fastkx125

Hi guys, I'm just tossing this around in my head right now, I've printing out alot of info about importing cars from Canada to the US, but I havent read any yet. I figured id ask you guys too. When the S2000 is paid for(about a year from now) I was thinking about a Nissan Pulsar GTi-R. I see you guys have alot of them up there. Does anyone know about bringing cars down from up there? Any tips or links to good information let me know, thanks in advance.

catana

You would have to check with your Ministry of Transportation "DMV" and see if the car is addmissible to the US. Because the pulsar is right hand and imported from Japan this may also cause you further porblems as here in Canada we are no longer allowed to import right hand drive cars in various provinces.

So start with your DMV then border services, but best bet is to just google importing cars from Canada to US and the steps will all be there.

reece146

You can only import "oddball" cars from outside of North America that are 25 years or older into the U.S. Otherwise you must make the car conform with the U.S. safety and emissions regulations. I'm not sure if that is current regs (i.e. impossible) or regs for the year the car was manufactured.

We've got lots of cool cars up here because our law is 15 years.

Check your laws though. I'm just repeating stuff I've read on forums.

HiVolume

You'll need to pass a local inspection, possibly an emission test depending on your state. Importing a US car into Canada (Quebec) is fairly simple. Just need to pass a full inspection, but have no emissions test in Quebec (yet!). make sure you have the bill of sale and registration.

If you've spotted something you like that's in the Montreal area, let me know and I can check it out for you. We can even work something out to have it inspected at our garage. There are a lot of RHD cars in Quebec.

jezzder

i just went through this trying to bring a rhd supra into the states from Canada to California.

first, to get it across the border, you need a declaration from the manufacturer that it meets the USA regulations for safety and emissions for the date the car was made.

If it is not a car that was imported to the USA for real (like the GT-R, GTiR etc) there is NO way to get this done.

Even with the Supra, which they did make here, the emissions control system is so vastly different that it would require a new head/block, catalytic converters and exhaust. So you could do it, with a new engine. It seems that the USA dosent have problems with RHD, they just have problems with emissions and safety rules... Unlike QUEBEC

I have had several people tell me that they could 'fix' my problem with VIN numbers that they had off wrecked cars that were not written off, but I was not willing to get into that kinda deal.

There was also some tricks people were doing with dealer plates.

The only car that is allowed (because they did crash testing, emissions testing etc...) is the GTR (R32). A cali company brough in about 50 and wrecked them proving that they met the standards... so you could do one of those.

Be careful though, later models (R33 and R34) do not fall under the same rules and will NOT be allowed.

On TOP of that... you have to meed local and state emissions regs.

Balls....

Turns out, since i'm only down here for a year, i dident have to register my car in the states, so i am rockin Canadian plates still :S

All of these rules go away if the car is a collectible (older than 25 years) as stated above.

jezzder

Dident Quebec just outlaw RHD? As of Jun 2009? I'm relatively certain that the SAAQ stopped doing safety inspections for them.

If they are on the road, they are good and they are not taking them away, but they are no longer allowed to be imported INTO Quebec?

robbieg

Quebec put a moratorium on registering new right hand drive vehicles. This means that RHDs that were on the road are still legal to drive.
They're researching to see if the cars are more dangerous to drive and have published their results.
So, the moratorium was put in place October 26th, 2009 (reference) so that means that RHDs might be able to be sold again in April... but we'll see.
The rest of Canada you're allowed to drive a RHD if it's 15 years old or older, much like the 25 year rule in the states.
Cheers,
rob
http://righthanddrive.ca

jezzder

that was my understanding. good thing my supra was registered in april 2009