Importing E34???

[5two5i]

Hello all,

I am currently stationed in Germany, I have been looking to ship an E34 back to the states but I am having troubles finding info on what it will cost to have one imported. I have contacted many different importers in the states with no feedback. I am trying to find out the cost, and in detail what all has to be changed.

Oh and will they do an emissions check.

Thanks for any help that you can provide.
West

Could not find in search.

[Tj Hunter]

You should be able to have it shipped with the Army. As of a few years ago, you had to sign some sort of waiver that the car is for personal use only and if you were to ever sell it, the car would have to be returned to country of origin. I would look into that route.

[muckRunner]

yeah, a buddy of mine shipped his VW from germany to the states, and i had my truck shipped from TN to Hawaii and then back to New Orleans. talk to your travel office. they can point you in the right direction. you wont be able to ship it till you get orders for home though.

[xatlas0]

Hello all,

I am currently stationed in Germany, I have been looking to ship an E34 back to the states but I am having troubles finding info on what it will cost to have one imported. I have contacted many different importers in the states with no feedback. I am trying to find out the cost, and in detail what all has to be changed.

Oh and will they do an emissions check.

Thanks for any help that you can provide.
West

Could not find in search.

I'd go the Army route, as otherwwise you are talking about an ~10k proposition, just for federalization, and yes, they run the car through the full range of EPA tests.

Another member on here recently snagged an E34 B10-Biturbo and it was an armload of cash for the fed process. Depending on the age, we are inching closer to the free-for-all age, which is 25 years old. In Canada, it is 15 years.

[sfgearhead]

If you want to ship back an M5 touring/wagon I'm interested!

But the other guys have the right answers, for us civilians it normally doesn't make sense financially for anything you can buy here.

[ross1]

Getting it here should be the easy part. registering it will be difficult as Euro cars require modifications(that well exceed any E34s value)to meet emmision and crash tests.
There are ways to run black market cars if you aren't risk adverse. Plenty of E34s here on the cheap that you can register in fifty states.
Having Uncle Sam pick up the freight tab is a big benefit that I'd save for a more significant car that will be desireable and legal when you get home.

[UberFunfer]

My E34 was handpicked and imported from Japan to Canada. As mentioned, any car can be imported into Canada once it has reached 15 years old. In the US, it is 25. The JDM import segment is huge in Canada, and that makes importation simple and inexpensive. In the states, it's another story.

If there is no specific reason that you must have your 525 imported, better to sell it and buy one here. They're incredibly inexpensive in the states.

[eightynine535]

Too bad you are not a foreign citizen. The US allows a foreigner to ship over a foreign registered car for personal use. The draw back??? It is allowed to be used on US streets for only 1 year.:(

[kalevera]

Mine cost a grand in freight and a little under 10 in federalization fees... The other thing to note is that it really doesn't matter what you do to the car to bring it to US spec, the RI is still going to charge you the same amount of money. The difference is that you can do the work (and know how it will be done) versus having the RI hacks molest the car.

[5two5i]

Thanks for all the help guys, its looking like I will pull all my parts off before I leave, and buy another one when i get back top the states.