Importing Skylines to the US

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vinyl Scratch
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Not sure if you all have heard of Motorex, but they pretty much had the skyline importation market cornered and covered. That was until the owner got himself put in jail from some crazy stunt(s) he pulled. They were in a way, the only (Correct me if I'm wrong, please by all means) legal means that allowed skylines into the US, that I'm personally aware of.
 
ebay: Looking at the conditions when you can drive it...

It's a show car, you can drive to the garage and to events.
 
Hmm, there's garage in my town that has imported Nissans. They have 2 R32's (both GT-R)& a S15. Not to mention a billion 240's out front.
 
It's highly unlikely that those are legal. The S15 definitely is not, and the R32s probably not as well. The NE and CA are also the worst places to own those cars, as many of the efforts to seize non-conforming cars are situated in those areas.
 
ebay: Looking at the conditions when you can drive it...

It's a show car, you can drive to the garage and to events.

Yeah that part sucks. It also looks like it has to be one of less than 500 built to get around the laws. So if you want to import something like this, make sure it's a limited production of whatever you want...
 
I don't know how they got them but I can't mistake the R32 GT-R's sexy rear or the S15's. PA is pretty crappy when it comes to the law.
 
Editor GEAR
Not sure if you all have heard of Motorex, but they pretty much had the skyline importation market cornered and covered. That was until the owner got himself put in jail from some crazy stunt(s) he pulled. They were in a way, the only (Correct me if I'm wrong, please by all means) legal means that allowed skylines into the US, that I'm personally aware of.

I remember reading a article from a magazine about the Motorex company long time ago.

There was alot of people who followed and worked with the guy who started this, including well known importers in the business. But until the guy who started this got into trouble, the R33 Skylines were legal to be imported. So the only ones that are legal is the R33, the R34 is the toughest one to get into the US, but there are 100 R34s in the States as we speak.

R1600Turbo
Of course starting in 2014 you can import 1989 Models with no issue. 👍

Sweet :D!!! Make mines the Skyline GTR V-Spec R32 in either Bayside or Gun grey please.
 
Guess it's slightly relevant to this thread, I saw a newer green peugeot van being driven around the other day. I got completely confused. The van looked way too new to be over 15 years old then I realized tourists can actually bring their car's here while they visit no matter what age it is...
 
Guess it's slightly relevant to this thread, I saw a newer green peugeot van being driven around the other day. I got completely confused. The van looked way too new to be over 15 years old then I realized tourists can actually bring their car's here while they visit no matter what age it is...

If they have the van in Canada while they're visiting, how long can they keep it there? 3 months? A year?
 
If they have the van in Canada while they're visiting, how long can they keep it there? 3 months? A year?

Here's what I've found out on a Canada tourism website:

Canada.angloinfo.com
Visitors and tourists who import their vehicles into Canada temporarily do not have to comply with the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations. This is only if the vehicle is used exclusively by the visitor or tourist. This exemption applies to people coming to Canada for less than 12 months or on a student visa. However, the vehicle cannot be sold in Canada and cannot remain in Canada any longer than 12 months or the time specified on the student visa.

Spotted it in the University are in Guelph, so maybe someone with a student visa going to the university brought it over.
 
I don't get it. If its emission problems why can't you just change them to make it legal?

@S15

I'm pretty sure were going to have to import rx7's at one point
 
I remember reading a article from a magazine about the Motorex company long time ago.

There was alot of people who followed and worked with the guy who started this, including well known importers in the business. But until the guy who started this got into trouble, the R33 Skylines were legal to be imported. So the only ones that are legal is the R33, the R34 is the toughest one to get into the US, but there are 100 R34s in the States as we speak.



Sweet :D!!! Make mines the Skyline GTR V-Spec R32 in either Bayside or Gun grey please.

No, the R33s are the only ones which are legal, specifically the 96-98 I believe. They have to be converted to OBD2 and have their emissions regulated correctly. There's a bunch of other minor work that has to be done to bring them in. There's only one registered importer in the US which will do it as well, and it's insanely expensive. It'd be cheaper to just wait and buy a Motorex R33 than to import a specific one you want and have the conversion done. That is, of course, unless the specific car was very rare or something.
 
I'm pretty sure were going to have to import rx7's at one point

Why? Other than anything after 1996 that we didn't get here, there's plenty of them. You just don't see many of them around because they are not driven much.
 
R1600Turbo
Why? Other than anything after 1996 that we didn't get here, there's plenty of them. You just don't see many of them around because they are not driven much.

Oh, I just thought they were very rare. I've only seen a couple.

700th post!
 
Why? Other than anything after 1996 that we didn't get here, there's plenty of them. You just don't see many of them around because they are not driven much.

I assume you 2 are talking about FD RX-7's?

In any case, yes they actually are quite rare. We are talking only 2 years in production. there are only a handful of them for sale at a time (on autotrader and such) and its very rare to see a manual or r1/r2 model
 
Gotta wonder how much they're asking for it. Motorex R32s go for mid 20s unless they're upgraded all to ****. Considering the restrictions on these cars, I can't see them getting a ton of cash.
 

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