Started the import process of my new rex

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badk0re

Junior Member
Just got contacted by the gentlemen, $1200 US dollars plus importing fees, its gonna be a pain in the ass, but hey, hopefully I can keep the costs down to less than $10,000 if I can do that, I might be happy. Wish me luck. When I upload the pics I have received I will add a link to them. Looks nice from what I can see and have heard. Some scratches on the rear bumber ( right hand side ), little tear in the driver seat, but fom what he said it sounds great, runs and drives great, cant wait to pop the hood replace timing belt and everything else, hopefully passing smog will be easy after I throw a few hundred bucks into the emmisions setup, new cat, etcetc etc etc. I just cant wait to get this baby home and ready for action, this will be the first time ive driven a right hand drive car, hopefully I dont kill anyone. Until I get more info, see you all later. ( P.S. I decided not to buy the CRX Si w/o engine, this was sounding alt better.
 
sick man!! i want to import myself an s-15 :D good luck, i'd like to hear how the process goes
 
Have you been informed of the import process?If not contact Chris at hookups he's got the same car and can give you some info.I was going to import a right hand drive but the cost was going to be more than 10,000 so I scraped the Idea.You can get information at www.nhtsa.com From what I have found it is better to get the car without a motor like you said,then get a jdm motor from that car and simply drop it in.Trust me after importer fees,epa,and dot it's going to cost ya.
 
I was hoping the DOT wouldnt be that much, I wasnt sure on the vehicles safety requirements compared to the US requirments, I have always been interested in obtaining a right hand driven vehicle, and considering my choice of cars is a CRX, I am opting for the Glasstop :-D None the less after some serious work on my part I have come to find that shipping of this car to california alone is like $53 x M3 ( M3 = wXhXl ) coming to around $800, I am going to talk to the owner and the company shipping it, I emailed the man who owns the vehicle and asked if he had any other vehicles for sale, he also has a 1990 Honda CR-X Sir EF8, $700US, im gong to get pictures of this car because of the fact that it has no engine. NO ENGINE!!! This will make importing it alot easier, so ill contact you all later with information on this, im going to ask him kindly if I can change my purchase from the gl top to the ef8 sir. im sure he will be more than happy to get rid of a vehicle with no engine. I honestly did not want to have to purchase another engine, but hopefully this will work out. Peace.
 
The glass,the lights,the 3 mph bumpers,the door beams,etc... this stuff adds up quick and the dot won't recognize the work unless they do it.I found this out when I argued with the guy at dot for half an hour.Also the dot wants 75 to 120 pictures that have to be taken by one of their people to review,this review last anywhere from 5-8 months.Then they test the vehicle and bring it up to code,this runs in the thousands and takes weeks.The only way you don't have to go through the epa testing is if a similar car has been imported and conforms with their standards and has been assigned an import number.Of course you still have to go through the dot.A motorless vehicle on the other hand isn't considered a vehicle,rather a project and doesn't have to comform to the same import laws,BUT once you have a motor in it and try to get it registared that is where the fun starts.At this point contact Chris at hookups,he has info on registering RHD as he has dealt wiht his own.
 
1 word : WTF?

This kinda sucks all in all, I was hoping to stay under the 10k level.

Thnx for your help though, im still going through with this hopefully I am definately doing alot of work investigating to find a damn loop-hole around all this dot shit. I want this car, on the road, driving, without dot. There has to be a way.

( and dont say move to tokyo and drive it on the road there )

Importing a car has to be easier than this. I will figure it out. L8r

Maybe I will just start converting a rex from lhd to rhd, no one will know the difference ;) that way I dont have to pay $20,000 for one.
 
If you really want to get around the importing process have it shipped to Canada or Mexico register it in a state that has no emmissions laws and go pick it up and drive it back.
 
I have family in canada, ponders, but registering it will still be a bi*ch, well ill see what I can do, I dont want to have a car be inoperable for to long so converting it to RHD myself from a US LHD will probbly be another long process and I would have to start welding again.
 
Not to mention welding a RHD front end to a LHD is dangerous.If you can get it registered in Canada.then it is a step towards bringing it to America,as a lot of civics come from there anyway.
 
Thnx for all your help, ill keep this thread updated or make a new one as my little importing journey steadily moves on.
 
If you succeed this could be a very informative thread indeed.Keep detailed account of all the information.
 
you could always just drive the hell out of the thing and hope you dont get caught :p

what would happen if you were caught driving it on road?
improper registration ticket? thats like 60 bucks
 
Some places that can get your car impounded and that would be a waste,eh?Besides the problem isn't really registering it here it is getting out of the clutches of the evil system once it hits U.S. shores.
 
Started the process, I sent a $750 bank transfer out this morning to Yoshitake, So far the total money spent to import has come to $789, this is just the begining ive contacted the exporter and Yoshitake is going to send the vehicle to the docks in about a day, the money cant be picked up until he shows records of the car at the dock. its a 1991 Honda CR-X EF8 SiR with no engine. The exporter charges $53 X M3 M3= lxwxh total for exportation is around $800 the figure is still beign determined, I was guarenteed it wouldnt exceed $900. I faxed a copy of my bank transfer to the docks they are ready for shipment in the morning it is being ship to canada ( ohh canada ohh canadaa lalalal etcetc etc ) well, after it is shipped to canada I am paying $400 to have it shipped to California via freight. Then I get the car, hopefully any customs work is beig taken care of by Yoshitake. Wish me luck.
 
Good luck,the customs coming in here shouldn't be a problem as long as all the paperwork is in order.
 
its tough- because a lot of times, they will only let it come as a shell if theres no motor in it.... or, the car is cut in half
 
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