The Challenges and Rewards of Importing a Nissan GT-R

For car enthusiasts, importing a high-performance vehicle like a Nissan GT-R can seem like an exciting adventure, but it's not always as straightforward as it seems. In fact, many GT-Rs are restricted from being imported into the United States due to various regulations and safety standards. So, what exactly is involved in bringing a GT-R across the border? Let's dive into the details.

First and foremost, there are registered importers who can help facilitate the process of importing a GT-R into the US. These importers specialize in modifying foreign vehicles to meet American safety and emissions standards, making it possible for owners to register their cars on public roads. However, this process can be time-consuming and expensive, as it requires significant modifications to ensure compliance with US regulations.

One way to bring a GT-R into the country is through the "25-year rule," which applies to vehicles manufactured before 1990. According to this rule, cars that are 25 years or older in model year are considered antiques, making it easier to import them without having to meet all of the stringent safety and emissions standards. This means that a 1989 GT-R would be eligible for importation, but later models like the R32 (produced from 1989 to 1994) would require more extensive modifications to become roadworthy.

The process of modifying a foreign vehicle to meet US standards can be complex and costly. For example, one of the key modifications required is converting the vehicle's OBD system to an OBD2 system, which was mandated by law in the United States. This conversion involves upgrading the car's computer system to ensure it meets modern emissions standards.

While importing a GT-R can be a challenging and expensive process, many enthusiasts are willing to take on the challenge for the thrill of owning such a high-performance vehicle. For those who have the means, an R34 GT-R is considered the holy grail, with its 300 horsepower all-wheel-drive system making it a formidable competitor on the road.

The allure of an R34 GT-R lies not only in its performance capabilities but also in its status as a legendary car. The GT-R has been featured prominently in popular culture, including in the Fast and Furious franchise, which has further cemented its reputation as a desirable vehicle among car enthusiasts.

However, owning an R34 GT-R is not without its challenges. One of the biggest hurdles is finding a reliable source for the car itself, as many importers are now limited by supply and demand. For those who do manage to secure an R34, they'll need to be prepared for the costs associated with importing and registering the vehicle in the United States.

In conclusion, importing a Nissan GT-R can be a complex and expensive process, but for those willing to take on the challenge, it can also be incredibly rewarding. With the 25-year rule providing an entry point for older models like the R32, enthusiasts have more opportunities than ever to bring high-performance vehicles into their collections.

