Shipping my RX8 to the USA
 

Hey guys!

I am relocating from Singapore to Pittsburgh, pa. Need some advice please..

1) My 8's a Japan Domestic Model, that means it right-hand drive (RHD). Are RHD's allowed on the roads in the US?

2) Is it possible to convert a RHD RX8 to a left-hand drive? If yes.. how much will the estimated cost be and will there be any expected problems after the conversion?

Hope someone can help. Thank you very much! :)

There's nothing illegal about having a RHD car. Our mail trucks are RHD ;)

you can do it, but I know theres tricks/fees to be handled. Please don't convert your RHD to LHD, you would be one of very few if any :/

You can call yourself true JDM!

u could ship it, or if it's not highly modded, just buy one here, they are quite cheap used.

^+1

If you're bringing it as a show/track car then that's fine but as a daily driver a RHD is gonna attract a lot of attention when you're driving around Pittsburgh and you might end up getting pulled over by curious cops. I also don't know how Mazda dealerships in the US will react to warranty claims, etc. since yours is an import. You're probably much better off selling your 8 in Singapore and then buying a used 8 in or around Pittsburgh.

But I would love to see a JDM 8 cruising the streets.

OMG a RHD RX-8, that's gotta be sick. I can't imagine the head turning that creates....

there's a lot to keep in mind when importing a vehicle into the US.. DOT/NHTSA, EPA, customs, and modifying to meet safety/emissions for US.. it is very time consuming and may be better off contacting a company that specializes in vehicle importation.

that would be sweeeeeeeettttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like to remain true to my first love.. I'm conservative like that :cool:

My baby's well modded.. and I intend to mod heavily before I ship it to the US (if that's viable..) :)

Good advise. Unfortunately for me, selling my 8 in Singapore would be a costly affair (due to the credit structure here). My 8 is already not entitled to warranty because its considered a parallel import purchase (JDM) in Singapore, so that's not a concern to me also..

Thanks everyone for the great advise and support! It'll really be sweet if I can ship my car over.. I'm now checking for import regulations and the other stuff krush7 had mentioned. Will let everyone know if it works out..

are you w/ the military or some kind of foreign service, ie consulate, etc.? if not, i have a feeling it'd be VERY hard to get the car registered, but i may be wrong. in general, gray imports are extremely difficult and costly to do in the US, unless it's a classic car. there's also exception for cars intended for show and cars used solely for racing. there's a list of importable cars on some website, maybe DOT's. make sure you're fully aware of what you're getting yourself into before you ship your car. don't want your *first love* to be impounded and crushed, do you?

I can't believe that people are telling this guy it's a good idea. There is no way it's even remotely cost effective to ship it. I was going to tell you it was a bad idea if it were even LHD...
You could probably buy a decnet car in Pittsburgh for what it';; cost you to get that car over here and registered.

This is correct if you intend to spend more than a year in the US. If you are thinking of spending under a year, cars can be imported and driven on their foriegn registrations.

The only way to import a late model vehicle into the US is to use a shipping company who specializes in this work. They will get the import license for you, find out the DOT modifications that are necessary (transfer to Left Hand Drive conversion would take the virtual disassembly of the entire car and rebuilding it to accomplish the task if that is a necessary conversion). Cars are not accepted at all from some countries. The conversions have to be made by a company who specializes in it and that the DOT trusts to do the conversion. It can be easy. It can be hard. It really depends on how many conversions need to be made.

Here, Check out this web-site. It will tell you more than I can.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/

You are probably right, however some people do it for fun. I once passed a guy driving a 1974 MG B GT with a factory Rover V8 and British plates. He brought it over to drive while he was working here just because he had one of three in the entirety of North America. Man, was that a fast MG.

i wanted to do this with a s15. = ). but im broke : (

I don't think you can import the S15 for use on public roads. I don't think anyone has done a crash test on them (feel free to prove me wrong on that one). Then there's the trouble of getting it smogged. And god only knows what kind of fees there are even if it was legal.

Sell it and get a brand new 09 here for coins cheaper.

w/ s15 it's been done 'cuz i've seen several of them running around here in soCal. you don't have to do crash test; there're other ways. crash test is for if you want them to be basically unaltered as they were and 100% legally registered in the US, the strictly by-the-law way. other ways involve loopholes one way or another

My cousin has an imported Integra (RHD), so yes, it's not illegal.

Illegal? Negative.

EXPENSIVE? Yes. :(

It's possible, but I'd think it'll probably be way too much trouble and money. Not to mention the toll booths on the East Coast are going to be a bit of a pain.

It was around 3g's to bring that car from Japan. So yes.. Expensive.

you can buy used rx8s for $15,000 here in the states.

its not going to be cost effective.