North America Imports, Its Slowly Slipping Away, Spread the word, Discuss & Educate

[archaeic_bloke]

Many of you, are by now aware that SOMETHING is going on in North America in relation to the whole Skyline import, Right hand drive car fiasco... There are those of us who love what we do, and are very passionate about our cars, and there are others that are trying to take away our dreams from us.

Recently one of our Authors @ The SkyLife has been deeply involved in the U.S. scandal involving illegally registered skylines, which are now being seized by the government one by one, Sean (the Author) has been trying very hard to get the message out there that people need to be aware that this is happening.

whether they think their car is legal or not, it just makes sense to inform yourself, and learn how to protect yourself. Sean has been offering advice to those in need and doing his best to get the word out there, as to which steps to follow to protect your cars.

Anyways, with all that going on, I ended up having a discussion with him about why Skylines are illegal in the USA, which made me realize that, what the U.S. has done, is not so different then what we are now going through here in Canada.

The motives seem all too familiar to be coincidence, heres the link to my Response: http://www.skylife4ever.com/2011/03/...o-this-is.html

And heres the link to Sean's original post: http://www.gtrusablog.com/2011/03/th...kyline-is.html



Whether you think this will affect you or not is not the issue, a time may come when each one of us may come under fire for doing the things we love, when a small population of enthusiasts is under attack, I believe it is our duty as fellow enthusiasts to inform ourselves, spread the word, and most of all, EDUCATE the public who knows otherwise nothing of our passion, and show them that we are not the enemy, we are merely being cast in a negative light by those with vested interests in seeing our ability to continue doing what we love, diminished.

I'm posting this for all the reasons stated above, I'm not making any specific claims really, or judging anyone, I'm merely hoping that we can start the biggest discussion possible on this subject, get the word out there, and hopefully, by some miracle, influence public opinion on our cause.

For those of you in other parts of the world, I would REALLY like to hear what kind of grief if any you had to go through to register and plate your cars, and what sort of procedures you must follow to comply with regulation.

So, Post a response if you care and agree, but even more importantly post a response if you disagree, explain any perspective you may have, and if you can't be bothered to post for either for of those reasons. Then post to show your support for those who must stand in face of adversity, and pray that you are not one day in their position.

[Matty]

The events in the US have no bearing on us here. The Canadian import industry is fine. We pulled through what was arguably our toughest year (2010) since importing became popular and here we stand.

The US cars that were impounded were illegal, plain and simple. If you live in the US and the car isnt 25 years old, don't import it.

[archaeic_bloke]

Agreed! ...

But in quebec... we did follow the rules, and they changed them on us in the middle of the game...

I've heard rumor of manitoba being next, and with the $hit coming out of CADA... I'll be honest, I am starting to worry a little bit... the reason is because I find canada to often slowly follow US trends across a number of different issues, and with the US snatching up illegal cars recently, my concern is that provincial leaders may use that crackdown as fuel in their fight saying things like "The USA is very harshly against these vehicles, therefore we need to be too!" know what I mean?

[Matty]

Quebec is a case of its own though. They do not follow federal standards, they set their own. Im not bagging on Quebec either (my last name is Lacroix ).

The Manitoba rumors have been around for ages now, as have some in Ontario. BC, etc etc. At the end of they day, they remained rumors.

There were rumors when this industry blew up back in 2004 that bans would happen and there will still be rumors 10 years from now when we are importing R34's and other cars.

If Canada was going to follow US standards, our import laws would be 25 years. Is we do follow in their footsteps now then yes there may be crackdowns, but on illegal imports.


The US isnt being harsh on these vehicles, they are being harsh on the illegal ones. Look at how many classic rhd imports there are in the US (see japanesenostalgiccar.com) and they don't get hassle because they followed the rules.


