Importing a Celica to the States from Japan?, IMPORTING Options

[Lil-Joe101]

I live in Okinawa Japan and Im trying everything I can to get my car back to the states without tearing it apart. Does anyone out there know how to get a 94 Toyota Celica back to the states without tearing it apart. Please hit me back ASAP with some answers.

[stetsonaw]

subscribing, i want that info too... korea sux.

[goferris]

I live in Okinawa Japan and Im trying everything I can to get my car back to the states without tearing it apart. Does anyone out there know how to get a 94 Toyota Celica back to the states without tearing it apart. Please hit me back ASAP with some answers.

if you are going to go through all the work to import your car from japan you might as well try to get a gt4 and import that instead. with just the 5sfe in your car it's really not worth it IMO or atleast swap in a BEAMS while you are in Japan where it will be easier to get one. i do love your kit though.
we all want to know what the best way would be to import celis from japan so we can start getting some gt4s in the states but so far we've haven't found a legal way to do it.
i guess how some people have done it is they will import it as a "show car", get a cheap ST and swap the VIN plates on it then have the ST crushed or sent back to japan saying it's the imported car. i'm pretty sure that's how celica3sgte's (i think that's his SN) old gt4 got in the states.
otherwise you are going to have to ship it over in 2 crates. one has the body or shell of the car and the other has the motor, tranny, guts and everything else in it and you register it as a "kit" car and put it back together here in the states. that's how my friend got her RHD ITR in the states.
i've heard that otherwise you would need to import like 3 of them and 2 of them would be used for crash test info because the 6gc isn't a commonly imported car compared to skylines and RHD hondas
good luck on your search. we all have asked this question because we want to bring over the gt4 if anyone can find the way to do it. otherwise the car has to be 25 years old (15 in canada)

[808celica]

Army...........

that's how this soldier "says" he got it to hawaii.

then he said he sold it to some kid in waianae for 4K!! (1hr. 30mins away from me)

he told me 95 gt4 3sgte full-time awd.............full trd kit silver

im still skeptical about his story. whay dumb monkey would import a gt4 through the military then sell it cheap.

[azian_advanced]

would that be japonboi's car?

[D-Man]

It'd be great if they'd build an international brige from japan to California.... i'd totaly drive over there and pick up a gt4....

But seeing as we must live in the real world, i hear that exports for single cars are a pain in the ass. If you REALLY have money, then you'd probably wanna check for commercial freight company's. my company ships thousands of pounds of machinery to Europe and south America Via ABS freight. 800-610-5544. sometimes Fed-ex.

Although it'll cost an arm and a leg.... i say you load up on JDM parts, and anything you can get out of a scrapyard, then sell the schett out of it when you get here to the states and try to make your money back.

But you'll be paying ALOT of money to do this.

But seeing as your willing, would you bring me a GT4? Thanks.

This post has been edited by D-Man: Mar 31, 2008 - 9:14 AM

[Jeunesse]

Have you looked at shipping it to Canada?

[Lil-Joe101]

subscribing, i want that info too... korea sux.

Im tryin man. I lookin out for ya. Yo when u comin back???

[monkey]

hmm we could do a giant group buy on impprt celis and maybe we could find a company to do it for us.....

[SlickRick]

ok let me tell u from my own try at it. I bought a 94 white gt-4 in japan for around $6900 if i recall right (with shipping and marine insurance included) once u do all the paper work u have 2 have the crash data, u get the crash data, by crashing the celica unless it on file by now, then u have to put up a bond for the ENTIRE price of the car u have 6 month 2 get the car legal or it gets crushed and u dont get your bond back. I just said hell with it and bought a 07 CBR 600rr. Its can be done for about $11k all together i think by certain exporters/importers.

[bccentaur3]

Time out!! did you just say 11k for everything??? Even the crash data? because if you plan on getting crash data you said you needed 2. The avg. price for a st205 go around 4k at the cheapest. how is this possible?

[Havok1997GT]

ok let me tell u from my own try at it. I bought a 94 white gt-4 in japan for around $6900 if i recall right (with shipping and marine insurance included) once u do all the paper work u have 2 have the crash data, u get the crash data, by crashing the celica unless it on file by now, then u have to put up a bond for the ENTIRE price of the car u have 6 month 2 get the car legal or it gets crushed and u dont get your bond back. I just said hell with it and bought a 07 CBR 600rr. Its can be done for about $11k all together i think by certain exporters/importers.

