Kaizo-Owned Nissan Skyline GT-R Impounded in San Diego

Good thing we have Big Brother looking after us all.

why does the gov't have such a hard-on for this car?

so many people have been in jail over this stuff

what happened to Motorex??

Car importation is a PERFECT example of how the government controls and man-handles the market. There is obviously a market for these cars, and yet Big Brother decides that they know how to better spend your money than you do. There's absolutely no reason why these imports shouldn't be opened up. The environmental concerns are marginal at best.

The sad part is that they have the ability (and wield it often) to do this to any other market they'd like to as well. Sugar is a fine example.

15 years old is in Canada. Here in the US its 21 years for the EPA, and 25 years for the DOT and the vehicles are exempt.

So far Kaizo has not been charged with anything, after labor day, there may be charges filed. If you follow the link to the letter above, you will see a 60 day to Surrender or Export letter that was sent to several owners.

Motorex, what happened ? Look up 0-60 Magazine, and the article that they wrote on Motorex. Too much partying is really what happened to Motorex.

How many of you who think government shouldn't have a say in which cars can be imported voted for the Obamanation and support government healthcare? Think about it.

"Good thing we have Big Brother looking after us all."

Yes, how could we survive without the Safety Nazis and Eco-Weenies?

adamb1
I hate every time this car forum turn into political debate. But how does this R34 has anything to do with Obama polices. Besides, not everything government involved were bad, if you hate public services so much why don’t you go support privatizing our high way systems and closing all the post offices….

@ adamb1: Stop implying that those against government intervention in trade are for government intervention elsewhere.

@ shaohsiin: Private highways and post offices? Sounds like two EXCELLENT ideas to me.

I think you should be able to import whatever you like but you must sign a wavier that states you can't sue anyone if you are in an accident and are injured as as result of lower safety standards.

If it doesn't meet enviromental standards then there should be an eco fee of about a thousand or so to plant some trees or something.

That should make every happy.

BTW ... Public heathcare is much better then a system where insurance companies get rich and the wealthy get better treatment and care then the poor.

The only issue is what's the best way to do it.

the government just like to give out all kinda bs reasons and excuses. and i believe the skyline in the fast and furious movie is actually a skyline GTS with GTR visuals so it looks like one. they did that to cut cost and GTS are easier to find.

@4g63 , the hero car was a GT-R. The stunt cars were not.

Some behind the scenes pictures - http://gtrusa.blogspot.com/2009/03/fast-and-furious-4-behind-scenes.html

Under government health care, it is the general public that will become poor and suffer while they have to wait in line. Meanwhile, the government elitists and their ilk will be the ones who get the best treatment. We all have access to the best treatment now.

If their plan is so wonderful, why isn't Congress and the President willing to put themselves and their families under the very system they're trying to unconstitutionally impose on the rest of us?

When everyone owns something, no one does. Thus, people don't use it wisely because they think someone else is paying for it.

Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with people getting rich when they've ethically worked hard for it, and created numerous employment opportunities for others.

"I hope you get swine-flu and die, idiot. You are the type that is[sic] destroy this country and the world. Idiot."

I'm so glad that liberals are kind, compassionate, and articulate.
Unlike those knuckle-dragging conservatives...

"Public healthcare is much better then a system where insurance companies get rich and the wealthy get better treatment and care then the poor."

@firstwagon: I don't have time to argue about this but public healthcare systems are often lopsided as well. People (gen public) often get less quality care with full public systems (long waits at clinics and less innovation in product development).

back to cars:

As an owner of a 1995 R33 Skyline (many years ago in Japan) I can say that car was THRILLING to drive. There were some minor adjustments to it :)

Price paid used: US$25,000. If Nissan launched a new Silvia for the US market at a price much lower than the GTR I would be all over it.

From Wikipedia:

"In early September 2007, it was confirmed by a few unnamed Japanese magazines that Nissan is planning a new 4-cylinder, rear-wheel-drive, turbo sports coupe. Evidence of this confirmed report has been popping up all over the web with photos of what appears to be a test mule FM chassis that has been heavily chopped down and welded back together. The test mule FM chassis has been shortened quite a bit from a normal 350Z and resembles what appears to be a much smaller hatchback hybrid (this can be seen in the images on the doors, roofline, front bumper and bonnet). this new model might be called either the S16 or the V16."

