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

10k+

why dont you just get the ones from canada?

i dont trust canadian XD lol j/k i feel confortable it coming from japan

cause that makes sense? at least you could travel here and see it over before taking it across the boarder, have fun doing that in japan....also how are you gonna get one in the US....id say "save up"!

You do know it's not legal, right? The money just to buy it and get it here would be at least $10k, plus all the hoops you'd have to jump thru to attempt to legalize it, or illegaly license another Celica and put the tags on the GT-4, which would stand out like a sore thumb as a RHD.

Take the money and make your Celica nicer or buy an STi or Evo. Or move to Europe or Japan, that's the only way I'm going to get to own one lol

im trying to research and find out how hard it is/ if it is possible to convert one to lhd they are going for 5 to 6 k over here now and they are cracking down hard on the importers... if it comes down to not being able to register one im gonna use my celi now and convert one to lhd if its possible...just need the funds lol

I think with around 7k and a bit of work I could have the GT-4 somewhat legal. Meaning if I got pulled over by a cop I wouldn't get in much trouble. Then I would try to get the motor refed so that I could smog it. Where I live is only the tsi test not asm so I wouldn't have to dyno it. If you were to get bussted for the vin swap it wouldn't be worth it though:(

lol "somewhat legal"

I X2 The STI.

Guys I know its still going to be a few years till you can do this but technically once the car reaches 20 or 25 years of age can't you just get historic tags for it? I know you'd be limited to driving it on weekends and holidays between like 9 and 5 but still.

This has been discussed before,
The easiest way is to buy 2 clips, one front, one rear and have them shipped in. Combined, with shipping, it'll probably be 12-15k. Then, you'll have to re-assemble the car, get it inspected, and find a way to insure it and register it within the US. This I'd imagine will put another 2-3k on it easily.

So if you're willing to spend anywhere from 15-20k on a GT4, then be my guest. I love celicas, but honestly, I'm just switching to an MR2 at some point. Or if I decide to go 4wd, then 2.5RS here I come!

-TC

Or you just swap the vin tags after you get one in Canada.

^ can you say insurance fraud?

they dont take that too lightly from what I've heard

screw the sti and the evo. if there is a will there is a way. if you want it bad enough you will get one. look at pipes. he has a "gt4" in america. there's a real one in philly too. DO YOUR RESEARCH!

This post has been edited by garin: Jan 7, 2010 - 12:13 AM

Couldn't you just call it at kit car and get it over with? There's a guy who turned an MR2 into a Ferrari look alike and the insurance people actually TOLD him it was a kit car, and put him down two brackets on insurance. I'd say it's worth it to register it as a kit car. I can't see why you technically couldn't be able to...

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correct me if im wrong but i do believe all celicas are assembled in japan.

uhhmm, how long will it take you to save $12k?

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the gt4's in canada are coming from japan (or if not directly from japan , would be from japan orginally), or did you mean coming straight from japan?


as long as the chassis number starts of E-ST20...etc then its japanese




or you could move to NZ

This post has been edited by Rusty: Jan 7, 2010 - 3:48 AM

Yeah bro, i'd save the money and get one from canada. Get one right off the boat it'd be cheaper and easier than having one shipped from the other side of the world; right to your door step. (pretty sure the UPS guy would have trouble with that package)


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I saw one of those once. it was falling apart, the "glue" wasn't sticking any more. looked kinda like it was cool once, but at the time it was horrific. I'm gald they gave a discount. They should, just because the damn thing looked so ugly.

Just out of curiosity, if you got one from Canada, is it hard to import over? When my wife moved here in the states from Canada she left her Mazda RX-7 in Canada as it was, apparently, a pain in the ass to import over.

^ ^ It's not that importing a JDM car into the US is costly or difficult. It is impossible to import an entire car legally. The only avenues available are 'non-legal' ones.

The easiest and cheapest way is to have a US titled Celica the same color as a GT4 in canada. Drive the Celica across to canada, swap the VIN plates onto the GT-4, send the celica to the scrapmetal yard and drive your GT4 home. Don't forget to pray on your way across the border.

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I thought '94s were legal though to have here.

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what i meant is i believe that all the celicas in our planet came/made/maufactured in japan and nowhere else

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.

i didn't read all of the last post but it is possible to get a real GT4 in america legally... there was one for sale on here just a little bit ago in ohio for 25k.... its not IMPOSSIBLE so don't say that

Definition of what a kit car is has been redefined by NHDOT. Kit cars that do not feet their expected profile can be impounded if they do not meet the regulations. More importantly ST205 model is not on approved importation list so "legal" is actually illegal.

Also... do you remember companies like evolution imports who were allegedly importing gt-4's into usa? Well they got busted because what they were doing was illegal (kit cars that did not fit regulations).

There are only three legal ways to drive a gt4 here in the states. One is when you are on vacation from Canada and obtain proper paperwork and bring the car back with you and 2 is if you have official racing license and car was built as a race only car (and not a road car made into a race car). In the latter you have a limited amount of miles that you can drive and even more limited amount of time after which you have to ship the car back to where it came from. Also you can import a show car but there are so many restrictions and regulations that you will actually have to provide evidence of attending events and car has to be of historical or innovation importance.

All required info could be found here.

http://204.68.195.151/cars/rules/import/

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No. In Canada they are legal if 15 years old. In the USA they are legal after 25 years old.



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No. It is not federally legal. In order to do so, they need to have crash test data, and Toyota will not supply that. So they need some cars to crash; you willing to import enough cars for that (I hear numbers between 6-15 are needed)?

This is what Motrex went through when they legalized the R33's. It cost them a ton of money.

This post has been edited by sips: Jan 7, 2010 - 6:20 PM

-nics+
yes only if they start with an E, otherwise they are not

I want a gt4 so bad to but my plan is to find a junker 6gc and find a way to make on myself. I know it will be costly and hard to but I'm going to find a way to make it haappen.

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huh