The cars and bikes thread!

[Raza]

Hey, did any of you ever own a 993 or 964?

[93EXCivic]

Weird question, have any of you guys ever imported a car from Japan? Really thinking about importing a little kei car for a run about instead of a golf cart... Possibly next year.

[Samanator]

Hey, did any of you ever own a 993 or 964?

Still have the desire for the last of the air cooled? Personally I think you may regret that. It takes a good deal of money to keep older higher performance sports cars going. If you take the wait until it breaks approach that some take with watches prepare for four and five digit repair bills. Also don’t even think about it you don’t have a reasonably close independent shop that has a ton of experience with those. If so suggest start buttering them up now. I’ve not had an older Porsche because I was talked out of it. I’ve had quit a few older high performance cars over the years and can speak from experience. Note that I can do quite a bit of the mechanical work myself. The one thing i learned from my 2009 4S cabriolet is everything’s special and expensive for a Porsche. I can’t imagine what it costs to find 25 year old Porsche parts. At certain points it’s cheaper to have one runner and a spare or two to keep it that way.


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[gnuyork]

Yeah I've always wanted an older 911, even oder than the 964s - Carrera or SC eras (I'd take a 964 though) came close a couple times...but in the end it was the maintenance cost that scared me away. Same for the Ferrari 308 which I LOVE!

The Lotus is pretty cheap to maintain, but not the best to daily that's for sure... It's a (barely) street legal race car.

[Samanator]

Weird question, have any of you guys ever imported a car from Japan? Really thinking about importing a little kei car for a run about instead of a golf cart... Possibly next year.

For various import/export verticals it’s best to talk to a specialist in that specific area. Then you still need to determine who really understands the specifics for that type of item. While I know I could figure it out over time my area is import/export of encryption that has its own set of quirks and challenges. I’m not familiar with the set of issues when importing vehicles from Japan given emissions and safety variances by country. I would suggest collector sites like Hemings or car auction sites like Mecam for car importation specialists adds.

There was a recent car magazine article on a guy who collects those type of cars. I’ll see if I can find it. You might be able to purchase one already here.


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[Raza]

Still have the desire for the last of the air cooled? Personally I think you may regret that. It takes a good deal of money to keep older higher performance sports cars going. If you take the wait until it breaks approach that some take with watches prepare for four and five digit repair bills. Also don’t even think about it you don’t have a reasonably close independent shop that has a ton of experience with those. If so suggest start buttering them up now. I’ve not had an older Porsche because I was talked out of it. I’ve had quit a few older high performance cars over the years and can speak from experience. Note that I can do quite a bit of the mechanical work myself. The one thing i learned from my 2009 4S cabriolet is everything’s special and expensive for a Porsche. I can’t imagine what it costs to find 25 year old Porsche parts. At certain points it’s cheaper to have one runner and a spare or two to keep it that way.


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Older 911s have a pretty solid reputation for reliability, though, don’t they? I would also imagine the older cars are much simpler and thus easier to maintain and work on than the newer cars.

[tribe125]

Weird question, have any of you guys ever imported a car from Japan? Really thinking about importing a little kei car for a run about instead of a golf cart... Possibly next year.

The steering wheel would be on the wrong side for America, wouldn’t it?

[93EXCivic]

The steering wheel would be on the wrong side for America, wouldn’t it?

Yeah. But for a neighborhood/in town run about it shouldn't be a problem.

I know any car over 25 years old is legal to be imported. Although I imagine dealing with the local DMV will be fun

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[Samanator]

Yeah. But for a neighborhood/in town run about it shouldn't be a problem.

I know any car over 25 years old is legal to be imported. Although I imagine dealing with the local DMV will be fun

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Bored I did a little digging after I found the article. It was on page 46 of the August 2019 Motor trend. The company is called Duncan Motors that imports these. Yes there is a 25 year period before they will even let it leave Japan also described in an article before this one discussing importing Toyota Centuary Limos which I admit I have a bit of fascination with. This Ducan motors is named after the owner Gary Duncan. He imports these through Virginia and gets them titled there. Given it is 2020 you can now bring in a 1995 model year car.

See link below:

https://www.duncanimports.com/

[93EXCivic]

Bored I did a little digging after I found the article. It was on page 46 of the August 2019 Motor trend. The company is called Duncan Motors that imports these. Yes there is a 25 year period before they will even let it leave Japan also described in an article before this one discussing importing Toyota Centuary Limos which I admit I have a bit of fascination with. This Ducan motors is named after the owner Gary Duncan. He imports these through Virginia and gets them titled there. Given it is 2020 you can now bring in a 1995 model year car.

See link below:

https://www.duncanimports.com/

Oh man they have a Paul Newman R31 Skyline... https://www.duncanimports.com/wholes...bfe4d07665.htm

From what I have seen the cheapest way to do it is get in contact with a broker in Japan but then you are stuck with some of the extra work as far as paperwork and transport.