- Today I'm gonna explain the 25 year year import law,
why it exists, and by the end of this episode
you'll know how to safely buy
a completely legal Skyline GTR that you can insure
and actually drive on the street.
To find out how I went to Toprank Importers
in Cypress, California.
(upbeat techno music)
- My name's Sean Morris and I work here
at Toprank International Vehicle Importers.
- What do I need to do to get this car in America?
- If you're in 48 states it's pretty easy.
You know, we have the cars here.
You call us up, you pay us the money,
we ship you the car.
- Like buying a used car anywhere else?
- Like buying a used car anywhere, yeah.
I mean, you come out and we prefer
people come and have a look at them
because, you know, they're 25, 27, 30 year old cars.
We want them to know what they're getting.
- So if you're in one of the 48 states
where it's easy to buy an imported car,
all you have to do is call an importer like Toprank
and you buy your R32 like any other car.
- Now, if you're in Hawaii, sorry.
Difficult, you guys have special
rules and regulations and I can't help you too much.
- And we all know what the other state is.
- California we have our own EPA called the ARB.
The ARB sets certain specific regulations
for car's emissions.
In order for these cars to be exempt in California,
'67 or older, if it's newer than that,
'75 and newer, it's called direct import
and we have to bring it into compliance.
If it's '68 to '74, not even California
seems to know what we need to do to 'em.
- But for cars younger than 1967,
the process is a little different.
- So this car, 1992, we bring it into California compliance.
- Basically any car entering the state
from out of the country has to pass
rigorous emissions testing in order to be road legal.
- We take it to the emissions testing lab.
The emissions testing lab modifies the car,
tests the car, takes it to the California Referee,
the Referee inspects the car, tests the car.
If it's good, everything's fine,
they put what's called a B.A.R. label,
Bureau of Automotive Repair label, in the door jamb
and then you can smog the car afterwards
and two years later, like any regular car.
- So does that process add another cost
on top of buying this car?
- It does, in California, unfortunately,
because it has to go to the lab
and it has to, you know, go to the Referee
and do those other things, like,
the cheapest car I usually do, it's around $4,000.
Say the Cappuccino or something is about that.
About 6,500 for most other turbo cars
and a GTS-Ts and Supras, RS7s.
Ten thousand on the GTRs unfortunately.
- The emission testing does add a premium
on top of the car's price.
But it's worth it because once get that B.A.R. label,
you never have to worry about passing emissions again.
So the car has to be 25 years old to be imported?
- Yes.
- Why?
- Because.
Oh, no, I'm sorry, that was the answer.
No, okay, well, because,
that's the way the rules were written.
That's the way the regulation.
So 25 is kind of an arbitrary number.
In the late '80s, so, there was a lot of,
what they call, personal imports of vehicles.
- Back then you were pretty much
free to import whatever car you wanted into the States
but the cars had to pass American safety standards,
including the installation of safer bumpers and headlights.
But a lot of people forgot to do that part
and as a result a lot of illegal
cars were just rolling around.
- And so the NHTSA decided to set up a program
in order for them to set up a licensing,
which has become the registered importer program.
And that went into effect back in '89
and they also basically said at 25
nobody probably wants this junk.
- Registered importers would be the only people
allowed to import cars not originally
made for sale in the US.
That includes cars like the R32.
So why'd they set the 25 year limit?
- It's kind of old enough that's
it outside the realm of what anybody's gonna import.
'89, right, so '64, back then, you know,
who's gonna wanna bring in the '64 car?
It doesn't affect new car sales.
- Was there a certain manufacturer behind?
- Mercedes, yeah, yeah.
- If you wanted to you could order a Mercedes
without the ugly safety bumpers
and with other features that weren't available
in the United States for cheaper
than it cost to buy one from an American dealer.
The process wasn't without its drawbacks
as you couldn't get a warranty on an imported car
but that didn't stop people from doing it.
Costing auto makers millions in lost sales.
