Anyone buy a car in Canada and bring it to the US? I am looking at a car to pick up, but its in canada. I was wondering what sort of issues I may run into bring the car back to the US? The cars not registered or anything. I would have to go pick it up and bring it back on a trailer. Would I have any issues registering it here?
I have been searching but cant find shit on this subject.
might want to specify on what the car is.
91’ CRX SIR ;D
RHD- B16a, all the good shit.
kinda figured it was some jdm goodness, thats going to be a pita, I wanted to import somthing sick from canada like an r32, i guess you take the vin off of another crx and use that, but I don’t know much about that kinda shit, better let sombody else chime in I guess.
Find a good shipper bro…
I was thinking that. But I was just going to go pick it up myself. I just dont know how to get it over the border though. I figured I would get my ass handed to me going through customs with it.
tell them it’s going to be strictly a track car maybe?
I know when you import cars from Japan, you can’t have the engine in the car. Its suppose to be marked as parts only. I don’t want to take the car apart just to get it here.
I thought you could import it if you registered it as a track car so it has a whole bunch of limitations on it, then you could just take a super beat crx, use the vin from that for the new crx, I’ve researched this a bit but its a major pita.
Getting the car here in the states is not the hard part. Collectors do that all the time importing cars from various countries for museums or their own collections, they just pay taxes on the value of the car. You’ll have to show all the proper purchasing documentation at the border, and may have to pay customs tax as well as other fees. Putting it on the road, that’s an entirely different ball game and is not going to be worth the hassle. If you tell them it’s a track only/race car, they (DOT) typically destroys the VIN so DON’T do that if you have intentions of registering it. Pending on the chassis you may have to covert to USDM emission and crash equipment for that particular year and have it pass the tech inspection(similar to 901). Headlamps/signals/tail lenses must all meet DOT as well
Someone you’ll probably want to get ahold of and talk to…Byron…he’ll probably know a few things more about this from his past dealing with the RHD biturbo beauty he used to own
Also, if you want to bring it in as a track car, you will have to show how it is not legal for street use- stuff like roll cages, fuel cells, etc help with this… Plus you may be asked to give proof that you have a racing license in addition to informing them where you plan to race the vehicle. Look up the DOT and NHTSA websites, there’s plenty of info around.
If you decide to go ghetto fabulous route and bring it in and do a VIN swap, just be aware that the car can be impounded, and then crushed if you are caught with it on the street. That’s not for the VIN swap (which is purely illegal) but more being caught with something that was illegally imported. Perhaps a long shot, but is it worth the risk…
my friend has a rhd civic…they wont let him register it.
I was just going to make mention of him as well.
You’ll more then likely get tagged with fee’s at the border like Boxersix said. The easiest way to drive that thing around here is acquiring a dealer license and slapping a dealer plate on it.
So its sounds like that really wouldn’t be worth doing then. I might as well just convert my crx to a pure rhd sir then. Thanks for the input fellas!
cough cough swap vin tags, cough cough.
Yeah save yourself the hassle and do up ur rex
It would actually cost me more to swap mine, then it would to buy an actual SIR :sad
so buy it and be mad ghetto.
u can swap over eberything if you buy the sir?
buy the car, bring home, and swap away.
that way you have the car legally