Just a question: How do Aussie's get R33s and R34s imported?

[Daemos]

As far as I'm aware Austrailia still has a 15 year import law no?

So how are there R33s and R34s on the street? Are these cars legal, or do they have some sort of "Motorex" in australia?

[Murphy]

They've had a system in place for low-volume imports for years. Anything not originally Australian market has to go through a compliancing procedure, involving some safety modifications etc. So not only can they get R33s and R34s, they can get Toyota Chasers, S15 Silvias, series VIII RX-7s, Cosmos, and so on. Someone has to get a certification to do compliancing on a particular type of vehicle, so if your garage were looking to specialize in Mazdas you'd get compliance plates for Cosmo, third gen RX-7, Roadster, maybe one or two others. Not all cars qualify either. For example most four doors under the previous system didn't qualify. Also lower performance vehicles didn't qualify. This was because the system was oriented towards imports of specialist high performance vehicles.

Now they have changed things considerably. It is quite a bit more difficult to get compliance plates. A workshop has to be ISO 9001 certified to do it, and you have to do side-impact tests. Also the 15 year rule is going bye-bye at the end of this year.

Cheers
Jason

[Daemos]

They've had a system in place for low-volume imports for years. Anything not originally Australian market has to go through a compliancing procedure, involving some safety modifications etc. So not only can they get R33s and R34s, they can get Toyota Chasers, S15 Silvias, series VIII RX-7s, Cosmos, and so on. Someone has to get a certification to do compliancing on a particular type of vehicle, so if your garage were looking to specialize in Mazdas you'd get compliance plates for Cosmo, third gen RX-7, Roadster, maybe one or two others. Not all cars qualify either. For example most four doors under the previous system didn't qualify. Also lower performance vehicles didn't qualify. This was because the system was oriented towards imports of specialist high performance vehicles.

Now they have changed things considerably. It is quite a bit more difficult to get compliance plates. A workshop has to be ISO 9001 certified to do it, and you have to do side-impact tests. Also the 15 year rule is going bye-bye at the end of this year.

Cheers
Jason

They're switching over to a 25 year law or what?

[Murphy]

I think they're scrapping the exemption entirely. Not quite sure on that point.

J

[Daemos]

I think they're scrapping the exemption entirely. Not quite sure on that point.

J

O.o; so it would make it *nearly* impossible and probally very expensive for cars to get in? Holy crap...

[Murphy]

Well the regular system is still in place and actually under the new rules they can bring in cars that they couldn't before, such as the Chaser. It's just that before, if a car was over 15 years old they could bring it in without modifications just like we can, and now they won't be able to do that.

[J-Spec Ben]

To come in and answer an incredibly old post.....

Yes we can take 33's and 34's, we have what's called the SEVS import scheme which if a car meets certain requirements (such as not being sold here originally, meeting a power to weight ratio minimum, etc) then it can be imported. We have to 'comply' a car which basically makes it meet Australian standards, such as putting the right seatbelts in, catalytic convertor, putting side intrusion bars into doors, and so on. As an example, R33's cost around $3,000 to comply, R34's about $4,000, so we have to add that to the price. They also can't be modified, which bites

Autralia USED to have a 15 year old rule until recently, the govt saw that all the cool cars started in 89/90 (R32's, Z's, 180SX's, MX-5's, Cosmos, Celsiors, etc) and changed it to a 1988 or earler rule, which leaves SFA... the odd Silvia, Cefiro and RX-7 are about the only '88 staples. This is all very GOOD for Canadians, Australian demand pushed 15 year old car prices in Japan artificially high and they have now dropped significantly... for example in the height of the Australian buying period a 1990 R32 was selling for around 1.1 million yen while a similar 1991 or 1992 model would fetch maybe 700 or 800k. Those who see the actual sale prices of cars may have noticed them dropping in recent months, which is good news for Canada.

Other stuff SEVS laws allow: series 8 RX-7's, Soarers (aka SC400), Supras, FTO's, GTO's, EVO 6-8, R32's, R33's, R34's, V35's, JZX100 Chasers, AE111 Corollas, RVR's, Delica SpaceGears, S15's, Stageas, GTiR's and 180SX's to name a few

[turbodiesel]

bloody nice idea for Aussie ppl... canadians could have adopt the idea of if-your-car-not-yet-met-canadian-safety-standards-modify-it-'til-it-is... but too bad our gov't/bureaucracy is too LAZY to think about that... =.="

i would like to see a JZX100 Chaser in Canada too (and got mistaken as a new Volvo XDDDDD)

modify your GTRs to have 8km/h bumper... no difficulties if you have away to create it! (but i dun care as long as R32 is OK to import)

whoever states that if your car ain't 15 year old, you cannot modify it and comply it... blah blah blah (whatever it is)... sue him.

alright i'm done