Re: John Blair's query regarding importing cars, here's what I learned last
year.
Any car newer than 1967 must comply w/ all DOT and EPA regs, cars
whose factory info indicates they are older are OK. I had a long talk w/
a very helpful (surprisingly!) DOT guy who's familiar w/ Morgans plus
has brought in a few cars himself. I have his # somewhere. He advised
getting a good transit agent given the paperwork involved etc. and put
me on to a guy in NYC who was also very helpful, etc. He was able to
confirm that although one set of federal regs says (or strongly implies)
that the govt is using a ROLLING 25 year threshold, that in fact the latest
DOT circular explicitly still said 1967. [NB: this was a year ago so it's
possible that that has changed. Yeah, right!]
Now, that having been said, I imagine if one is a risk-taker there are
ways to shade the truth (eg. changing the serial #, switching
manufacturer's ident plates,etc.). I used to own a Citroen 2CV that had
been creatively imported and never had a problem (of course, I wasn't
the one bringing it into the US!). 2CVs are routinely rebodied in Germany
among other places with late model bodies put on pre-1967 chassis; no
import problems at all. And, Carroll Shelby has been doling out his stash
of newly built but on true 1967 chassis Cobras to slide under California's
emission regs (admittedly at $500,000 a pop some exemption seems
justified, yes?!). But, it can be done; Nova Scotia seems a good port of
entry for any buccaneers in the crowd.
Re method of transport. I was inquiring about "space available" air
transport which used to be somewhat more common than at present.
Apparently there is a "high" season and a "low" season for shipping
cars; it depends on the Grand Prix events, etc. which causes lots of
cars to flow back and forth across the Atlantic. My recollection is that
this guy said count on paying $1500-2000 to transport by air. My DOT
guy had strongly advised against shipping by boat, although the Morgans
that came over for the past two Morgans Over America (1990 & 1995)
had relatively minor problems w/ sea shipping in containers and John
McNaughton successfully shipped RMORGAN from England to Nova
Scotia tied down on deck if memory serves. The biggest hassles seem
to come from the guys on the docks who want to get paid off to give you
your car; hence using an experienced importer is safer. Also, the choice
of port of entry is important; their reps vary greatly. But the guys who
arranged these events would be good sources of sea freight stuff; I
recall their costs were in the $500 range per car but they had a bunch all
together in containers.
So, there's my contribution to the info on this topic. If it had been
otherwise, I would have gotten a beautiful +4 from the mother country
instead of from California. Good luck to you, John.
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