there are two sides to everything, where's the anger at the companies making these cars and then not bothering to bring them here?
I always thought our strict import regs were to protect domestic companies, hence the age rule. the cars are old enough that nobody cares.
Not quite. M-B coached it to the government in safety terms, claiming that M-Bs built for other markets could possibly be much less safe, etc., etc.
Importing cars to the US has nothing to do with protecting Ford, GM, or Chrysler. If you want to sell a model in the US, you'll pay for the crash testing and emissions certs. The Big Three have to pay that on every model made here or in Canada or Mexico just like everyone else.
So, what we got out of this was a 25 year rolling exemption because it was "assumed" that anything more than 25 years old would be an antique and no threat to anyone's current sales. And, well, it was presented as "antiques and classics are no harm to anyone as they won't be imported in any numbers" to pacify the classic/antique collectors (who do have a certain amount of pull) while chopping off the gray market importers at the knees. Now it costs $100,000 to $750,000 to certify a new/recent car model for mass importation into the US (assuming it doesn't meet the "substantially similar" clause and that it meets all the other regs - such as OBD-II, etc., etc.) PLUS you have to sacrifice at least three of the particular car for crash testing AND you have to submit another three for emissions testing on top of that.
The R34 won't be coming in for mass sale legally any time soon because it doesn't have OBD-II diagnostics (which actually was kind of dumb on Nissan's part) - which is required on US market cars of that era.
That's the way it should have been handled. The government didn't need to get involved and put the profits of a company before the rights of it's citizens. Capitalism my regio glutealis.
Except Mercedes did it by getting this stupid import regulation passed on grounds of "safety". It took Mercedes ***15*** more years to start selling G-wagons in the US on their own. In the meantime, G-wagens (W460/W461s) continued to be imported, but at great additional cost because they HAD actually been run through the US cert process by independents, and the cheapest one of THOSE you could find was $135K - of which maybe $5K was profit, $30K was the truck, and $100K was the importation stupidity.
FYI, M-B got the "casual importation" policy and thus much of the gray market killed in 1987; M-B was happy for a while until they realized that people REALLY wanted the G-wagen here. They started official sales of it here in 2002 for $75,000. And they did it by buying out the only people to successfully complete all the requirements to sell them here:
http://www.gwagen.com/
Check out their history section to see just what they had to do to get them into the US:
"In October 1993 Europa completed its five-year, $500,000 U.S. certification program, including destructive and non-destructive vehicle testing, becoming the exclusive U.S. importer and distributor for the luxurious, second generation Gelaendewagen..."
"In 1997 Europa began development and testing for the next generation G.Wagen, the powerful G500. In 1999 after nearly two-years and over $1 million invested, Europa gained U.S. Small Volume Manufacturer status for the Gwagen, finally making it a 50-state legal vehicle..."
"With the 2002 model year, and after purchasing the U.S. distribution rights for the Gelaendewagen from Europa, Mercedes-Benz began selling the G500 through its U.S. dealer network. Europa G-WAGEN LLC continues to maintain and support the 2001 and earlier model Gelaendewagens and remains the source for pre-owned vehicles, spare parts, accessories and technical expertise."
Here is a link to a reprint of the actual 1984 Time article that caught M-B's eye and got the ball rolling on the crackdown:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923836,00.html
And the article itself:
A Gray Market in Luxury Cars
Monday, Dec. 17, 1984
Americans used to buy expensive cars at bargain prices in Europe and then ship them back to the U.S. But that practice declined in the late 1970s, when the slumping dollar drove up the price of a Mercedes-Benz, Porsche or BMW. The dollar is back, and so are the car importers.
This year as many as 50,000 automobiles will be brought into the U.S. privately, a twelvefold increase in three years. Herbert Singer, a Munich car dealer, claims that half his sales are exported to the U.S. Says he: "I could sell five cars a day to Americans if I had the right color." The savings can be big, even after the $8,000 or so is paid to ship a car from West Germany and adapt it to U.S. safety and emission standards. Example: a Mercedes 500 SEL, when bought from an authorized dealer in the U.S., is about $52,000. The same model bought in West Germany and imported by a U.S. buyer goes for some $40,000 after the extra charges. American auto dealers sometimes refuse to service a modified car or take one in trade. But as long as that huge price difference exists, the freelance importers will continue buying abroad.
