As distraught as we may be, ultimately we should blame Nissan for not importing this car to begin with.

 

of course shilly lol

im not understanding why nissan, and other car makers do this. they make cars we cant legally use here elsewhere, but would sell here? i dont get it. that s15 is toit!
corporate is a latin word that means "makes no sense"

 

The S15 would have been the savior of the frumpy Nissan lineup that existed after the end of the Z32 and S14. To have had a turbo car of that calibre at the onset of the "FnF" mentality would have been a cash cow.

 

no one ever said nissan was smart in that department

 

honestly you can bring them over and get them legalized quite easily.

it just takes money.

 

It takes ALOT of $$$.

Figure this:

Cost of 2 S15's for Crash Testing = $35,000
Cost of Crash Testing = $50,000 approx
Cost of RI Petitioning = $1,000
Cost of initial RI Conversion and Compliance = $12,000
Cost of ICI testing = $4,000
Cost of EPA Conversion = UNKNOWN
Cost of Bonds/Taxes/Duties/etc = ???

After all that (and seeing that the everything works out smoothly the first time)....and about 1 year waiting for petitions to be published, disputed, and finally approved, you can than import your first road worthy S15 for conversion. Cost of conversion? About $8-$12,000 per vehicle.

So, add it up. About $120,000 to get the first car legalized.

Why can you register it in Florida without the DOT/EPA/NHSTA requirements? Becuase the state of Florida ASSUMES that you have complied with the FEDERAL REGULATIONS. When they find out you haven't, your screwed.

And as far as insurance companies are concerned. Once you are in an accident, The claims adjuster will look for any reason to deny your claim. Once they find out that your vehicle does not meet US SAFETY STANDARDS, they will deny any and all claims. Just becuase you give them a VIN number and they insure that car, they too ASSUME it is here legally and meets regulations.

The BIG UNKNOWN is EPA conversion to OBD2 and OBD2 V2. The SR20DET is NOT equipped with all the sensors to comply with this regulation, and the ECU is not designed to support it. So basically, you would need to create your own modified "ECU", Harness, and Sensors and add them and program them to comply as nothing similar exists. This would be the same reason R33(obd2 versions)/R34 Skylines are no longer legally allowed in the USA, as they are not OBD2 compliant, and until Motorex complies, they will not allow any more.

This help a little bit?

Charles

 

the kit car deal. read up on the state kit car laws. it will be impossible to have a "Nissan S15 silvia" since it has to be a percentage of different manufacturers and no more than a certain percentage of one manufacturer. so your car might only be 10% nissan in the end. and the money spent to do that would be worth it. so why dont you import it. say fuck the law and drive it where ever the fuck you want. or just tow it to events and drive it like its supposed to be driven there. probably an even cheaper idea would be to just move to japan and have access to all your jdm tyte cars yo.

 

if the kit car deal would work, people would just register every jdm car as a kit, and leave it alone though, so that probably wouldnt work.

 

I guess you all are missing the point.

Kit Car or Regular Title, they are ALL state level, NOT FEDERAL.

When a Chassis is imported, or a SR20DET motor is imported, they are all imported as "OFFROAD USE ONLY" and they ARE NEVER ALLOWED to see a US highway, PERIOD, regardless of how you try to "register it".

Yes, that means every SR20DET on the roads is illegal, including mine.

There is no way, other than the process I listed above.

Charles

 

No, I totaly agree with you. In fact to be honest I was unaware of some the intricacies you mentioned previously particularly in terms of the obd2 harness deffeciencies. Honestly, all of this I think has the makings of a great article in Down Shift. This is a subject area that many of us who are part of the import enthusiast community are interested.