Department of Motorist Violation
Today's a day for me to celebrate with regard to my R32 Skyline because I finally managed to convince Arizona's DMV (or MVD as it's properly called here in the Grand Canyon State) to let me register and title my weird furrin' car in this here United States of Eagleland.
If you've never actually owned an imported car (i.e. one that's brought in from overseas and not simply an "import car" - a car made by a foreign company) it's only natural you'd think the biggest hurdles would be with getting the car to the U.S. and then convincing the Federal government to let it in. Well, the truth is that in a lot of cases it's not. For a 25-year old car that's eligible the process is usually smooth because a lot of the companies and Federal agencies involved already know what's required to be done.
Contrast that with your local DMV clerk who probably has as much experience handling a true JDM vehicle as she has breeding werewolf puppies.
So you usually end up with one of two people: the person who can't be bothered and will use whatever excuse to pawn you off on someone else in a gratuitous display of "not-my-problem" or the person who honestly wants to help (yes, they do exist even at the DMV) but can't do too much because she really doesn't know what to do either.
I had to deal with both types in the three weeks or so it took me to get this car registered. It took no less than four trips to the DMV and two to a third-party title business. Finally, the whole situation only got resolved after having to talk to the supervisor herself of my local MVD office who was strict about following the rules but ultimately helped me get it sorted in a fairly reasonable manner. Yes, the whole process was about as much fun as having my eyebrows blowtorched off by a midget in a clown suit.
However, now it's done and I'm OFFICIALLY the first American owner of my Nismo R32 Skyline. Yeah, break out the pinatas and high-powered firearms boys! WE'RE CELEBRATIN' TA-NIGHT!
Ahem. Anyway, if you've come to this blog as a prospective Skyline or other foreign car owner talking about how the process can be a PITA is probably not what you want to hear. Worry not though because one of my goals for this blog is to hopefully shed light on the import and registration process to help you, you magnificent bastard who loves quirky four-wheel conveyances, to survive the battles that lie ahead!
My other goal for this blog is to just see how well my army of trained monkeys can string together random words into cohesive sentences. But you don't need to know that.
In any case, now that my own ordeal is over I plan on writing a series of blog posts outlining how the importation process works from start to oh-my-God-I'm-driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-car finish. Hopefully you'll stick around for that.
Or else the monkeys will go hungry.
If you've never actually owned an imported car (i.e. one that's brought in from overseas and not simply an "import car" - a car made by a foreign company) it's only natural you'd think the biggest hurdles would be with getting the car to the U.S. and then convincing the Federal government to let it in. Well, the truth is that in a lot of cases it's not. For a 25-year old car that's eligible the process is usually smooth because a lot of the companies and Federal agencies involved already know what's required to be done.
Contrast that with your local DMV clerk who probably has as much experience handling a true JDM vehicle as she has breeding werewolf puppies.
So you usually end up with one of two people: the person who can't be bothered and will use whatever excuse to pawn you off on someone else in a gratuitous display of "not-my-problem" or the person who honestly wants to help (yes, they do exist even at the DMV) but can't do too much because she really doesn't know what to do either.
I had to deal with both types in the three weeks or so it took me to get this car registered. It took no less than four trips to the DMV and two to a third-party title business. Finally, the whole situation only got resolved after having to talk to the supervisor herself of my local MVD office who was strict about following the rules but ultimately helped me get it sorted in a fairly reasonable manner. Yes, the whole process was about as much fun as having my eyebrows blowtorched off by a midget in a clown suit.
However, now it's done and I'm OFFICIALLY the first American owner of my Nismo R32 Skyline. Yeah, break out the pinatas and high-powered firearms boys! WE'RE CELEBRATIN' TA-NIGHT!
Ahem. Anyway, if you've come to this blog as a prospective Skyline or other foreign car owner talking about how the process can be a PITA is probably not what you want to hear. Worry not though because one of my goals for this blog is to hopefully shed light on the import and registration process to help you, you magnificent bastard who loves quirky four-wheel conveyances, to survive the battles that lie ahead!
My other goal for this blog is to just see how well my army of trained monkeys can string together random words into cohesive sentences. But you don't need to know that.
In any case, now that my own ordeal is over I plan on writing a series of blog posts outlining how the importation process works from start to oh-my-God-I'm-driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-car finish. Hopefully you'll stick around for that.
Or else the monkeys will go hungry.
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| More Bothans died to get this than there did to get the Death Star plans. | (Note: not actual plate for my R32 - the real one has legible numbers and things) |
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