(side note: These are not the opinions of RightDrive. These are the opinions of me, Matty)

[Nismo_line]

as stated above yes they were just rumors that have also been around for a long time. i think every province has there rumors about rhds

[JZ]

I agree with Matty, apples and oranges. Our cars are legal, Kaizo cars are not, plain and simple. Quebec rarely follows what the rest of the nation does and what happened there has no bearing on us. If rhd enthusiasts here are really worried, import a sh!t load of righties NOW and stockpile them for when they become 25 years old and sell them to our cousins down south lol. As well any rhd car imported when the law deemed them legal will not be taken away. The civil liberties lawyers will have a field day with that.

JZ

PS. Tyndago ftw.

[Matty]

^^ True
Ive heard a rumor for just about every province at one point in time. This year was especially tough with the CADA stuff and the insurance crack down on RHD's (in Ontario) but we pulled through and now the industry is rebounding.

[Phastwon]

I have to side with Matt and John right now too. There is always a rumor of RHD cars being banned, but nothing ever seems to happen. I think that the US situation is totally different than that in Canada. Regardless even if the rules do change, those of us with already registered cars will be grandfathered in anyways.

[leeaspin]

Why are these threads being repeated one after the other...I think that people understand what the government is trying to do to us car enthusiasts but seriously we need to keep all this talk in one thread. Not one after the other.

If people are really concerned about the 15 year rule chaning to the 25 year, then why get an R33 or even think about the R34 yet? Plain and simple if the car isnt legal then why do you have it? To say you have this car? And let it waste away for years in your garage? Or even get it taken away from you?

This is my opinion agree or disagree...everybody has their own i'm just trying to state mine!

[quadracer111]

The events in the US have no bearing on us here. The Canadian import industry is fine. We pulled through what was arguably our toughest year (2010) since importing became popular and here we stand.

The US cars that were impounded were illegal, plain and simple. If you live in the US and the car isnt 25 years old, don't import it.

I came here to post this, the cars in the US are illegal, end of story. Its like if a drug smuggler got caught and got his drugs taken away, because its illegal (not the same thing we are talking about obviously, but same principle, it's illegal).

[collector240sx]

Sorry if it's not exactly on topic, I'll try to stay close to it.

The think that worries me the most is, that we are eventually going to have a merger of the Canadian, US and Mexican rules.

If you don't believe me, check the rules on importing cars from Mexico. It's basically a count down.

It's actually a good thing for certain stuff, they already incorporated the front bumper laws making a couple of nice cars
usually only available in the state. (Evo 8-9, GTO, to name a few). But if it means loosing the 15 years import law in favor
of the 25 years in the US, it would suck really bad.

Another point is why do we have so many different standard ? Like come on I know that the current company want to
limit competition, but is this really necessary ? And if the government is so worried about safety, why don't they just
put license plate for of highway use only on those car ? It's not like they never heard of the concept.

And if I hear 1 more person say it for the environment, I'm going to loose it completely. Anyone here that doesn't have
short term memory lost here ? I can recall a certain electric car company in Quebec trying to get an approval to be able
to sell there cars in Canada. (company name was ZENN) While they couldn't sell there product in canada, they where
able to sell them in mexico, US, even Europe. Well they finally got the right to sell there car in Canada in 2008.
Where is the company now, well look at this little article.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2009/12/08/quebec-zenn-electric-car.html

And now Hydro Quebec teams up with FORD, Renault-Nissan for a pilot project on an electric car.
Wow got to love the local support here.

And if the government was just after the pollution cause by our car. Why would they want us to
get rid of it so fast. When looking at the pollution created by a car, you can't just choose to look
at the pollution it create after it leaves the dealership's parking lot. You have to take into
consideration the manufacturing process, the shipping of parts, the pollution created for the
creation of said parts. Hell right now that is the major draw back for the electric car. Has
much has I love the concept of the electric car, something has to be done about the amount
of pollution associated with building one. Which brings me to why isn't there government
grant on anti pollution accessory for our car. Hell, they build race car in japan that create
less then 1/10 of the pollution created by my daily driver, with special catalytic converter.

