US import laws (cars)

[dubwarrior2]

Ok....
I'm trying to get my head around the US import laws for UK vehicles, following a video I watched on youtube.

It was about Bill Gates importing one of my top 3 cars of all time, the Porsche 959. He had to jump through some major hoops to get it registered. But even then is restricted to 2500 km a year.

So what are the regs?

My understanding is...
The car has to be over 25 years old and then must conform to the emissions regs.

So what if the car is under 25 years old?
Also.. certain cars are just banned from US roads because they are deemed "too powerful" ie Nisssn Skylines.

In a country that produces 700hp Corvettes

[brc76]

Too powerful? Nope. That is not it.

If you saw the car throttle video about Bill Gates 959 then you know what created the 25 year rule.

I understand in practice the under 25 rule purports to be about vehicle safety and emissions. Only a registered importer can legally bring an under 25 year old car into the usa. They have to perform conversion work, lights, speedo, safety equipment for the car to meet us regs, but also emissions work and in some cases crash testing.

It makes it very difficult to bring younger non-usdm vehicles into the USA even if there is a similar model that was sold here. Which, I believe, was the goal of the manufacturers all along.

[brc76]

Canada also has similar rules, but the cut off is only 15 years.

[joem83]

Just remember, Bill gates is one of the richest people in the world. If he struggled, maybe move to Canada 😂

[slipngripross]

I had a Discovery 1 earlier this year and a chap saw it on ebay from New York and wanted to buy. It was just heading into the 25 years to make it legal and we had to wait 4 weeks before it was. he suggested that all vehciles must enter the US in pretty much stock condition to avoid all sorts of trouble the other end. The truck in question only had a lift kit and tyres which are hard to identify as non stadard.

Aside from that it seemed a pretty simple task.