Man for 11k just take the goodies you have on there now, sell the car and when you get to the states make a freakin awsome celi over here. all that doesnt seem worth it. I love mine but damn

[BernieMac]

Stetsonaw and lil Joe hey guys right now I am also in the same boat as you guys. I am trying to bring my car back and having major issues with all of this. What if all three of us get together and get a crate or part of a crate to put parts in that way it wouldn't cost soo much for all of us and we could cram as much of our parts that we want to keep to bring back and that way we would all win. cuz as i speak of this I only have 4 weeks til i leave the island I just got orders to Offutt and I want to take my car back with me but the cost is way too expensive for the conversion and to get DOT and EPA talk about $$$$. Let me know what you all think about this and lets see what we can do. Stetsonaw hit me on the Cell @ 08039462994 and lets meet up sometime

[808celica]

would that be japonboi's car?

no brandons car is a gt4 front conversion........

the pros are it has all the st205 cosmetic options (i.e. projectors and door sills)

con is that it is AUTO-TRAGIC!!!!!!!!!

[808celica]

why dont you just dis-assemble everything ship it down.....and peice everything here and register the 205 as a kit car............bam done.................

[Kustomizor]

If the celica has a special meaning to you like your attached then that alone is worth the expense of shipping it over.

Having said that it be better to strip it of the things you like and buy another celica in the states which has the steering on the left side. Also like dude said above, if you dissasemble you escape duties.

one day ill go to japan and cut a car up and ship in seperate containers and reasemble back home, its only worth doing this though if the car has a higher value back home or you cant get it like the gt4 i suppose

[xs94st]

when my friend was in japan i told him to do this for me.

he laughed. lol

[Rayme]

Time out!! did you just say 11k for everything??? Even the crash data? because if you plan on getting crash data you said you needed 2. The avg. price for a st205 go around 4k at the cheapest. how is this possible?

What if it fails? You want to risk all that money? Think about it,,lol

[Random_Stranger]

So $11k. I need to find the women in this town who are without jobs and put them to work for me. I hear unemployment is up big time, and there are a lot of lonely men who just want to give away money. I just know it.

[bccentaur3]

SO by 2009 the 1994 gt-four will be able to get shipped to canada. What I was wondering if my uncle who lives in Toronto can get a hold of one and drives it here to Minnesota. Would they allow him to cross the border? Then he can "sell me the car" but in reality I bought it and he's just delivering it. Is that possible at all? And of course I will find a way to legalize the car.

[Random_Stranger]

SO by 2009 the 1994 gt-four will be able to get shipped to canada. What I was wondering if my uncle who lives in Toronto can get a hold of one and drives it here to Minnesota. Would they allow him to cross the border? Then he can "sell me the car" but in reality I bought it and he's just delivering it. Is that possible at all? And of course I will find a way to legalize the car.

I don't see why not, but keep in mind it is not illegal to "Make" your own car, and get it documented with papers. You may have to cut into the frame and remove emblems when registering it though, plus less emissions. If people in California can have nissan skylines with papers, then I am sure there is a way to have that GT4 in the USA. That is what I would do if I can do that. Can I borrow your uncle to? LOL


Also, if you don't believe me about the skylines and such? Go take a look at some of those guys on Cardomain.com or whatever that site is called. They'll tell you.

[Rayme]

It sounds so much work imo, all that trouble to have your rear wheel pulling the car.

Just so you know, the people around here who gets skyline and such, they all say it's a pain in the ass to get parts and very expensive to keep them rolling, there's all sort of little things you can't think about, might it be a simple part like a ball joint/struts or a 3rd gen 3sgte only part..they all have to be ordered and you're left with a very expensive car that can't be used for weeks or months...they are 15 years old and more after all. And what more, you need to do bodywork, alot of cars come in with destroyed paint job and dents, a guy around here got a nice fd3s and the roof was collapse in the shipping (and it's not the type of shipping you can insurance claim). Food for thought.

