Sunday, December 28, 2008 - 02:59 pm, by: Scott Wilkes(Scottywilkes)
i think theres a specific cutoff date that LHD cars can be registered, and they can only be registered as a Special interest vehicle, so you can only drive them so much in the year. Thats my understanding
Sunday, December 28, 2008 - 06:18 pm, by: Mike Bradberry(Halflife)
Lance, I can foresee many problems with doing that. Firstly, the Aussie dollar is not great at the moment as far as the exchange rate is concerned, secondly the cost to import from the USA would be astronomical. I can't really see why you would want to drive a left hand drive vehicle in any case. If the issue is buying a late model Soarer (SC400), they do come up from time to time in the usual places i.e. Ebay, Carsales, Motorpoint, Carpoint etc. It would be good to check out the model though as I have seen 94' models advertised as 2000 models. Clearly this is the compliance date and not the year model of the car.
Sunday, December 28, 2008 - 07:55 pm, by: Lance Moon(Lancemoon)
Thanks Scott and Mike.
The reason of LHD SC400 is firstly, after the 98 has VVT-I engine and 5Speed AUtomatic, and secondely drive the LHD is my favour.
Act, I do not worry about extras, just worry about compliance and registration. otherwise i think about buy that and stay in usa more then 1 yr and bring it here.
Sunday, December 28, 2008 - 08:54 pm, by: Mike Bradberry(Halflife)
Lance said "The reason of LHD SC400 is firstly, after the 98 has VVT-I engine and 5Speed AUtomatic" OK now I'm more clear on exactly why you want one from the USA.
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 02:13 am, by: Joshua Rao(Soaren1)
There were apparently 2 actual sc's in Australia prior to the soarer movement. Maybe hunt them down or convert your to V8 vvti and 6 speed Getrag from supra. Would be nice to have a real SC though.
Ben Socratous Goo Roo SA I am the fibreglass/kevlar/carbonfibre king!
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 10:02 am, by: Ben Socratous(Socrates)
In SA we have just changed the LHD drive laws to be over 30 years old too. Also, the owning for a year part of your plan... in SA you actually have to prove that YOU lived over seas with the car as well, not just had the car garaged somewhere while you were over here. If it were that simple, we'd have so many cars on the road using that loophole that would otherwise not be allowed.
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 11:01 am, by: Dave Rose(Sand_groper)
Yes you are right Ben , they will check your passport to see if you were in the right country for the right time. It would be nice to have wti +5sp ...but i love the air bags, EMV, dig dash etc .
Mike Triggs Goo Roo Western Australia 3.0GT G-Pack
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 12:07 pm, by: Mike Triggs(Mikeandimah)
WA & NT allow LHD drive cars to be registered. There are a few here in Exmouth, the US service personnel bring them in (and I guess take 'em home again as they'd be hard to sell being weird US models). There are also plenty getting around Alice Springs from Pine Gap people. Other states, forget it unless you have deep pockets.
Sounds like a lot of trouble to get a VVTi V8 and 5-speed- better to get from a later Lexus out of Japan maybe.
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 01:43 pm, by: Peter Callegari(Peterc_69)
i had a look into importing a car from japan. I'm not sure if the same law applies from USA but a family friend owns an import company and he said that you can't privately import any vehicle that has a production date after 1992. I think he told me the reason was that people will then import all the current model cars for dirt cheap prices from japan. EG, was looking into importing a 2008 suzuki swift for my girlfriend which would've worked out to about $12000AUS plus taxes on top. More than half the same model was currently selling into Australia. I had the car lined up and everything and unfortunately was told that i'd never get it into the country. I'm not sure if the same rule applies to the USA but i'd imagine there'd be some limit. Otherwise there are some car import companies around that can legally import cars here, but you'll pay through the roof for them to do it
Mike Triggs Goo Roo Western Australia 3.0GT G-Pack
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 01:53 pm, by: Mike Triggs(Mikeandimah)
Our Soarer came in last year as a personal import, and it's a 1997 model. The personal import scheme allows for any model/year as long as RH drive for most states.
As for a "private" import I was suggesting a half-cut, not a whole car to be registered. Presumably the later VVTi V8 and auto 'box would fit in with few modifications to a V8 Soarer.
Mike Beck Goo Roo New Zealand Soarer Limited UZZ31 V8
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 03:36 pm, by: Mike Beck(Gold_40gt)
Mike Triggs wrote on Monday, December 29, 2008 - 01:53 pm:
As for a "private" import I was suggesting a half-cut, not a whole car to be registered. Presumably the later VVTi V8 and auto 'box would fit in with few modifications to a V8 Soarer.
Thats what I was thinking.
Would be a worth while upgrade if you had the money to do it.
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 05:35 pm, by: Mike Triggs(Mikeandimah)
Peter Nitschke wrote on Monday, December 29, 2008 - 04:29 pm:
I read somewhere that the 5 speed auto isn't a great box, might reduce the enjoyment a bit.
Yes, if it's the same box as used in Lexus 470 and Landcruiser, many journos bagged the 'box in tests. I'd assume it is as the 4.7l engine is essentially the same (detuned for 4WD use although torque was relatively high if outputs weren't great for a 4.7l).