Quote:
Originally Posted by GTR-Garage
I can tell you what we know about importing into California and why we tell all our customers there that if they bring a vehicle in under the 25 year exemptions they will likely be unable to register it. We certainly aren't experts in the specifics and will not say it's impossible, but we aren't going to put a customer at risk of not being able to register the car they import.
California has it's own "EPA" of sorts called the California Air Resources Board. Direct imports (including cars brought in under the 25 year exemption) are required to pass a one time intensive inspection before they can be registered. This is not a SMOG test. It is very expensive ($1,000+ per hour) and in all likelihood the vehicles everyone wants to import like Skylines, Silvia, Laurels, Cefiros, etc., will not pass it. Older Skylines like the Hakosuka can be registered because they do not have to go through the test as California has an exemption 1976 models or older.
Until something changes, or an above board (i.e. legal) way to register direct imports under the 25 year exemptions in California and can be proven legitimate we aren't going to export cars to California unless the customer specifically states and is willing to sign off on their intention to use it as an off-road vehicle only.
If anyone knows more about the specifics of the issue we'd love to hear it. We haven't had time to invest in researching it our retaining a legal researcher to look into it further.
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every gray market car that comes into California will got through a visual inspection to make sure its road-worthy and that all emissions devices are un-altered. the only exemption is 65 and older.
75 and newer need to go through FTP (federal testing procedures) to be brought up to smog standards. They'll then give you a BAR tag in your drivers door-sill that will list the year of the car, the year/make/model/and size in cc and liters, for the car. it will also list every emissions device on the car. if you want to get this done my advice is buy all C.A.R.B. legal mods BEFORE you go in to get tested. its an expensive process, but besides being time consuming isn't difficult at all. there's a soarer here that had it done. the first 50 state street legal gray market car I believe. FTP all said and done usually costs about 10,000. obviously its not exact costs but that should give you a ball park estimate.
this all information given to me by C.A.R.B., B.A.R., and California EPA. ive got well over 90 hours bar training in just gray market vehicles alone, so if you've got any questions I'm more than happy to help.