If you're considering bringing an R34 GT-R into your life, be prepared for the costs and challenges that come with importing a foreign vehicle. However, for those who are willing to put in the effort, owning such a legendary car can be a truly unforgettable experience.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat is up everybody Mike here totally random Vlog subject today but uh it's one that came up last week so it's one I wanted to talk about and this might surprise some people CU I actually know a little bit about the subject even though you know my channel unfortunately so far has just been like American cars and that's because I haven't had access to any other type of cars yet you know if someone comes up to me tomorrow and says hey review my WRX you better believe I'm going to drive it it's just I haven't had access to it yet but I love all types of cars I I've said that before and one of my all-time favorites if I could own you know if I had a was rich and had a dream garage one car I'd heav there would be an R34 GTR and I was at supercars on state treat last weekend and there were a couple R32 GTRs there and the person I was walking with at the time was just like hey that's cool I thought they were illegal here you know I was like well something like that even though there's a whole backstory but you know there's tons of rumors out there about why GTRs and skylines in general are illegal in the US I've even heard crazy things like oh well they're too fast you know you can build 1,000 horsepower too easy too fast or illegal um but you know the the real answer is a lot less sexy and interesting as that it's basically just they were never designed for the US market and uh so you know there's a lot of different aspects of the car in different Generations that just don't comply with the FMV SS or their Federal Motor Vehicle Safety standards and regulations I think pretty sure it stands for that um yeah and it's just basically there's a lot of different reasons you know some generations were different so some didn't meet safety standards some actually did meet the crash test standards I think I think the R32 GTR did meet crash test standards but uh didn't meet emission standards so there's a lot of different reasons I mean there there's crazy little stuff like um you know you can import one here but you have to do a ton of stuff to it like you even need to add front bumper supports just because that's the specific law so basically the real simple answer is they were just never designed for the American market and why is that and it's basically because there was just no demand for GTRs here until the later years I mean and and it might seem really silly but Fast and the Furious was a huge part of that that that really opened up people's eyes that kind of brought the car to the general American attention and people were like holy crap you know this is a an affordable all-wheel drive 300 horsepower twin turbo car I want one and uh you know and the proof of that is that as soon as Nissan realized the demand for the next GTR in 2009 they released one for here and it's sold like and it's sold like absolute Hot Cakes so you know as soon as they realized the demand they built one for here and it did not disappoint and you know it's just a it's still to this day even though it's getting a little bit older now it's still just an a ridiculous car and uh totally lives up to the GTR name but yeah if I was rich and could have any car I would definitely have an R34 and just because to me that's just the coolest one of course that's what Paul Walker drove and it was just awesome for so many reasons but that's the one that I would most definitely have and uh you know moving into some of the reasons why well you know you see a bunch of them driving around and you say well how is that possible if they're illegal how are people driving them around and uh basically there are ways you can do it so here's where it gets a little tricky I know I said they were totally illegal um and you know to be honest some of the ones you see driving around are illegal here's one thing too is that you have to remember is that if you just see a GTR at a track or at a drag strip or something if you buy a car and trailer it to that place it doesn't have to be legal at all you can do you can build your own car and drive it on a private track or a drag strip and it doesn't matter so if you see a GTR in a setting like that it may be totally illegal and the person just trailers it there or they drive it illegally or whatever you know there's some driving around also that are illegal and generally if you keep your head out of trouble and or you know you keep your head low I should say um most places the police aren't going to go to the trouble of taking them but in major markets where the police know this is going on like in California for example uh the GTRs get confiscated and crushed as sad as it is many times they do they get they get seized by the police and then they get sent to a car crusher which is a really stupid thing for us car people but unfortunately that's just saying hey if it doesn't belong in the road you're driving it on the road it gets crushed so as stupid as it is it happens but basically there are ways to import a GTR legally and uh basically what you have to do is go through a registered importer and they can make them and this importer makes the necessary modifications to the car to drive it here so that's why you do see some that are totally legal registered driving around and uh but it's very difficult again in order to do that to go that route if you want one that's less than 25 years old which we'll get to in a second um you have to make it meet all those really stringent standards so you have to make sure that it meets crash test standards and emission standards and everything you know one one of the I forget if it's the r33 the R32 um it almost meets the standards except the only thing you need to do is convert the uh OBD to the OBD whatever system to an OBD2 system which was made to be uh it was a regulation that all Us cars had to have that in a certain year I don't