Called more places today mexico consulate, US border control, Car engine importers, US customs.

So I confirmed with the Mexican consulate that I can Drive a car off a ship in the free trade zone by the border, All I need is a title, registration, drivers license and mexican insurance. I told the consul that it sounds to simple and she said it is that simple.

The only problem now is getting a title for the car and registration. In texas its impossible without having a previous title to register the car, in virginia its possible, but you must have extensive paperwork showing you attempted to find the original owner. The other option is of course getting a salvage title from a junked supra, might be difficult to do.

Anyways once you get the title your basically home free. Drive the car off the ship in tiajuana mexico, put on your US license plates, drive to the border, Show your license registration, and title to the border patrol if asked. Then its all fun from there.

Of course I'm still researching the two other options, Ive been told by clip importers that they have succesfully brought cars in as Racing Vehicles and Parts.

Man I just took 400 mg of caffeine can barely type. I'll write more later

o yeah i talked with my dad he said to get a vin issued here in the states you will need to have it pass safty standards so all we will have to do is add the safty equipment which could run around 5 grand i am thinking at the most i could be wrong (pulled # outta no where) so once that is done though all we will have to do is get the vin and wala your done.. what if you towed it to your home from mexico??? i think that could work or right at the boarder just call AAA and tow it home???? lol it has possibilities... can anyone get the safty specs of a jap to a usdm ??? compair the 2 cars o btw i would rather get the SUPRA >> btw i live in SD so i am very close to boarder >> hehehe

so wait, lets say that the car is here in the states somehow. Now how would i go about getting it registered? Can you just buy the title/VIN numbers from a junkyard and register it as a regular st. Then say that you did a 3sgte swap, 4wd swap, and RHD transfer? Has anyone actually looked into buying a title from a wreck?

QUOTE

o yeah i talked with my dad he said to get a vin issued here in the states you will need to have it pass safty standards

your dad needs to read the first post >>

QUOTE

so wait, lets say that the car is here in the states somehow. Now how would i go about getting it registered?

its different for each state, of course the whole point of this import is to bypass the $30k-50k cost of safety and emissions. you will have to contact your local dmv and find out how to get a title without a vin if possible.

There are so many loopholes, you just have to find them, remember there are 51 states/districts with different dmv laws for titleing and registration. lifting the vin off a surpa salvage title is an option, im sure there are infinite possible combination of loopholes and interstate loopholes to register/title your car.

It would be great if everyone could mention ways they could do this at their dmv.

I was looking at virginia titles, the titles dont actually state the model of the car, only the make. So getting a toyota title with at least a 93 year from the junk yard would be pretty easy.

Well I guess that solves the last problem. I'll still work on the parts and racing vechicle options until I go to texas this september.

>>

This post has been edited by coustoe: Jun 16, 2003 - 8:48 PM

*bump* I really don't want this thread to die because I'm seriously interested in it.

yeah, hows this coming ?

i don't know about any of this stuff, but once u get one car registared over as a show car......thats it correct! show car for life!

but if u get it transfered as a parts car, this is if they give u a complete car frame with the engine and tranny sent seperate..

then buy up a wrecked something another from the junkyard....with a salvaged title, and transfer onto the gt-4.....and if you are still worried about stuff, temporary solution would be to put a normal hood and front from a 6th gen on there to make it stock lookin........then after you get your title, tags, etc......put the gt-four stuff back on and there u go!

no more hassels!

just be careful and not wreck!!!!

-EC_Knightrider+Aug 16, 2003 - 3:13 PM

I was talking to my dad bout stupid american importing laws, and he had an idea.

Import the car into meixco to avoid the hassle at the docks. Take an old junker celica down, same year, hopefully a GT. Switch VIN numbers. Re-registar the next time. Then sometime after you registar, go to the dmv with the false vins removed, say "someone switched vin numbers when I bought it. Look there are differnt ones underneath this sticker." Then on your registration they will switch it to the correct ones. My dad bought a porsche from italy, and the importer wrote down the wrong vin. When he took it by the DMV, they checked the real vin, then switched it, no questions asked.

So, you've got a gt-4 registered as a GT with the gt-4 vin number in the database. Mildly illegal, but I'm gunna do it in a couple years once I get the money ($3,500 from summer work in my "gt-4" account.)

