Advice on importing a car

[Mark Howard]

Hey guys. A friend of mine at work is from El Salvador and owns a 1998 MG MGF that is located in San Salvador. He wants to import it to the US as he is getting citizenship shortly and is not returning to El Salvador. The car is a Euro model not sold in the US.

Anyone with experience importing from elsewhere? Is it worth it?

[kaisen]

The cost of importing the car far, far exceeds its value, even if he just wants to use it for show. He's better off selling it and buying something here. Final answer.

[944Larry]

I bought a German army surplus Unimog about 12 or so years ago. I wrote a check to an import agent and all I had to do was go pick it up at the Port of Houston. No work or worry on my part.

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by 944Larry

I bought a German army surplus Unimog about 12 or so years ago. I wrote a check to an import agent and all I had to do was go pick it up at the Port of Houston. No work or worry on my part.

It was older than a 1998, and heavier than 8600 GVWR

[gtilove]

Cars newer than 25 years old are very difficult to import. Older than 25 is easy to import, but individual state registration regulations can still keep them off the road.

[944Larry]

Originally Posted by kaisen

It was older than a 1998, and heavier than 8600 GVWR

Yes, you are right. Seems like it was a '68 model and I have no idea of the gross weight. It was a toy to go off-roading with. Getting it registered and insured (liability) was not a problem in Mississippi.

[Scuba Steve]

Originally Posted by kaisen

The cost of importing the car far, far exceeds its value, even if he just wants to use it for show. He's better off selling it and buying something here. Final answer.

Even if he just parks it in a garage until it's 25? Just curious - I don't really know much about importing cars.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by Scuba Steve

Even if he just parks it in a garage until it's 25?

The feds are really interested in letting people do this. If the car is on the list of vehicles eligible for importation, then you can have a registered importer make the modifications and do the paperwork. The cost varies according to the type of car but it's usually not worth it for "normal" cars.

JR

[speeder]

I found a 1986 ROW Carrera in Canada a couple years ago that was exactly, 100% the car I was looking for and could never find. The price was very right. I began researching what it would take to import it to the U.S. and it was impossible at the time. Not difficult, impossible.

The DOT and ICE have websites that catalogue the current requirements for importing vehicles into the U.S. and they change the rules frequently. Vehicles are assigned a letter code depending on make/model/year and different rules apply to the myriad of different letter codes. At that time, it was not possible to (legally) import that particular car into the U.S.