I tried this about 8 years ago and it simply isn't worth the effort. In this case, the car was an '86 Turbo R that was carburated - the US model in '86 was fuel injected. The comment from the companies that federalize these cars was "don't waste your effort b/c it'll cost $25K to change the bumpers, side glass, head lamps and so forth just to find out that it won't be accepted".
The US DOT has severely limited the Euro import (gray market) cars since about 1984. For the most part, the regs state that if the car is less than 25 years old, it must be identical to the US version in every way, shape and form - including safety equipment AND emissions equipment. In other words, you'll have to spend the money to add all the necessary equipment which will, in most cases, have to be NEW although the actual bits on a US spec vehicle are 20 years old. There are tax and bond issues - neither of which I'm familiar with anymore. Suffice it to say that you're good buy on a Golf Rallye may end up costing you 2 or 3x the purchase price with no guarantees that it will be federalized. If the car fails federalization, you have two simple options - ship it back to it's point of origin or crush it. And bear in mind that this isn't like a junkyard - you don't get to take anything off the car before it's crushed. You may want to check out http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/ --- Nils9 <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi, > I was wondering whats involved to get an euro car to US, > car which basically has an US model and is easy to convert. > Have any ideas, anyone did that? Taxes to pay? > Any readme on the subject? ===== Matthew __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Listen to your Yahoo! Mail messages from any phone. http://phone.yahoo.com _____________ List Sponsor: http://www.netsville.com To remove yourself from this list, send mail to [email protected] with 'unsubscribe a2_16v' in the body of your message See us on the web at http://www.a2-16v.com Visit the 16V Homepage at http://www.gti16v.org
