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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - Importing Factory V8's to the USA

Hi all,

Just having some wild thoughts. I have heard in the past of a Factory V8 being confiscated by US Customs because the vehicles were never officially imported and don't meet Federal standards.

Has anyone successfully imported and registered a Factory V8 from the UK? One of our fellow BBS'ers imported his to Canada. Is that a back-door way into the US? Can a Canadian registered vehicle be driven in the US? I presume it could for a limited period of time. But come the time to swap plates I imagine it would not be possible to register the car?

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Neil
Neil Cotty

Cars over 25 years old are exempt from the Federal standards, if you can find a 1976 or earlier car you can bring it over with no worries.

Everything you need to know is here:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/
The Wiz

Yep.

We have a club member that brings Land Rovers & Minis over.
Carl

Neil,
I have brought one car in from Canada and can say that it can be a PIA.
While the 25 yr old gets you one exemption it does not get the other. You have the DOT and the EPA to deal with. No one tells you what the other wants. Also you need a letter from the manufacter as well. They tend not to want to give you one that seperatly lists the EPA compliance and the DOT. My car was not 25 yr old so that created a major hassle. Even things like the Speedo prove to be a problem. You must have a registered improter place a bond on the car to prove you will change it to read MPH rather than KPM. Now with a UK car it would already be in MPH but may have needed to be changed to get it into Canada.
The EPA rules get exempt for Candians moving to the US for more than one year but US citizens dont get this exemption.
In all it did not cost me that much but I am a Canadian working in the US and owned my cars before moving. I needed a Registered importer and that cost $250 and then I had to change the speedo to MPH. This was on my Jag XJ6 1986. Took a lot of work to get Jaguar USA to give me a letter that stated the car met FMVSS ( US safety ) but did not meet EPA ( Exempt for CDN ). All they wanted to say was that it did not meet all FMVSS and DOT standards.

Look at
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/imports/
for DOT info.
Also be warned that the US Customs are not that nice if they choose to be that way!

Mike
Mike

The factory V8s *were* successfuly validated for sale in the USA, just never formally supplied for sale to the public. About seven LHD models were made and shipped over for the testing, then brought back to the UK and sold off. Most are now on mainland Europe.
Paul Hunt

any mg produced 1977 or older can be brought in with no problems, soon to be 1978, dot regs state 25 years is exempt age for bumpers etc, and also for epa regs of emmissions, i have brought over several, mini's in the last yera and a half and it is very easy and straight forward when you figure out how the process works, i am planning on bringing over a factory v8 gt in the coming months and am looking at the cars for sale in the uk waiting for the right one. if you want to contact me at my eamil address i will give you the names of the shipping parties i use and also what to expect for cost, i personnally can hardly wait for another 15 years in order to bring an rv8 in legally, jim
jim madson

This thread was discussed between 13/11/2002 and 14/11/2002

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