It's expensive to drive jdm car

This post has been edited by Rayme: Apr 6, 2008 - 4:31 PM

[808celica]

its expensive to have a jdm chick that likes your car that looks kinda jdm

[azian_advanced]

i've been looking into this recently.. ever since j-specimports just recently had/have a 94 gt-four for sale.
but if i were to get one, it would have to have atleast a sunroof and ABS so i passed up on it. everything else i'll just swap from my car now like the stereo system, leather, and exterior mods. then sell my car.
besides, i wouldn't be able to 'prepay' for it and wait until april 2009 for it to become legal.
i might just go and import one myself next year w/o going through a importer. we'll just have to wait and see... can't wait..

This post has been edited by azian_advanced: Apr 6, 2008 - 8:28 PM

[goferris]

i've been looking into this recently.. ever since j-specimports just recently had/have a 94 gt-four for sale.
but if i were to get one, it would have to have atleast a sunroof and ABS so i passed up on it. everything else i'll just swap from my car now like the stereo system, leather, and exterior mods. then sell my car.
besides, i wouldn't be able to 'prepay' for it and wait until april 2009 for it to become legal.
i might just go and import one myself next year w/o going through a importer. we'll just have to wait and see... can't wait..

i don't think many JDM cars have sunroofs. they aren't into that as much as us over here.

either way i'm sure it's not as impossible as we all think it is to get a gt4 in the states it's just so expensive. we all dream of one but it's just not logical.
most importers target (like any used car place) the cars that are in high demand like the skylines or anything honda and such that won't just sit on the lot. one problem with out car is there really isn't much of a demand for our car. it's just not popular. simple as that. in all 3 of the fast and furious movies was there one single 6th gen?

that's my thoughts on the matter.

[bccentaur3]

It sounds so much work imo, all that trouble to have your rear wheel pulling the car.

Just so you know, the people around here who gets skyline and such, they all say it's a pain in the ass to get parts and very expensive to keep them rolling, there's all sort of little things you can't think about, might it be a simple part like a ball joint/struts or a 3rd gen 3sgte only part..they all have to be ordered and you're left with a very expensive car that can't be used for weeks or months...they are 15 years old and more after all. And what more, you need to do bodywork, alot of cars come in with destroyed paint job and dents, a guy around here got a nice fd3s and the roof was collapse in the shipping (and it's not the type of shipping you can insurance claim). Food for thought.

It's expensive to drive jdm car

But its to own my dream car. I could careless if it was 30 years old. If its the car I have always wanted, I'm not going to stop for spit to own one. Yes, it may be a lot of work, but well worth it imo.

[Random_Stranger]

It will be well worth it in the end. To be like no other.

[azian_advanced]

then you should live here, you'll always find a skyline for sale.

[stetsonaw]

live here for about 6 months and you'll realize that skylines are as played out as mustangs. i fart in the general direction of skylines!

[Celiracer18]

from what i understand celica3sgte's old gt4 was imported by a WRC Instructor and i think that's the only legal way to get one into the states at the moment

[808celica]

^^yup but i think he sold it

the way i see it is: if you wanna import something legally you have to have friends in places..........very high places.

after all in world its who you know............

[Random_Stranger]

Then I am going to start networking like a mother! Just kidding, the cost to get one here may talk me out of even attempting awd. What's wrong with having a fwd that can own some of the awd cars out there? I don't see a problem with that, I really don't. Plus you get to rotate your tires! I would imagine if you were awd, they would all get worn out. See? LOL

[bccentaur3]

Dude, I just want a gt-four to have one. Its not going to be a track car...okay okay It will make some apearences at the track, but I just want one to have one. Some thing a lot of people here don't have. Its not about having a fast car and smoking people, or having the nicest and winning shows. Its about what I want. Dings and paint chips don't matter to me. That can be worked out later on. The the principle of owning one.

[Lil-Joe101]

The price isn't really the problem its just the process of how to get it wut I'm tryin ta do. I just don't see the point in puttin all my time and money into a car and selling it for less than I got it for. Out here in Oki its hard to sell a Celi for more than 3,000.

live here for about 6 months and you'll realize that skylines are as played out as mustangs. i fart in the general direction of skylines!

I know thats right. **** a Skyline. Celi's fo life baby!!!!!!!

This post has been edited by Lil-Joe101: Aug 6, 2008 - 12:54 AM

[Lil-Joe101]

Why would I have to do a crash test if the Celica is was already produced and sold in the states?????