know if it was in the 90s or whatever but you can basically make it legal doing that um so that's like one option and it's not that hard but that's just one year you know like I said some of them are different some of them it's really hard to make it legal um so you don't that's why you don't see hardly any of them it's just so much money like most things in life uh the problem can be solved if you have a lot of money but that's why you don't see a ton of them so what's this magic 25e rule that everyone talks about well the 25 year rule simply means that in the eyes of the United States government your car is now an antique if it's two if it's 25 years or older so it being 2015 uh so the model years for the original R32 GT R which was from 1989 uh well it started in 1989 and I think it went to 8 uh '94 the R32 generation and uh basically now that that's 25 years old it makes it a ton easier to import because you can import it without having it without having to make it meet all of those really uh stringent safety standards and everything so uh that's why you know everyone says oh 25 years old now and it's not as if it's like your golden ticket to Paradise um just because it's it's easier to import doesn't make it less expensive it's you still have to bring the car here from another country which is not exactly the easiest thing to do but it makes it a lot easier as far as the law is concerned as far as getting it registered to drive on the street so that's basically it so you know the real reason why they were always illegal it's just for a lot of different reasons they don't meet the standards that a US car needs and they were just never designed for the US market it's just that simple um but like I said you know it's a huge thing for me and one of the reasons why I wanted to make this Vlog is just because you know I want people out there to know I'm not just an American Car Guy and I would absolutely love when that time comes I will seriously consider getting an R34 GTR if I'm if I'm at a point in my life where I'm successful and I can afford it I would absolutely kill for it's called Cal Sonic blue as the color for those GTRs I would absolutely love one uh with gold wheels that's what I'd like but anyway you know just such a cool car and even today 300 horsepower all-wheel drive it just that's still is that's all you need today I mean that's still competing with a lot of cars that are being sold in 2015 so it's just incredible car and they really are uh the stuff of Legend not just because Fast and the Furious but that too and you know they've just been a great car for so many years so uh the sun here now ruining my shot um okay good that person's turning uh but anyway yeah so I hope everyone enjoyed thanks for watching little pull for a GTR there so yeah I hope everyone enjoyed and I hope everyone found this to be a little bit helpful that's just why they're illegal pretty pretty simple and boring explanation but that's it and I would absolutely love an R34 so if you have an R34 and you want to give it away please contact me but anyway as always thank you guys so much for watching always appreciate it if you're stopping in for the first time please subscribe and take care have a great daywhat is up everybody Mike here totally random Vlog subject today but uh it's one that came up last week so it's one I wanted to talk about and this might surprise some people CU I actually know a little bit about the subject even though you know my channel unfortunately so far has just been like American cars and that's because I haven't had access to any other type of cars yet you know if someone comes up to me tomorrow and says hey review my WRX you better believe I'm going to drive it it's just I haven't had access to it yet but I love all types of cars I I've said that before and one of my all-time favorites if I could own you know if I had a was rich and had a dream garage one car I'd heav there would be an R34 GTR and I was at supercars on state treat last weekend and there were a couple R32 GTRs there and the person I was walking with at the time was just like hey that's cool I thought they were illegal here you know I was like well something like that even though there's a whole backstory but you know there's tons of rumors out there about why GTRs and skylines in general are illegal in the US I've even heard crazy things like oh well they're too fast you know you can build 1,000 horsepower too easy too fast or illegal um but you know the the real answer is a lot less sexy and interesting as that it's basically just they were never designed for the US market and uh so you know there's a lot of different aspects of the car in different Generations that just don't comply with the FMV SS or their Federal Motor Vehicle Safety standards and regulations I think pretty sure it stands for that um yeah and it's just basically there's a lot of different reasons you know some generations were different so some didn't meet safety standards some actually did meet the crash test standards I think I think the R32 GTR did meet crash test standards but uh didn't meet emission standards so there's a lot of different reasons I mean there there's crazy little stuff like um you know you can import one here but you have to do a ton of stuff to it like you even need to add front bumper supports just because that's the specific law so basically the real simple answer is they were just never designed for the American market and why is that and it's basically because there was just no demand for GTRs here until the later years I mean and and it might seem really silly but Fast and the Furious was a huge part of that that that really opened up people's eyes that kind of brought the car to the general American attention and people were like holy crap you know this is a an affordable all-wheel drive 300 horsepower twin turbo car I want one and uh you know and the proof of that is that as soon as Nissan realized the demand for the next GTR in 2009 they released one for here and it's sold like and it's sold like absolute Hot Cakes so you know as soon as they realized the demand they built one for here