Navasota, actually.

How do you get this thing street legal? I assume the dealer plates afford some legal loophole currently?


eBay

Crazy money, but that would be awesome to hoon.

Awesome ride.

Ad says it has a free and clear title and can be registered in Texas...what makes you think it would be hard to get tags for it? After it's imported I would think it's pretty routine but I don't have any experience doing that.

hey nissan GTR, meet your father nissan PATROL [/url]

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.what makes you think it would be hard to get tags for it?

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I didn't realize they're claiming it's over 25 years old. (It isn't...or wasn't)


It's actually a 2006.

If it was imported "on the books" they swapped vins with an older Patrol to get past DHS.

[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 5/23/2013 1:21p).]

I don't understand...I must not know how importing a car works. You don't just pay some extra fees/taxes, prove it meets road legalness, and then go from there? What does being 25 yrs old have to do with anything?

Import cars have to be crash tested, which costs millions of dollars (and consumes several cars). There was a big lawsuit a few years ago trying to get Nissan Skylines (the old GTR) imported. Some were eligible, some weren't.

As a side note, that car may be in Navasota, but the picture in the ad was taken in College Station.

Sweet

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I must not know how importing a car works

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As I understand it, if it is under 25 years old it is subject to emissions testing/standards and as mentioned above crash testing.

If the car is sold here in the states and the engine is one we can get here it's not usually a problem.

If it is an engine that is not available here but the car is, then you need to get it emissions compliant. Which is extremely expensive if at all possible.

If neither is applicable then it needs to be emissions tested by the EPA and subject to crash tests... or something like that. It's nearly impossible to get around that.

Over 25 years old and all that does not apply.

People have recently been caught swapping older VINs onto diesel Defenders and importing them. They got busted by the DHS.

This guy says he imported the vehicle three years ago but since that time has never bothered to get a registration or inspection sticker. That's not a good sign.

[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 5/23/2013 1:56p).]

that'll get seized in no time

Engine has to be 21 years old if the engine was never federalized (it wasn't)

Chassis needs to be 25 years old to be emissions exempt

This was brought over illegally.

What woudl they do if you shipped a US vehicle to Mexico, had it re-engined there, and then shipped it back?

Yep the whole federalization, emissions, crash tests issue is why previous-generation GTRs are so incredibly rare in the States.

You'd have to go late 80s and older to have a legal GTR here, outside of the small number of R33s that were legitimately federalized. Have seen a couple such cars at Cars & Coffee and such.

I remember back in the day, the Motorex company supposedly was federalizing lots of newer Skylines for US import, but apparently what they were really doing was shady/fraudulent and they got shut down by the feds. It's possible the one R34 I've seen in person was a Motorex car with a gray-area background.

Pretty sure people have attempted to get around the law by importing GTR rolling shells and powertrains separately, but from what I remember reading, such cars are still subject to being impounded/crushed.

Maybe you could make it work through some kind of show-vehicle clause, but even then it would probably be awfully tough/expensive.

That engine age loophole is why you see so many SR-swapped and RB-swapped cars running around in the US these days without similar legal issues. The chassis are a different story though.

[This message has been edited by madd_ag_05 (edited 5/23/2013 2:56p).]

Stupid ferderal regs keep a lot of cool cars out of our hands. I'd love to have an R34 GTR and a Toyota Hilux crew cab diesel with a five speed manual and 4x4. That would be the perfect combination, but no, were stuck with the gas guzzling, automatic only tacoma.

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What woudl they do if you shipped a US vehicle to Mexico, had it re-engined there, and then shipped it back?

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Talking out of my ass here, but as long as the VIN stayed the same and you lived in a non-emissions county, I can't imagine them finding out about it. If it didn't get flagged being shipped back across that is.

Selling it would open a huge can of worms though.

[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 5/23/2013 2:58p).]

What about when you get it inspected? Don't they plug into the OBD port and do emissions tests and all that? Seems like it would be pretty obvious that theres a new ECM/computer/whatever. Of course you could always just go to a more "flexible" shop I guess...

Plus, I bet if you got in a wreck and insurance found out it wasn't technically legal they would be slightly less apt to pay for stuff. Just a guess on both of those though.

I live in a non-emissions city/county and can't recall them ever hooking up a scan tool during inspection.

If the check engine light is on, yeah, but not otherwise.

But I do take my Jeep to a wink-wink inspection place since my window tint is illegal.

I think it's funny that you can drive an old deathtrap as long as it is domestic or grandfathered, and you can even make your own custom and kit vehicles and get them roadworthy, but bringing over something permissible in another first world nation is fraught with danger.

^^^

And not just that, but we're not talking about a TATA crapbox here. We're talking about something that sees rigorous duty in harsh conditions.

this reminds me, about a year ago I saw a Defender 110 in the Woodlands, that was not more than 3-5 years old. Always wondered how he got it over here.

Hard to get inspection on that thing.
It's not easy at all or you'd see tons of cool vehicles on the roads.
Like Hilux's etc

I live in a non emissions county. Our inspections are strictly safety. I've had my car inspected at least twice with the check engine light on, without question. I've never even seen them stick a mirror under the car to see if there is cats and my car has aftermarket exhaust.

i would hazard a guess that the thing was driven from nicaragua or at least brought over as someone's personal vehicle and then sold. i've seen some weird stuff in the valley that crosses over from mexico.

http://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistory/p/Report.cfx?vin=JN1TESY61Z0558116

According to the carfax someone managed to register it in Arkansas

If I remember correctly Arkansas was the title washing state of choice in the pre-carfax days.

That pic is in Bryan, but I'm thinking the vehicle belongs to the small used car place by Mallet' BBQ. I'll have to swing by this weekend and check it out.

Dang - super shady.

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I think it's funny that you can drive an old deathtrap as long as it is domestic or grandfathered, and you can even make your own custom and kit vehicles and get them roadworthy, but bringing over something permissible in another first world nation is fraught with danger.

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Yeah, I don't get the safety issues when motorcycles, scooters and SMART cars are legal. You can't be any less safe than those. I would say I kind of understand the emissions side, but how many times do you get behind Uncle Buck that you know could not have legally passed an inspection in the last 5-10 years?

Sweet ride, but yeah, probably likely to be a hassle registering it, etc. (if not outright seized).

Also, speedometer is in km/h only, no odometer shots... wonder if that 120,000 "mileage" is really 120k mi, 120k km, or 192k km. Although maybe the cluster is programmable to show miles or km, since it does show temperature in F.

It was serviced in Nicargaua? Geez!

Saw a right hand drive Nissan Silvia in Dallas yesterday. Was a bit riced out but looked pretty sweet.

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These cars are only cool bc they are rare/illegal here...

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These cars are cool because they're cool. The un-obtainable factor just magnifies that.