.

Thanks in advance for the help!

-Robbo

Clouds
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby Clouds » Fri Jan 24, 2014 5:24 pm

Nice car, man. :) Welcome to the forums!
There shouldn't be a day that goes by where you don't learn something new.

milchmann
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby milchmann » Fri Jan 24, 2014 11:31 pm

The laws and regulations are really tricky for importing and exporting things like cars and engines into the United States. There are special courts that review the legal documentation etc, and it can take months. Your best bet is to go through an Import Export Attorney. The fees vary from attorney to attorney, but most of them will give you a huge break if you look up all of the import declaration codes yourself. This is not hard to do.

Make sure that you or the attorney have all the paper work ready to go before the car arrives on US soil. Storage facilities of imported items charge huge fees for holding items over 24 hours. I know that in Houston Texas it is between $150-200 a day depending on the facility for things the size of front clips or motors. The paper work can not be submitted until after the item has been reported by an import inspector at its destination (the import holding facility), so having the papers ready to go is sort of crucial to your wallet.

If you are being recruited to come over by a company that is paying your moving expenses then you can most likely lump this in with all of that.

After the car has been imported you will have to get it inspected by the DOT (department of transportation) to get the car registered. You may have to do work to the car to make it "road legal". Most of the tracks that I know of require a cars to be registered on top of passing a tech inspection to run on the track. After the car passes a DOT inspection you will not have to get the car inspected again if all you want to do is register it. You do have to have it inspected, all be it under far less stringent rules, every year if you want to drive it on the road in most states.

All of this is not as bad as it sounds.
Good luck!

milchmann
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby milchmann » Fri Jan 24, 2014 11:33 pm

I should have stated that Import Export Attorneys can usually get things cleared to be released in a matter of hours, where it can take an individual days or weeks to get the same response.

ae6zn6
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby ae6zn6 » Sat Jan 25, 2014 8:39 am

Wow,

OK thanks very much, that sounds a lot more complicated and expensive than I was hoping...

Is it really true that cars have to be registered/street legal to be used on the track in the US? That is pretty limiting to the amount of modification you can do...

Unless the rules regarding modification are A LOT less stringent over there.

Australia has become a bit of a police state when it comes to modifying cars I'm afraid, 'Hooning' keeps getting bumped up by current affair news programs as a huge issue for some reason. Unfortunately that has lead to very strict laws and little to no sympathy for 'offenders'. As such if you are driving a modified car on the street, even if you are driving in a completely safe and normal manner you can often get defected and/or have you car impounded.

That is why I have designed this one for the track.

I would be pretty surprised if I was able to get a right hand drive car registered at all over there :(

Anyone know of any loopholes I might be able to take advantage of?

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Rogue-AE95
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby Rogue-AE95 » Sat Jan 25, 2014 9:15 am

I think you can get RHD cars registered over here with few problems. After all our mail carriers drive them, so you could always get a job with the USPS :D

As for imported cars, if they're over 25 years old, I think they can qualify for street use. There's a lot more info about that than I know. There was a guy advertising on the Club4AG Facebook page the imported AE86s that he sells.

Track use only cars... I think you can get away with a lot more leniency. RHD, modified, salvage titles, etc.
'88 Corolla All-Trac x2 (manual, auto)

milchmann
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby milchmann » Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:17 am

It is seriously not that hard to do all of that stuff. The attorney should be around $500-1000.

Zissou
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby Zissou » Sat Jan 25, 2014 12:33 pm

I've been to many tracks and never been to one where your car was required to be registered, if anything that may very with the group putting on the event, or event type.

Vehicle laws and inspection will vary greatly by state. In California there are heaps of nonsense like carb and roadside inspections, but right next door in Nevada all you'd have to do is pass a tail pipe sniff test to be street legal. Since your car is 25 years old, going to be a track or limited use, you could register it as a "classic car" and have no inspections after the first.

It probably greatly depends on where you end up, especially if it's California or not.

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Rogue-AE95
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby Rogue-AE95 » Sun Jan 26, 2014 6:39 am

Yeah, California isn't very friendly to car enthusiasts :? I could never live there, with all the things I do or want to do with my cars.
'88 Corolla All-Trac x2 (manual, auto)

JyuRoku
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby JyuRoku » Fri Feb 07, 2014 7:10 pm

If its older than 25 years its pretty simple. Im military so its easier for me, but you would probably have to pay taxes on it.

When it comes time to register it, it all depends on the state you live in. Some easy (south carolina), some extremely difficult (California).

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redroku87
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby redroku87 » Sun Feb 09, 2014 12:59 pm

Alright, here's the reason that you will be able to get the AE86: its not considered a grey market vehicle, and you can bring it American code easily. And the over 25 clause wipes that part out, so your set.

But, a 25 year old skyline? forget it. Never getting in to the best of my knowledge.
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redroku87
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby redroku87 » Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:33 pm

JyuRoku wrote:If its older than 25 years its pretty simple. Im military so its easier for me, but you would probably have to pay taxes on it.

When it comes time to register it, it all depends on the state you live in. Some easy (south carolina), some extremely difficult (California).


Getting it here yes, the grey market crap no.
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yoshimitsuspeed
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby yoshimitsuspeed » Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:12 pm

Are you moving here temporarily or permanently?


Have you considered ripping the valuable parts off the car and shipping them here to put on a US 86?

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redroku87
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby redroku87 » Sun Feb 16, 2014 11:13 pm

Here's how it works, when they bring it through customs if he specifies that it is a track car they will take down the VIN and basically ban it from being registered as a street car.

But with an AE86 since it is not a grey market vehicle, and its over 25, he shouldn't have to worry about anything.
The grey market crap is where the headache starts.
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The Russian Menace
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Re: Shipping Cars into the States

Postby The Russian Menace » Sat Mar 01, 2014 12:15 am

Edit: whoa, I've lost all my posts from years prior!!!


Bringing a car in as a track car is hard. You need to show that it's an actual race car, i.e. race records, the class it falls in, etc.

A car that's 25 years or older is no longer subject to federal safety regulations (DOT). A car 21 or older is no longer subject to EVA regulations. The Clean Air Act, however, allows California 5 have more stringent regulations and it's difficult to impossible to register a car here even if it's older than. 25 years (unless it was made in or prior to 1975).

As an Australian visiting the US temporarily, you can bring in any car for up to a year pursuant to the Vienna Connection. This can be extended year to year so long as your status here remains temporary. The form to bring it in pursuant to this is the same NASA HS-7 form, but a different box is checked.

This is how this Peugeot made it here. Been in SoCal for a decade now and has even been issued CA plates.

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Here it is years ago when it still had French plates (pardon the crappy 2004 cellphone pic):

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Also how this Beetle truck got here:

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