Flame away, I posted this on the "kit car" thread a few days ago and it got buried, either too stupid, a repost, or just a dying thread anyways.

Kit Car Thread

My thoughts:



I was reading through some of this stuff and got kinda interested, looked at a few other documents as well. Couldn't one hypothetically buy whatever car abroad, dissasemble it to the point where it's "car parts" and not a "motor vehicle" to avoid all the nightmare of DOT/EPA regulations, and ship the pieces here to be reassembled and registered as an "assembled-from-parts" car?

http://www.actcfl.org/pdf/HSMV_87002.pdf

Obviously, the above doesn't mean shit if the gov'ment is finnicky about importing car parts (I don't know much about this, I'm thinking you guys do), or if the DOT flips out over a non-US-compliant imported vehicle.

I don't really see why they should in the first place, the restrictions on a kit/assembled from parts car appear to be really damn minimal, and if any of you have ever gotten curious and seen just how hard it is to import a GT-R or whatever, you know how exhaustive the governments process is (crash testing, emissions, etc), not to mention those bonds for 150% the value of the car. They seem to take the attitude that it's fine to take your chances in your own homebrew deathbox, but if you want a car made abroad (with actual safety standards, albeit foriegn), go fuck yourself or wade through a quagmire of paperwork and expensive modifications.

My best guess is that they figure homemade cars exist in such small numbers that they aren't a direct threat to mainstream automobilia (I don't think that's a word), but an influx of foriegn cars would deluge the DMV with all sorts of wild and crazy shit from other countries, making it damn near impossible to get any kind of standards for US vehicles. Since building a car takes more skill, time, and probably money than just ordering one on the interweb and putting it on a boat, I can begin to see where they're coming from.

If you registered the reassembled foriegn car as homemade, it seems to me like you're willing to take all the liabilities that entails, while the DOT's process is more making it "official" and giving you the same basic gaurantees you'd get if you bought a car originally meant for the US market (i.e. the title of your car being "HomeMadeGTRLookAlikeHopeItDon'tBlowUp" versus "Nissan Skyline GTR, imported by Motorex and meeting all relevant US Saftey and Emissions Standards")

If Uncle Sam isn't willing to play ball with an "Assembled From Parts" car assembled from say, 100% Peugot 206CC parts, I suppose you could modify whatever it is you're importing enough to where it isn't enough like anything foriegn to raise any kind of suspicion or red flags. Make if faster, even.

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Anyhow, I've typed too much on this whole ramble, this is more an idle curiousity than plan of action thing.. Other than what I was guessing, anyone else think of why this might not work?

 

No my man. It goes by manufacturer. If a company produces more than 100 completely built(turn key) vehicles per year, then that vehicle must go through all the same shit to get cleared into the US as any other imported car.



The Ultima company gets around this by shipping their cars as kits. In this instance its without the drivetrain. Being that they roll out more than 100 cars a year they couldn't get any into the US unless they sent them requiring some assembly--FROM THE FACTORY.

 

lol I got lost somewhere in there, but are you asking if it is legal to buy, lets say a skyline, have it disassembled, ship all the parts to the US, and rebuild it?

Well I heard the same thing applys to guns and shit, so I dont see why it wouldnt be legal for cars as well...

or maybe I am missing the whole point of this thread and need to hang myself

 

I was going it at it from the tack that you fab together an "Assembled from parts" car (or just say, the frame and use the rest of the parts from donor cars) and register it 100% legal, why not use 100% parts from a foriegn car? Didn't see any restrictions on those on the registratation form, and I don't think (here's where I could be off) it's a problem to import the parts themselves. I'm not going it at is as "dissassembled and reassblembed imported car" but as "assebled from parts car that happens to use lots of foriegn parts". Those people who do own Skylines have to get spare parts from somewhere, and any other car in the world could hypothetically be here and need replacements, since there are exceptions to the import restrictions. If you're a foriegner coming here for a year, a military or other US Gov'ment serviceperson returning from abroad (again, 1 year cap on the car being here), if it's for track racing (has to be stripped of things that make it roadworthy, like a reverse gear), or for research, any foriegn car is a go.

 

i remember speed channel talking about registering 959's as kit cars. thier is a loop hole of somesort

 

maybe the loop hole is taking off the Nissan and Skyline Logos and replace them with the Geo Metro logos

im just reaching out there

 

Dont even think any farther into it if you dont have soem funding and time to wait .

If you dont know how to do this , dont try you'll end up loosing money and having your car sit in customs for years .

Trust me , I know ....

 

You mean, my pieces?

But seriously, I'm not personally interested in trying it anytime soon. I don't really plan on spending good money on a car for some time, I'm more of a travel person at this point of my life. I could probably have a pretty nice car instead of the two trips to Japan under my belt, but everyone's got a different set of priorities. Since I'm not sure if the good ol' US of A is the place I'm going to ultimately wind up living, I'm not rushing into any binding financial commitments like a car I've put work into, or starting payments on a house.

I've been thinking of buying a vintage Mini Cooper here (live in Australia now as an exchange student, need a car) and bringing it home with me. Those are pretty inexpensive (here) and a breeze and a half to import, because they're already back home, and can be found old enough to where import restrictions don't apply. It's somewhere around a grand for the boat ride, 2.5% value of the car import tax, and the titling fee. Bring originally imported in relatively small numbers, demand is fairly high, so if it doesn't work out for me, I could get my money back and maybe some extra.

 

Honda swapped Mini! You know you want to

Off-topic- hit me up with a pm to let me know how life in Aussie land is going.

Back on topic- do a search for posts by "RiceRocket" on this subject. I just did a search for "import" and "RiceRocket" and came up with a good list. He's spent a lot of time shooting down GT-R dreams and there's a lot of good info in those threads.

 

ricerocket where are you..