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The exporting community here in Japan is very excited about the 25 year rule. Like it was mentioned, many of them are hording early production BNR32 GT-Rs in anticipation of giant profits. We're a bit more pragmatic. We have no doubt that they are going to be popular purchases, but I question the logic of expecting someone in the US to pay $20,000+ for a $8,000 GT-R.
In terms of legality/registration I don't think the pessimism is called for. The 25 year rule has been applied to many, many cars over the years. It isn't something new. Old Land Rovers/Range Rovers, Alfas, Peugeots, etc.. have been imported legally and registered without a hitch based on the 25 year rule. We have sent a handful of late 1970s Land Cruisers to the US over the years without issue. It's important to make the distinction that a car imported under the rule is federally legal.
Obviously, the GT-R has a bit of a reputation considering the history of gray market importing, parts cars, kit car registration, etc.. However, gray market importing is not unique to JDM vehicles. Certain Land Rover/Ranger models have a reputation due to frequent gray market importation. That hasn't had a detrimental effect on the legal importation of them once they hit the 25 year mark.
The original driving factor that spurred us to start GTR-Garage was to export Skylines to the US and then be a reliable source for parts. We decided to start selling parts immediately to build a reputation as a trusted exporter. We've done our research and we aren't expecting any hitches with 2014 rolls around. However, we are not going to discount the possibility. A few months ago we picked up a very nice, early production BNR32 with the intention of exporting it to the US in 2014 and registering it as a historic/classic vehicle before we even consider offering others up for sale.
Another factor to take into consideration is the cost of shipping. Container shipping rates have dropped significantly over the years. Someone with some entrepreneurial spirit could certainly take advantage of that and subsidize their GT-R purchase by selling container space or bringing in parts to re-sell to make some of their money back. We were recently quoted $1,600 to ship a 20 foot container from Moji to Oakland. Five years ago that would have easily been over $3,000.
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