The only reason I can come up with is, they aren't interested in protecting the environment.
They would like you to believe that, but the only thing there after is keeping the big
corporation happy, so they have there backing for the next election. Even if the goal of
those big corporation is not in our best interest.

Sorry about the rant, it's just when I hear those ignorant piece of **** talk and make
decision about stuff they don't even understand, with the so call backing of group that
represent an industry that doesn't even acknowledge us unless there in deep ****. It
just drives me nuts.

I understand we need rule in order to protect the innocent. But where do we draw the line
between protection and freedom. Yes, I can build a car in my garage, after it's been approved
I can put in the road has a kit car, that's nice. Yet, I can't import a car that had to meet
crash test standard, and environment restriction, because it's not 15 years old. Wait I'll
just import it and keep it in storage, hell in my living room till it's 15 years old, oh wait that's
not legal either. Oh i see I'll modify it, now it should be legal right, NOT. Now tell me that's was
the best answer they could come up with. This can only lead to more project like a certain
white R34 (with out pointing finger). Which clearly even if legal are a far greater threat to
anyone on the road, then any unaltered version of said cars.

And for RHD car being cheap access to high powered alternative, it's true ,but is making it
illegal for EVERY ONE the only option. On the other hand, motorcycle are still legal, yet
they have a lot more limited field of view, and tell me they aren't high performance machine
with a strait face. Does that mean they should be illegal too. No, we just have to limit the
access to them, with something like a high performance license requirement (like they have
for motorcycle over 750cc).

edit

Why are these threads being repeated one after the other...I think that people understand what the government is trying to do to us car enthusiasts but seriously we need to keep all this talk in one thread. Not one after the other.

If people are really concerned about the 15 year rule chaning to the 25 year, then why get an R33 or even think about the R34 yet? Plain and simple if the car isnt legal then why do you have it? To say you have this car? And let it waste away for years in your garage? Or even get it taken away from you?

This is my opinion agree or disagree...everybody has their own i'm just trying to state mine!

When I look at a R34, I see it like a work of art, much like someone could look at a painting of Picasso.
Making it illegal to import them in the country at the place of making them illegal on the road, is a BIG
thing. Drug understandable, animal, fruit I can see why they could be dangerous. But making illegal
a piece of metal, treating it like a piece of contraband. when I grew up I was told that those where the
action of dictatorship government. I feel insulted just thinking about it. We have car museum for a
reason, do we absolutely have to wait X amount of years before a cars is worthy of being in a museum.
I think not.

If they bought a car knowingly that it was an illegal car, then they shouldn't even be surprise. BUT those
who bought there car thinking it was legal, and for all they knew it was, that's a another story. There has
to be a more ethical way to handle this, without having to reign over the population with fear.

Ok, I'll shut up now.
J-F

[JZ]

BTW I doubt the US having a 25 yr import law will influsence the Canadian Guv. We are a sovereign country with our own priorities. Otherwise we would have been in Iraq

[Oakville]

I came here to post this, the cars in the US are illegal, end of story. Its like if a drug smuggler got caught and got his drugs taken away, because its illegal (not the same thing we are talking about obviously, but same principle, it's illegal).

exactly what I feel. Its like the cocaine lovers of the world banding together trying to fight "the man" because they are seizing their beloved drugs. Its illegal, plain and simple. While its a shame Skylines are being seized and crushed/exported, I look at it as extremely dumb to be throwing money into fighting it...when a car is illegally imported, its illegal and went against very well known government laws, how the hell do you fight that?

[quadracer111]

I think us Canadians are safe for a while. From what I heard, transport canada basically told CADA to stfu and put them in their place. Now Quebec is another story, but they seem to like to do their own things (no offence intended, just the truth lol).

[cschepp]

My one question, will I have a problem with transferring ownership with all this going on? I have 2 cars I need to transfer into my name that are rhd!