and it did not disappoint and you know it's just a it's still to this day even though it's getting a little bit older now it's still just an a ridiculous car and uh totally lives up to the GTR name but yeah if I was rich and could have any car I would definitely have an R34 and just because to me that's just the coolest one of course that's what Paul Walker drove and it was just awesome for so many reasons but that's the one that I would most definitely have and uh you know moving into some of the reasons why well you know you see a bunch of them driving around and you say well how is that possible if they're illegal how are people driving them around and uh basically there are ways you can do it so here's where it gets a little tricky I know I said they were totally illegal um and you know to be honest some of the ones you see driving around are illegal here's one thing too is that you have to remember is that if you just see a GTR at a track or at a drag strip or something if you buy a car and trailer it to that place it doesn't have to be legal at all you can do you can build your own car and drive it on a private track or a drag strip and it doesn't matter so if you see a GTR in a setting like that it may be totally illegal and the person just trailers it there or they drive it illegally or whatever you know there's some driving around also that are illegal and generally if you keep your head out of trouble and or you know you keep your head low I should say um most places the police aren't going to go to the trouble of taking them but in major markets where the police know this is going on like in California for example uh the GTRs get confiscated and crushed as sad as it is many times they do they get they get seized by the police and then they get sent to a car crusher which is a really stupid thing for us car people but unfortunately that's just saying hey if it doesn't belong in the road you're driving it on the road it gets crushed so as stupid as it is it happens but basically there are ways to import a GTR legally and uh basically what you have to do is go through a registered importer and they can make them and this importer makes the necessary modifications to the car to drive it here so that's why you do see some that are totally legal registered driving around and uh but it's very difficult again in order to do that to go that route if you want one that's less than 25 years old which we'll get to in a second um you have to make it meet all those really stringent standards so you have to make sure that it meets crash test standards and emission standards and everything you know one one of the I forget if it's the r33 the R32 um it almost meets the standards except the only thing you need to do is convert the uh OBD to the OBD whatever system to an OBD2 system which was made to be uh it was a regulation that all Us cars had to have that in a certain year I don't know if it was in the 90s or whatever but you can basically make it legal doing that um so that's like one option and it's not that hard but that's just one year you know like I said some of them are different some of them it's really hard to make it legal um so you don't that's why you don't see hardly any of them it's just so much money like most things in life uh the problem can be solved if you have a lot of money but that's why you don't see a ton of them so what's this magic 25e rule that everyone talks about well the 25 year rule simply means that in the eyes of the United States government your car is now an antique if it's two if it's 25 years or older so it being 2015 uh so the model years for the original R32 GT R which was from 1989 uh well it started in 1989 and I think it went to 8 uh '94 the R32 generation and uh basically now that that's 25 years old it makes it a ton easier to import because you can import it without having it without having to make it meet all of those really uh stringent safety standards and everything so uh that's why you know everyone says oh 25 years old now and it's not as if it's like your golden ticket to Paradise um just because it's it's easier to import doesn't make it less expensive it's you still have to bring the car here from another country which is not exactly the easiest thing to do but it makes it a lot easier as far as the law is concerned as far as getting it registered to drive on the street so that's basically it so you know the real reason why they were always illegal it's just for a lot of different reasons they don't meet the standards that a US car needs and they were just never designed for the US market it's just that simple um but like I said you know it's a huge thing for me and one of the reasons why I wanted to make this Vlog is just because you know I want people out there to know I'm not just an American Car Guy and I would absolutely love when that time comes I will seriously consider getting an R34 GTR if I'm if I'm at a point in my life where I'm successful and I can afford it I would absolutely kill for it's called Cal Sonic blue as the color for those GTRs I would absolutely love one uh with gold wheels that's what I'd like but anyway you know just such a cool car and even today 300 horsepower all-wheel drive it just that's still is that's all you need today I mean that's still competing with a lot of cars that are being sold in 2015 so it's just incredible car and they really are uh the stuff of Legend not just because Fast and the Furious but that too and you know they've just been a great car for so many years so uh the sun here now ruining my shot um okay good that person's turning uh but anyway yeah so I hope everyone enjoyed thanks for watching little pull for a GTR there so yeah I hope everyone enjoyed and I hope everyone found this to be a little bit helpful that's just why they're illegal pretty pretty simple and boring explanation but that's it and I would absolutely love an R34 so if you have an R34 and you want to give it away please contact me but anyway as always thank you guys so much for watching always appreciate it if you're stopping in for the first time please subscribe and take care have a great day\n"