Save Up Options

[Aznbcrzy]

So i Decided That i'm going to save up and buy me an GT-4 Celica. Yes i said it gonna stright import that from japan. would anyone know the estimate amount of money i would have to save up

[yarik83]

Let me shed some light on this.

Since I spent 6 months in 2009 seriously researching and considering a gt4 importation....

I am an advocate for taking matter into your own hands and doing all the things NECESSARY to get your goals accomplished.

Cheapest option right now is buying a gt4 from canada for around 9000. At that time you have 1 major problem. How do you bring it over the border? Trailer vs vin swap vs other options.

Allegedly you can put gt4 on a trailer and drive it straight over the border here. You basically have a 50/50 chance of being told that you are not allowed to bring it over. You also have a 50 percent chance of driving this baby right under their nose and customs not really paying much attention to the car. You can also drive a same color hatchback celica to canada do a vin swap and obviously licence plates, rip the gt4 tags off just in case and again take a 50/50 chance.

Lets say that somehow you can get the car over the border (which you potentially can) .... there is 0 chance for this car to be legal in the statess until 2029. So right now you can say good bye to staying legal. While most people highly discourage aspiring gt4 owners from doing that... this is your only option.

Insurance/vins/registration/etc.

99.9% of cops in usa would not be able to tell a difference between a gt4 and a regular hatchback celica. Like others pointed out your RHD car will be sticking out like a green hat in an orange field. Trust me... if you are driving by a cop who is having a really bad day.. he will eat your heart out and invite other cops for lunch. At that point you can kiss your car goodbye. And no there is no law out there that protects your illegal private property from being sent to a crusher.

You inquired about RHD to LHD conversion. While that can be done... trust me for amount of hassle you will be spending just as much money on that as you would on the car itself and meanwhile jeopardize structural stability. Also while there are shops in usa that would even consider helping you out.. they often have to report to legal agencies and document changes so unless you want to do it yourself, using a shop can only accelerate someone tracking you down.

Before I lose you let me recap. Right this very second you can buy a gt4 from canada for around 9 grand. You can (although taking risk) get it over the border bypassing the law and while you do have an option to convert it to LHD it will be very expensive and hard to do.

To drive the car here you have 2 choices. Drive it completely illegally ideally not drawing too much attention to yourself or buy a mule hatchback celica of the same color and swap vins and tags, remove badging from gt4 and appreciate the car for what it is.

Now with that said let me explain why I chose to buy an evo (which I will hopefully the sooner the better) vs proceeding with a gt4 purchase.
#1 car is 15 years old. It may have 50,000 miles on it but you are buying a cat in a bag that has been driven somewhere in japan then traveled to canada then for whatever reason is being sold (likely because some parts of canada outlawed gt4). This is not a 1972 GTO that has been garaged for 30 years. You are taking a huge gamble buying an old car.
#2 Other members will not appreciate your purchase as much as you will. While being legal is morally and socially acceptable... deviating from the norm often invokes feelings of resentment.
#3 You will be spending 10 grand on a 15 year old car that only you can recognize for what it is. While most people can probably recognize a ferrari if they saw one, regardless of the model... you will not be getting a pat on the back as you drive around.

Others have offered an evo or sti... that would be a wise choice.. one that is hard to make but its a logical choice. They are legal, later models are even better than a gt4 and they are available here in the states and very much legal.