OK, This is what I found doing the research while in the USAF living in
Germany in the mid 90s.

A car may only be brought into the US IFIFIFIFIF it was sold by the
manufacturer in the US for the exact year you want to bring in. Or you may
bring two of them and give one to the feds to perform crash testing on.

I wanted to bring an `84 British Ford Capri back to the US. I figured, "no
problem". All the US spec DOT parts (bumpers, glass, etc) are available for
the car because it was sold in the US from like 70-78 under the Mercury
name. However Mercury did not import the car in `84 so I could not bring an
`84 into the country. Had I known this 2 years prior, "small adjustments" to
the date would have magically turned my `84 into a `78 on the title.

It got worse: There are only a handful of companies that are authorized to
do the conversion so even if I did all the work myself, the conversion house
I talked to, was going to charge me ALLOT of money (severalK$) to
"authorize" my conversion.

You can get one year to do the conversion otherwise the feds will "destroy"
the car or force you to export it.

Now on the flip side, about 4 years ago I was in Philly and drove by a shop
that had a BMW M1 sitting in front of it. It had Jersey tags and was a full
German spec. Nothing had been converted. The shop owner told me that in the
mid 80s lots of stuff "slipped" through.

Mikey
`87 Westy w/ shiny new plate: "PLS PASS"

-----Original Message-----
From: James S. Cohen [mailto:jscohen@SPRYNET.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 12:41 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Importing New Vanagon from South Africa

This can be done. But it's VERY expensive. Any car must meet our
emission standards, (they are years away from producing a car like
that) and it has to meet safety standards.

They do not produce a LHD version for export (I checked when I was last
there!)

But the person to talk to about importing cars is Kyle Wade at
vwmaster@volks-motorsports.com . He's done some importing including a
TRi-star. He maybe able to help you with advice, or get you one if
you want it.

Good luck

James

>RHD or LHD not withstanding, this would be an attempt at a "Grey Market"
>importation.
>My understanding is that  though the true grey market of the 80's was put
>out of business, somehow it can still be done.  The documentation, lawyers
>stupid upgrades (it doesn't have a seat belt buzzer! Put it back on the
>ship!) and raw money necessary would render this impractical.  The only
>people doing this are importing Ferrari F50's and the like.  A half million
>dollar car makes the legal junk almost worthwhile.
>
>Gary
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Colin Carmichael <colincarmichael@YAHOO.COM>
>To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
>Sent: Monday, November 13, 2000 4:51 PM
>Subject: Importing New Vanagon from South Africa
>
>
>>  I'm not sure if this has been discussed on the list
>>  before (I tried to search the archives), but is it
>>  possible to import a new Vanagon from South Africa
>>  into the United States? Has anyone tried?  Interested
>>  in prices and any other information on this
>>  possibility.
>>
>>  Thanks
>>
>>
>>
>>  __________________________________________________
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