[kismetcapitan]

I thought it might be interesting to collect in one thread information about which countries welcome Skylines, which don't, and which countries do people manage to get around the law anyways. I'll start with what I know for certain:

friendly countries:

Japan (obviously)
UK (obviously)
Australia (not sure on details re: legalization)
Hong Kong
South Korea (costs about USD$5000 in taxes to bring in, but that's about it)
Canada (at least 15 years old)


difficult countries:

United States (basically illegal now, but there are grey market ways, and there are a few hundred registered Skylines, many of them fully complianced or with full federal legalization)
Singapore
New Zealand (did the laws recently change making Skylines hard to keep or import over there? I think I read that somewhere)


impossible countries:
??

 

[Asim R32GTR]

Norway :chairshot

 

[Rain]

Singapore isnt that hard, you just have to pay crazy taxes on the car, i think like 150% or something, but a Taxi driver told me if you had good govnt. connections you can bring any car you want there, while there i spotted rather few Bulls and Horses so i shouldnt thing a Skyline would kick up a fuss to them anymore. they are getting rich quick.

 

[Chingy]

In New Zealand every man, and his dog has owned or driven a skyline at least once. You can just drive around Auckland, and you'll see every thing from the lowest spec r32 gte to gtr. There are just some many around here like you wouldn't believe.

i may be wrong but i think new zealand had the second most skylines per capita following japan

 

[Bite Me]

Australia does accept the importation of Skylines under its strict importing laws, which include no accident repair history (exculding dings and stratches), no heavy modifications done to the car (excluding lightly bolt on mods ie wheels, suspension providing you have the stock parts).

For xenon lights equipped Skylines (R33 GT-R S3, some R34's) requires removal of the system as it is not approved by dept of transport as they are not self levelling or something like this (from what i understand), it could easily replaced by normal non xenon units and pass the compliancing process.

Other than these, just need normal things to meet the criteria for licencing process, tyres, fuel filler restrictor, other things i forget.

So put Australia as friendly country to own a Skyline.

 

[gtrlux]

Japan (obviously)
UK (obviously)
Australia (not sure on details re: legalization)
Hong Kong
South Korea (costs about USD$5000 in taxes to bring in, but that's about it)
Canada (at least 15 years old)
Luxembourg (R32&R33)+10 years old
Belgium (R33) might be also possible for R32
Germany (R32-R33? and R34)
Holland (R32-R33-R34)
Italy (R34)


difficult countries:

United States (basically illegal now, but there are grey market ways, and there are a few hundred registered Skylines, many of them fully complianced or with full federal legalization)
Singapore
New Zealand (did the laws recently change making Skylines hard to keep or import over there? I think I read that somewhere)



impossible countries:
France
Spain?

 

[SAMFISHER]

NZ is definately one of the most friendly car import wise.
No tariffs or compliance costs.
However, can only (as of 3-4 years ago) register new imports that are manufactured 1996 on (complying with a change in safety standards at that time). Heaps of R32's and older R33's already here though.

 

[Eikichi]

impossible countries:
France

Yeah I confirm that :chairshot :chairshot :chairshot

Spain, there's a guy who lived in France & kinda imported a GTR from the UK but still fully registered in the UK which is getting it registered in Spain
For France, a guy bought one recently & is still in the process to register it, but sounds easier to find the Holy Grail than registering a Skyline in France :nervous:

 

[CarCouture]

East Europe

Hi there,

I have inported two GTr's into Slovakia and both are road legal. have no problems registering anything, just bring it over :O)
Importing is not the problem, there is just the tax. If indicated as scrap or part taking car then the tax is minimal. Registering is more difficultbut certainly possible. Even with right hand drive there is no problem. If anyone is interested in using my services for a european license, feel free to contact me. There are many ways of getting a road legal skyline in your drive way.

 

[Scott]

Lots in Malaysia, even have their own club, a few visit here.

 

[Micky Hanson]

Thought Italy would be hard to import a RHD

 

[Perra]

In Sweden it´s no big problem. We have most of the versions of R32, R33 and R34 here.

/P

 

[Pekuman]

Finland: car taxes, registration costs, emission tests, very expensive (R32,R33)
Pretty much impossible with R34, even with big wad of dough...

We have several R32, 1 or 2 R33 and one R34. Finland sucks as a Skyline country..

 

[Dougie]

Just went through the process of legalising a GTR 33 here in Belgium and its an expensive pain in the ****. After the high import costs, you need to pay about 3000 euro to get it past the 'Control Technique' and then its another few grand to pay a one off 'immatriculation' cost to put it on the road. This whole process takes a few months too. (I've been without mine for the past 14 weeks)

All worth it though!

 

[Eikichi]

Just went through the process of legalising a GTR 33 here in Belgium and its an expensive pain in the ****. After the high import costs, you need to pay about 3000 euro to get it past the 'Control Technique' and then its another few grand to pay a one off 'immatriculation' cost to put it on the road. This whole process takes a few months too. (I've been without mine for the past 14 weeks)

All worth it though!

So how much is the final bill mate? (I'm just curious that's all )

 

[Dougie]

I bought the car direct from a Japanese auction (if you dont mind i wont tell you how much that was). The boat cost me nearly 2 grand because i wanted it delivered to Zeebrugge which meant i had to pay for a whole container, then there was a 3 grand bill at the docks, this was for haulauge, unpacking, customs, VAT and all that stuff, then there was the 3 grand for the legalisation and I havent got the bill for the immatriculation yet but i think thats about 1500!! I got a great deal on the car originally because its in mint condition with only 50K kms on it but at this stage its gettin expensive!!

Oh and there is only one mechanic in Brussels that will service it and he charged me €900 for it.

The only saving grace is that my insurance is only 1200 a year and considering i'm 26 thats not bad!!

Still worth it though!

James

 

[m6beg]

Just went through the process of legalising a GTR 33 here in Belgium and its an expensive pain in the ****. After the high import costs, you need to pay about 3000 euro to get it past the 'Control Technique' and then its another few grand to pay a one off 'immatriculation' cost to put it on the road. This whole process takes a few months too. (I've been without mine for the past 14 weeks)

All worth it though!

ahhhh.

Love the tunnels in Brussels :flame: :flame:

****

 

[KKR]

Dougie, was your R33 first registered in UK or did it come directly from japan?

 

[KKR]

Sorry, question has been answered but was not yet on my screen! To which control technique did you go? Schaerbeek? Would they charge the same for a 1993 R32GTR?

 

[Dougie]

Hey KKR, if you want give me a call on 0494-088179 and i'll talk you through the whole process!! its a bit more complicated than just turning up at the control technique!