My Dad worked for a large German import/export company and they imported
many cars in the 80s for various customers such as M1s, Boxers, Lambos and
others. It was a PITA as it was very hard to homologate the cars for the US
and very expensive.
If you didn't do it right or didn't do it, Customs would take the cars and
crush them.
BTW, you also had to post a bond = to the value of the car.
I guess for a 72 510 it wouldn't be that much.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Edgar Gonzalez" <datsunspl311@home.com>
To: "roadster List" <datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2001 1:00 AM
Subject: Importing foreign cars
> Hi list,
>
> I had a pretty good learning experience with a former employer who brought
> three Mercedes Benz cars (brand new) into the country. It's been over 17
> years ago. If my memory serves me right, this was the entire experience:
>
> The cars were bought in Germany right off the assembly line and were
meant
> to be sold in Germany and Europe. They ran on leaded fuel and were
> extremely fast as I understand. They were way cheaper than their American
> market "siblings".
>
> The cars were put on a boat and arrived at Long Beach many months later.
> They cleared Customs o.k. and were given a certain time frame to
> "Americanize" them.
>
> The fun started at this point.
>
> All the glass had to be replaced with DOT glass (windshield, rear and
> passenger windows, etc). The headlamps and taillights (entire assemblies)
> had to be changed as well. All the doors had to be re-inforced to protect
> the occupants from a side impact collision (holes were drilled on the
doors
> and bars were placed inside). I learned for the first time in my life
that
> most of all safety designated items in the car have been stamped/marked
with
> whatever agency's (DOT/FMVSS) standards they have to comply with.
>
> The FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicles Safety Standards) required other
> modifications like adding a fuel safety shut-off valve in case of
collision
> or roll-over. We had to take "before" and "after" photos of the items
that
> were replaced or added. We ended up with a very thick photo album for
each
> car detailing the modifications.
>
> The EPA required the cars to have the fuel system modified as well. We
had
> to put up "unleaded only" stickers on the fuel access door. Had to
install
> fuel nozzle restrictors to accomodate the "unleaded" nozzles only. We had
> to add catalyctic converters and oxygen sensors to the exhaust systems.
The
> cars had to be taken back up to Los Angeles in order to have a special lab
> do some fancy environmental impact test on the cars' tail pipe emmissions.
> I think they called it an EPA Certificate or something like that. The
> average smog certificate was not sufficient. The DMV would not issue
> registrations unless they met the EPA, DOT and FMVSS requirements.
>
> Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the DMV took oodles of money to finally issue
> registrations for these cars. The cars were going to be seized and
crushed
> by Customs had they not met the registration requirements within the
> specific "grace" period.
>
> I was glad I did not own these cars. :-)
>
> I apologize in advance if I've bored or offended anyone with this story.
>
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