So Mercedes and other manufacturers
heavily lobbied Congress to pass
the Imported Vehicles Safety Compliance Act,
which, as we now know, banned cars
younger than 25 years from entering the country but--
- 25 isn't the only way you can import cars.
So, another legal method to import a car
is that if you're what's called a registered importer,
you can import a car that's less 25 years old
and you have to bring it into compliance
and then you can sell it here in the US.
- Registered importers are allowed to bring in cars
as long as they make it comply with US regulations
but the procedure is a little different
for cars less than 25 years old.
What does that mean to bring it into compliance like that?
- So (sighs).
Where this is one section
of the Code of Federal Regulations.
In here is a thing called Federal Motor Vehicle
Safety Standards.
- This book had everything an auto maker has to follow
to make a car legal to sell in the United States.
It was a dizzying list of things like
crash safety standards, to turn signal stocks,
to the standardized symbols on your dash.
- You have to go through this and you have to go
through all of these standards.
So that's the thing about being 25 years old.
If the car's 24 years old, 364 days,
you've gotta do all this stuff.
Turns 25, don't care anymore. - Wow.
So what's this compliance procedure like?
So crash tests are part of the certification process.
What does that entail?
- So I used to work at a place called MotoRex
and MotoRex did do compliance work, crash testing,
on Nissan Skylines.
We did front impact and side impact testing back in 1999.
When we were a registered importer,
we had to bring the cars into compliance
and tell them, and show them, and prove it,
and provide all the data for the crash testing.
- That's right, in order to sell cars like the R33 and R34,
Sean and importers like him,
have to buy cars overseas with the sole purpose
of being crashed, as you might imagine,
it's very, very expensive.
- At a minimum if you're starting to do stuff like that,
I mean, you know, quarter of a million.
- And that's just to cover crash testing.
The car still needs EPA clearance
and if it lives in California, ARB testing on top of that.
(laughing) Bam.
- Once you got a million deep or so,
you're probably into your first car.
That one car cost you a million dollars.
Whatever it is, if it's a Geo (bleep) Metro.
- [Announcer] Meet the 1990 Geo.
- So you don't always have to wait 25 years
to get your dream import but a million dollars
is a pretty steep fee to skip the wait.
What are some of the more popular cars
that you import through Toprank?
- The most popular car we import R32 GTR.
The next few years it's still gonna be Skylines.
I mean, people always ask us, R34, R34, R34, you know.
- Yeah.
When that becomes legal do you expect like a huge?
- They're expensive.
The thing, 43,000 of these, 11,000 of those.
- Not only is there a smaller amount of R34s,
there's demand for them all over the world too
and there's no guarantee that someone in Japan
will even sell you one.
- Worldwide market, I mean, there are cars
that are in Japan that you couldn't buy.
There's almost no amount money
that would part some people from their car.
If you offered them market value for it,
they'd tell you (bleep) off.
(laughs)
You know?
- Even though the import laws make it difficult
to get our hands on dream cars like the Skyline,
the personal connections people have with their cars
will make it even harder as these cars get older.
- There's a little pushback
in Japan on exporting some of the--
- Yeah.
- Especially Hakos and the stuff,
the old kind of heritage cars.
- Yeah.
It's like selling off history.
- Yeah and they're part of people's family, you know?
- Sean told me a lot about how the import law works
but I wanted to know how he really felt about it.
Do you think the import restrictions are justified at all?
- I really think, you know, individuals should be able
to decide what they want.
The kind of society we have where people are gonna sue you
for certain things that opens up all those liabilities
and so I'm grasping for it because it's like,
you know, I don't really agree with them
but that's what it is and there's no way to change it.
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Thank you to Sean, Taka, and Yaska here
at Toprank Imports for having us here.
This was awesome, make sure to hit
that yellow subscribe button right there.
Oh, if you like the Skyline GTR,
check out this Up to Speed on the Skyline.
That was our very first episode of Up to Speed.
Check out this episode of Wheel House.
I'm not sure what it is yet but we'll put something there.
Wear your seatbelt, I'll see you next time.
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