Wow...me thinks apesoloist might have an agenda...anyway...the importation of these cars should be no different than importing other JDM parts. Ive looked into the JDM market for my WRX since all the good stuff is sold overseas. Unl;ess it was sold here previously it seems to difficult to bother procuring. shipping too can really kill the transaction when you are crossing the Pacific and the US to get to my home in PA. SOA needs to give us enthusiasts a pipeline to the good JDM stuff and even access to Prodrive parts from the EU.

The only problem I can find with firstwagon's proposal for a safety waiver is pedestrian impact standards. It seems like compliance with pedestrian impact standards is a major reason that car fascias have to be tweaked when sold to different markets. Maybe if we'd actually teach people to drive and only licensed talented, responsible individuals pedestrian impact standards would be a moot point, but that's a discussion for a different time, much like healthcare [glares at adamb1, shaohsiin, flicmod, firstwagon, cwc1, inlinesix, and hopes Edmunds drops the banhammer hard on aptsolecist. You ought to be ashamed, jerk.)

"Maybe if we'd actually teach people to drive and only licensed talented, responsible individuals pedestrian impact standards would be a moot point..."

Pedestrian impact standards are much like helmet and seat belt laws in that they are an unwarranted interference with the process of natural selection.

"There's absolutely no reason why these imports shouldn't be opened up"

The incompatibility of lighting and signaling equipment on the US road system is one very important reason why the import of vehicles is so tightly regulated. In the US and other countries that drive on the right side of the road, headlamp beam patterns rise up opposite traffic to illuminate overhead signs. Bring a vehicle over that was originally from a country that drives on the left and now you have a situation where that car will blind oncoming traffic at night. As the GT-R was only intended to be sold in the Japanese Domestic Market, you cannot switch out the headlamp assemblies for a LHD version.

"How many of you who think government shouldn't have a say in which cars can be imported voted for the Obamanation and support government healthcare? Think about it."

I hope you realize that the law that you are railing against was put into law under Reagan, the champion of free market economics, in 1988 under the Motor Vehicle Safety Compliance Act.

From Wikipedia:

"The grey market was successful enough that it ate significantly into the business of Mercedes-Benz of North America and their dealers. The corporation launched a successful million-dollar congressional lobbying effort to stop private importation of vehicles not officially intended for the U.S. market. An organisation called AICA (Automotive Importers Compliance Association) was formed by importers in California, Florida, New York, Texas, and elsewhere to counter some of these actions by Mercedes lobbyists, but the Motor Vehicle Safety Compliance Act was passed in 1988, effectively ending private import of grey-market vehicles to the United States. No evidence was presented that grey-import vehicles' safety performance differed significantly from that of US models, and there have been allegations of improper lobbying, but the issue has never been raised in court."

Sounds exactly what is currently going on with healthcare "reform" in Washington. The discourse is controlled by lobbyists spending millions of dollars per day to create legislation in the best interest of the insurance companies not in the best interest of people struggling to pay for ever rising healthcare costs. Cut the petty partisanship and acknowledge that everyone in Washington, Republicans and Democrats alike, only care about the well-being of their corporate donors.

"Pedestrian impact standards are much like helmet and seat belt laws in that they are an unwarranted interference with the process of natural selection."

I sharply disagree. I've been hit by a vehicle as a pedestrian, and it was in no way my fault. I came upon an intersection just as a Mercedes was pulling up to my left. She had a stop sign. I had none. I still stopped, made eye contact, and while maintaining contact resumed crossing the intersection. Right when I'm in front of the Mercedes the driver pulls forward and hits me. Despite making eye contact, the driver was simply in La-La-Land and didn't process that the person in front of her meant "DON'T GO." I ended up going over the hood and partially over the roof before rolling over the side. I'm very thankful there was no hood ornament, and except for a lost layer of skin on my shin and general soreness I was OK. This wasn't a failure of natural selection. It was a failure to weed out bad drivers.

Oh yeah, and please stop talking about politics. It has no place here if it isn't related to automobiles and driving.