While not identical to her, one of her siblings. 
Yeah, I’m totally serious. An AE86 Corolla. A HachiRoku. A Toyota Sprinter Trueno. Call her what you will, but I found a way to get one, in good shape, and with a special feature you won’t find on the cars for sale on this soil…
She’ll be right-hand drive.
RHD? How?
Easy — I’m going to import myself a HachiRoku from Japan, her country of origin.
You see, this isn’t as hard as it sounds… To be quite honest. And it’s not as expensive as you’d think.
Then again, I’m not 100% sure if I will indeed go for the HachiRoku or if I’ll instead get one of these pretties, an FC3S RX-7. Heaven knows I want both pretty bad.
Tough competition, honestly. Depends on who's better priced & stock I'm sure...
Import Laws
My biggest concern was finding an AE86 Trueno for sale, which turned out to be not so much of an issue. They’re available, kinda easy to find once you know where to look, and yes, you can find one untouched.
That’s the key — finding one stock. The car needs to be stock in order to get a waiver from the EPA saying the car does not need to comply with current emissions standards, as long as the car is over 21 years old.
When filling out the declaration form, you can bypass all the current safety laws and the need for the car to be up to US standards as long as the car is 25 years old or older.
That’s pretty much it. It comes down to paying the duty on the car, which I’m still pretty unclear about, but the rate for a car is 2.5%. (There are some extra rules if the car is purchased under certain circumstances, like during a trip.)
The cost of the car isn’t so bad, honestly. Where else can I find a pretty much mint AE86 for under $6,000? HA!
And to ship the car from Japan to Los Angeles or Long Beach costs $2,500 or so, for an entire 20 ft. container to put the car in.
The Plan
I had been thinking a lot about my next project car, honestly.
There’s a 240Z build I want to do with an RB26DETT power plant. But that’ll be expensive and one crazy build… Not ready for it yet.
I thought about wanting to do an old Austin Mini project, the cute RHD ones with a Honda B18. Those get pretty expensive too, honestly, and I’m searching for another shell.
Here, I can have either a Trueno or an RX-7, blank canvas but running, wonderfully taken care of (because the Japanese don’t abuse their cars) and even with the RHD factor.
Besides…
If I can teach myself all these rules, I could possibly help other people do this. It’s definitely not for everyone, though. I’m one of the few crazies you’ll probably meet who would prefer to have a 25 year old car to a brand new one and even attempt to navigate the legal headaches bound to occur just for… A Corolla?
Hell yeah!!
Then Again…
In my legal searching, I found something startling. Something I did not know.
That it is, actually, legal to import a Skyline. It must be an R33, and it must be manufactured between very restrictive dates. After importation, it must meet current standards within 120 days…
So basically, you can have your R33 GT-S or GT-R, but she’s gonna cost you a very pretty penny to make legal. (But you CAN have one.)
Pretty, huh? R33's happen to be my favorite Skylines too...
Food for thought, for sure. I think I’m going to head with this plan, then again, I can always hope we end up stationed in Japan now… I’ll just buy some cars I know I can take home with me. (And stockpile the stock parts, so that I definitely can!!)
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Anonymous // May 11, 2010 at 7:36 am
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Sounds good, I think the hard work to get a legal GT-R would be the most worthwhile.
Go with the AE86!
Rick, two issues stand out to me: First, it’s expensive, second, the work you have to do kinda compromises the spirit of what the GT-R is. It’ll weigh the car down and pretty much turn a lion into a kitten, in a sense.
I was shocked that they’re legal to import, though, but don’t be shocked if it costs you $100k to get her here and legal.
(But don’t get me wrong, this country blows for importing anything. Even the older cars are expensive.)
Awesome car & blog, btw.
My hubby used to have the US-Spec EG, an EH. He made his kinda look like your EG6, because that’s what he wanted. So when I see yours, I see what his used to be, and it brings back wonderful memories of the time I spent in England with him and her. ^_^
I really, really want to!!
I say go for the Corolla. In all honesty you will never find another driving experience like it! Ive enjoyed owning two so far and while its been one hurdle after another with my particular car and lots of scrapped knuckles the reward far outways the work you put into them.
FCs are great. Ive also owned an NA GXL. They handle pretty well and of course, its an RX-7. Then again I also own a 93 TT RX-7 and can tell you without a doubt, I still prefer to drive my Corolla! I know it sounds crazy but you simply wont understand it until you drive a Corolla GT-S. Its a special ownership experince that I will no longer trade for the world.
I’m very glad to hear it, because it would suck to go through so much to get something only to turn around and say, “Now, *why* did I do that?”
For some reason, the old, “underpowered” tiny cars just fit me. I can’t imagine finding a better pair than my Miata and 240SX, and an AE86 would be the proverbial cherry on the cake.
Damn, is it honestly that expensive? I think you’d be better off back in England, you can pick up a R33 GT-R for around £10k, lol crazy.
Thanks for the compliments, they are very big over in the US, not so many SiR models here in the UK which is good. You should upload some pic’s on flickr of your husbands EG, would love to check it out. Where did you stay in the England then?
Yeah, and I would LOVE to go back to England.
(We’re hoping he’ll get stationed there for our next move, either that or Japan.) Honestly, I want to live there after we’re all done with the military….. Not sure if that would work out well yet or not.
I’m guessing there would be maybe one or two tops actual SiR’s here Stateside. I’ve only seen two EK Type-R’s, which I think are a tad more popular than the SiR, but I could be wrong. I’ll see if he’ll let me dig up some of his old good pictures of her, she was a cutie.
He was stationed at RAF Mildenhall, so I stayed there with him. When we had free-time, we spent most of it in Cambridge, which I loved. I was over there for three weeks over Christmas and New Year’s, so there wasn’t a whole lot going on for me to see. Plus I wasn’t as much of a car nut as I am now, so even if I had been to some of the cool things I probably wouldn’t have appreciated as much as I would be able to now. (At least I can say I’ve seen Skylines in person, but the only pictures I have of a Skyline is an R34 GT-S that we ran into here…. Ha.)
ohh my dear lord , you know how good it is to hear a lass call it a hatchiroku, most people over here in the uk dont even know what it is. ive owned a few cars from 70′s vw’s to a 1965 uk ford cortina a 300 bhp drift 200sx s14a , but the most fun and dissapointment i have had is in the rolla i couldnt imagine driving another car if im honest 130bhp and its scary as hell
.
so if im honest i cant recommend the 86 enough
just do it
also as a side not i love your blog, i have a litle blog of my own and would love if you could contribute once in a while as its nice to have other perspectives (dont worry i would understand if you didnt want to) also ive blog rolled you as im sure folk will be reading plenty more of your stuff.
so you know the blog is a london take on the jap scene especially the 86 and a few other bits aswell.
well any way enough of going on
have a great day and hope to speak soon
Go for a 25 years or older car. Less overall hassles. Although the R32 GT-R’s do turn 21 years old in August, we still have a few more years to wait to clear DOT regulations.
Over 25 years is less hassle, still some hassles. If you are in California, you have to fight with the DMV a bit. Even other states, you have to fight with the DMV’s a bit.
If you ship it from Japan, ship it Ro-Ro. Much cheaper, and a container is probably really not necessary.