Subject: Import, Headache and Heartache!!

[Mike Arman <armanmik@n-jcenter.com>]

>
>Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 15:29:40 +0100
>From: Geir Nystadius <geir@black-hole.com>
>Subject: Import, Headache and Heartache!!
>
>Dear fellow listers,
>
>The saga continues...
>
>Right now I'm not very far from a nervous breakdown..Have anyone any
>experience on importing vehicles into the US?  If you're a "little man" and
>not a large company it's kind of overwhelming...
>


I did a 1968 280SL some years back - it was a real PITA.

You have to deal with two federal agencies - EPA, which will give you a
one-time- per-your lifetime exemption, and NHSTA, which wants your import
to match the safety standards for the equivalent domestic model of your
car. I think there's a website which tells you how to do it.

On the MB, I needed a label which stated the GVW, and labels for "lights"
and "defrost" and I think some other very minor stuff. Also had to put in
seatbelts. The 1968 model year was EASY, because very soon thereafter, the
cars became very different and almost impossible to federalize.

Fortunately for me, I made an KEPT duplicates of EVERY scrap of paper
involved, every invoice, photograph, certified mail receipt (don't EVER
send anything to Uncle Sam unless it is certified!!!!!!!!), etc., because
about a year later, I got a letter from the EPA telling me to present my
car at the Port of Jacksonville TOMORROW MORNING AT 9AM SHARP so they could
seize it and crush it because I hadn't complied with the EPA paperwork
according to subchapter blah blah paragraph blah blah blah.

Luckily, I had kept everyting, and sent them ANOTHER set of duplicates and
they stopped bothering me.

I seem to recall your saying that you would be here for about a year, and
then you are going back (correct me if I'm wrong . . . ). If that is the
case, I'd suggest you put the car in storage at home and get some beater
while you're here. I'm not one to duck a fight, but the US Federal
Bureaucracy is impossibly complex, totally unresponsive, and has unlimited
time and unlimited resources. Some battles simply cannot be won, and even
if you could win this one, you have to ask yourself if it would be worth it
to drive your car here for only one year.


>
>First I called AOA. They told me to contact a "Registered importer". I sent
>fax to 7 import companies in NY area. None of them answered!!!! What's the
>matter with them? Don't they want to make money?
>
>Then I called Audi in Sweden to ask if they could help me with a list on
>the differences between the "Euro model" and the "American model" of the S4
>avant.
>The answer?? You guessed it! No one could help me with that.
>So if not Audi, who makes these 2 models, can't tell me the difference. Who
>can??
>This must be what they call "Customer service" :-((
>Well, I got the fax number to Audi in Ingolstadt. I'll give it a shot.

You may have to do a comparison part by part with the fische - this is a
BIG job, and should not be undertaken lightly. Audi of anywhere simply
wants you to buy a new car.




>
>Why don't I just sell it and buy a new in the US and save me all the trouble?
>First of all I have put a lot of TLC and money into her and secondly I'm a
>very stubborn person. Now it's a matter of principles and prestige. I guess
>when the car touches US soil it will be a veteran ready for the museum ;-)
>
>

Exactly the problem - the Feds don't give a damn, and can and will wait
until hell freezes over. The only time the government moves quickly is when
IT wants something from YOU, never when you want something from it. They
are both an immovable object AND an irresistable force here - heartbreaking
as it may be, I just don't see doing this - and I doubt you'll find much in
the way of support from our "elected officials" either - 

I hate to say this, but sometimes you just have to take NO for an answer.

(I wonder what would happen if you quietly imported the car to Mexico,
where presumably the officials are more "reasonable", and then *drove* it
to the US and thus avoid the extensive customs examinations of your
"non-conforming" car?? If you are only VISITING here, your car doesn't need
to conform . . . Maybe a Mexican shell corporation or using a non-US mail
forwarding address to own the car?? How about some of these no-title or
lost title states - if you're going back, just keep your original title,
get a "replacement" here, and register the car . . . food for thought!)


Good luck on this - you'll need it!

Best Regards,

Mike Arman