how/can you register a euro spec car in the us

[black92lx]

i got a good deal on a righthand drive car and was wondering how i could go about registering a euro spec car in the us i live in orlando florida any help on this would help me out alot thanks for the help guys and gals

[MaloventEvil]

if you find out please post details...

[bellavus]

I would have no idea how to begin with that...from what I hear, it's pretty expensive to do. You could ask someone that's in the military that's travelled, they would probably know.

[Rory]

What RHD car is it?

[bimmerman1]

I was stationed in Germany in the early mid 80's and I bought a new 1985 BMW 320I european spec for $10,000.00. The exchange rate was excellent at the time. I did ship it to the states but it had to go through a shop that converts Euro spec to US. Spec. This was a long time ago so bear with me about price and details. What I had to do is privately ship the car to the states and the car had a Lein on it until it passed US specs. Other words you won't be able to pick it up until it passes. Here is the list of things they will be replacing or reinforcing. Reenforced bumpers and doors. Replacing headlights, speedometer and the worst of it, the emmisions When I got my bimmer converted to US Specs (Called Gray market) it cost me around $4000.00 at that time. I'm sure it's allot higher now. Unless you are getting this car real cheap it is not really worth it. The exchange rate is not that good that will benifit you. You are better off looking for a good deal here in the states. I'm sure there are some out there. I wouldn't have done it but I bought the car cheap and well worth it than since it was around $28,000 new in the states. A euro 320i is almost the same as a 325. Parts were harder to get as well because some parts were not compable with the 325s'. Wish you luck.

Walter

[332 RustBucket]

i got a good deal on a righthand drive car and was wondering how i could go about registering a euro spec car in the us i live in orlando florida any help on this would help me out alot thanks for the help guys and gals

The Search tool is your friend. Here is a link with some basic info. Just do a search and you will find links to sites that tell you how to go about it.

Good Luck.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ht=import+euro

[Daved]

Why do you want a RHD car?

[black92lx]

man the hell with all that looks like im going to send him a vin off a us car so they will think its a us model lol hope it works if no i dont care i told him i would pay him when it go here

any one have a e30 shell forsale with vin and title????

[black92lx]

or could i do the swap ie bumpers doors head lights and gauges??? o and smog cause i can do all that stuff thats ez i got a shop so ill have one of my grunts do it lol and then i could have it inspected ???

[bimmerman1]

I don't know about Fl. but DMV wants to see the car physically to make sure the Vin number is right. Don't think you are going to get away with it. Also, not worth going to jail over if you get caught. What happened to me when I got my gray market that you can't do it yourself and must go through the special shops that does conversions. It might have changed now but don't think so. Just tell the person that there is too much trouble of converting it and you changed your mind. Let me tell you it's not worth all the headache. I'm am sure you not getting the deal you seeing. After putting down the cost of conversion you could have bought a good used M3. You must ask yourself, is it worth it? My answer NO!!!!

[Zerrus]

I hear it is up in the 10kish area, at one point there was a way to get around it if it was a "off-road" car, but I think they did away with it.

[black92lx]

well i got or might get a 89 325 that is mint and its right hand drive i got it for 1000.00 so i guess i will wait and see what happens with the import thing maybe i will try the offroad use only thing

[Poke2120]

You're crazy if you want to spend $1k + $10k in conversions for a 1989 325 which you can buy in the US for $2,000-3,000.

Poke

[Pino]

when i was buying my car my dad asked me if i wanted to shop around in the UK before we looked around more. He said that theres a company in Munich (sp?) and the UK that buys the car and drives it around so its used then ships it over for you at low cost. I guess they would also do already used cars.

I would only suggest doing this when the exchange rate is in our favor. right now its sh!t. Something like $1.89 to the Pound. I kinda want to go to Beunos Aires to get my next car. Their economy is doing horribly right now. You can actually get a 5star hotel there with all meals and everything for $25 a day, ahahah

[Poke2120]

Your dad would be nuts to buy a car in the UK and try to ship it over, he'd end up paying MORE than double the price of the car.

Also, Munich is in Germany and the only thing I can recall people doing, sort of like what you said, is buying the car at the BMW factory and then driving it to Spain or another coastal European country, and then proceeding to have it shipped over. Now the only reason I could see doing this, is to enjoy a nice and long European adventure in your brand new car. (Also, remember, Germany has their steering wheels on the left and UK on the right, UK would be even harder to convert over than a German spec car).

Poke

[bellavus]

I think that program builds the cars to US spec, not european spec, so that's why you don't need to spend any money converting the car to US spec after it's been shipped to the States.

[Poke2120]

Ah I guess thats the key part I was missing of the whole "pickup your new car in Munich" program.

Poke

[vxnvgs9]

Before I bought my 325is I was looking at MR2s and RX7s in Japan. I found you could get em wicked cheep, 3 to 5 grand, very nice, plus another grand with shipping. But I looked into it further on government websites. There are only a few cars you can even have modified, and just a very small handful are right hand drive that can be modified. There is a complete list of what the gov lets import somewhere online (i dont remember where it is anymore), there arent very many cars, or very many years. There is an option where you can import a few cars and have em do all sorts of testing, possibly incuding crash testing. But when all is said and done it is NOT cost effective. Prolly would be cheaper to buy a new M3 after all is said and done to import a right hand drive car.