Check this site out, very useful info. Should help with a lot of the questions about show cars, racing cars etc.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/

i think some one should send in an application for determination of whether a GT4 is special enough to import as a show car

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import...termineelig.pdf

or supply me with pics that would make is look special enough to have as a show car. like a couple of rally pics and a few pics of nice, modified GT4's and i will send in the app. along with info on how the car performed in rally's and total production numbers.

if the car is approved, then that will open up the door for having a gt4 as a show car, drivable for 2500 miles a year. if not, then its something we tried.

yes, I know Ive been gone for a while, sorry guys, been getting into martials arts hardcore so its been taking up my time. Well as I promised I'm finally here in texas so I'm going to start the process of actually importing the car, I'll try to become more active on this board. you know just been busy with other interest. so havent post a lot.

well I have been reading over this thread and I think that this is a great idea. But I have a better idea on how to get a 3sgte because that is basically what you are going for here. If there was a large natural disaster like the hurricane I just whent through you could claim insurance and just convert your Celi for free like I am! Now where to find some natural disaters that will ruin everyones engines without completely destroying the car... >> lol

coustoe... if you are buying a GT4, are you keeping your other celica? with the combat kit and everything too? just curious, thanks

-NavyCelica+Sep 23, 2003 - 12:56 PM

Guys
I have imported a few cars from japan
I have a few contacts. I am also looking into
ways of importing JDM cars into the US

remember where there's a will there's a way >>

I must say the Mexico one sounds the greater option to me.

Sourcing the car of your dreams is no problem
average cars sold at auction / week 70,000

I will keep an eye on this thread & let you guys know as soon as i find out any more details.
I am also trying to get a crash test report for the GT-Four

There is another way of owning a GT-Four.......................move!!! lol
(sorry you'll get used to my humour)

Importing into the US isn't the issue... the main issue is FEES... fees up the yin yang... >>

question about your mexico option, is there anyway to do this in canada? mexico is bit far from alaska!!!! and if there are any importers bringing them over in the lower 48 i would be interested in flying down and driving back up.

Canada is not an option unless the car is more than 15 years old!!!

I checked into this and the rules are VERY strict here. Thank the autoworkers for protecting their jobs...

If it is more than 15 years old, it is easy...

Here is a very good article on the rules and a guy who imported a london taxi:

http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/mj/import.htm

ok, first off i must admit i did not read all these posts, so sue me if im making someone else's point, but has anyone thought about how you would get insurance on this car? You sure cant use the oringinal vin in the states being that it isnt street legal or in any insurance database. Yes, you could get a title from a wreck and claim it as a st or gt, but if your car gets broken into, stolen, or in an accident, you are likely going to kiss the car goodbye. Not to mention if the accident is your fault, cause then you are likely to have your car impounded permanently due to the fact that it isnt street-legal unless you paid tons of cash to have it provenn that it meets crash test standards. It has always been my understanding that the rules are so strict that pretty much it's impossible to make a car that was not sold or intended for sale in the u.s. street legal. Anybody remeber the porsce 959 back in the late 80's? Bill Gates wanted to have one to drive here in the U.S., but even he couldent make it happen after he found out he would have to crash test a few to prove its saftey. So, i'm assuming that if he couldent make it happen, im thinking most people can't. I'll wait till i have proof before I become a believer.

Riiight..."Bill Gates can't afford a few cars." Uh-huh.

its true- it was a big joke i dunno, about 6 years ago or so on the news, i swear to it- They said that since porsche diddent crash test anybecause it was so low volume, he would have to buy about 10 of them and have them crash tested to see if they would meet federal standards. He said forget it and gave up.

I wonder if you could take the car apart and rebuild it, then register it as a kit/replica car?

hehehe >>

take it and a US celica.... put your door panels, rear end, interior parts that will fit, and anything else that has any chance of fitting on it...(including your vin number and such) and claim you built it from the ground up. You are ever-loving screwed if they discover you did it,(insurance fraud anybody?) but if you never had any problems, you would be the man!

Jon

*Bump*.

bringing back old threads---grr

well i am new here and just saw this thread. wich is kind of funyn because i have been trying to fidn a way to import a gt-4 for quite awhile now. a lot of good sounding ideas on here. i actually have all the paperwork needed to get a replica/kit car/rebuild title. you need all the major reciepts showing that you built it. you have to have the title of the chassis, and it coudlnt have been in a accident. and it has to be american parts.....damn. i then called all around trying to find out what would have to be done, the DOT, and i got the ultimate run around, each person i called would give me someone elses number and so on, i ended up calling about 22 people and the last guy i talked to gave me the number of the first girl i taked to....great....so that went nowhere. right now i am talking to an importer in miami to see if he can get a gt-four, but thats only half the problem. i still need to make it legal/register and inusre it. so right now im still baffled. but i want one really bad.

what ever happened to coustoe?....did he ever import his supra?

#bump#