Whoa there bud and bud'esses'....
your info pertains to 'in production' vehicles.
You can bring in almost any 'classic' or 'historic' car you want, properly
tagged. At least to my knowledge, the 'signed off' and 'printed' law has not
changed in the last two years anyway.... at least not on a federal level!
Paul Tegler wizardz@toad.net http://www.teglerizer.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nolan Penney" <npenney@mde.state.md.us>
To: <spitfires@autox.team.net>; <dougnad@bellatlantic.net>
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2000 7:51 AM
Subject: Re: Importing car from Canada to USA
I just went through this with a truck. The end result was I finally gave up
and decided not to import it. Don't remember the web address, but the Army and
DOD (Department of Defense) had some excellent information for the asking.
The ugly side of it, there are no longer any exemptions. Not for age, not for
historic, not the one time good deal. The vehicle must meet US DOT safety
standards and US EPA emissions standards for the year the vehicle was
manufactured. The DOT specs generally require replacing all the glass,
headlights and crash equipment. The EPA requires all their goodies to be
installed to the identical standard of the US spec vehicles, or, if the vehicle
was never imported into the US, it must go through complete vehicle
manufacturer emissions testing ($10's of thousands, and you'll never successed
in passing it).
You are not allowed to take posession of the vehicle and do the work yourself.
The vehicle will be impounded, and the work must be done by certain companies
and individuals. If, after 90 days the work has not been completed *and* all
inspections certified as passing, the vehicle will be destroyed. You will be
billed for the destruction.
The good side for a Triumph Spitfire is that the DOT inspection isn't too hard.
Pretty fair chance the glass is marked as DOT (easily checked). Headlight
swapping isn't a problem. The safety equipment light parking brakes and
seatbelts and collapsing steering column were usually world standard for
Triumph. They didn't have the resources to build the car differently for
different markets. This is the problem when playing with grey market BMW's and
such, they did have the resources for this. Same with emissions, particularly
for Canada. Many of the vehicles destined for North America met, and were
badged as meeting, US EPA emissions standards. If you must convert, it will
only cost several hundred dollars in parts (don't know how much you'll have to
pay to have it installed) to bring it to spec.
Car parts, and racing vehicles, are exempt btw.
>>> Douglas Braun & Nadia Papakonstantinou <dougnad@bellatlantic.net> 09/17
>10:01 PM >>>
Hello,
If I were to buy a Triumph from somebody in Canada, how much
hassle would be involved in getting it imported and registered
in the USA? Were Triumphs delivered to Canada built to full
USA spec?
Thanks,
Doug Braun
'72 Spit
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