No Import For You: The Two States Where You Can't Have A Skyline
In my guide on importing a JDM car I
explained the difference between a car being federally legal for
import versus being state legal for registration. As you could gather
from the guide, there are a lot of legal hoops you have to jump
through before you can own a Skyline in the USA and unfortunately the
mess you have to navigate changes from state to state.
Two states in particular need to be
singled out but I didn't have time to elaborate in my original guide.
Those two are California and Hawaii – funny how two states with
some of the closest ties to Japanese culture have put up the biggest
roadblocks to cars imported from that country.
Godzilla Versus The Smog Monster
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| California needs to get its priorities straight. Image credit: carthrottle.com |
Let's start with
California, since the import car scene is so strongly associated with
it and a lot of prospective Skyline owners live there. As you
probably well know, California has had major issues with air
pollution and in the process of cleaning things up they established
CARB – the California Air Resources Board. CARB is literally and
figuratively a four-letter word for many car enthusiasts because they
dictate emissions laws in the state and so they've made a lot of
performance modifications difficult or impossible in California. The
rules have their place – after all the golden state had huge issues
with smog before – but they do put a damper on what gearheads can
do.
For most of the
other 49 states, EPA guidelines usually set the standard for emissions
regulations but CARB adds an extra layer of restrictions. Basically,
if you want to register a car newer than 1975 in California it has to
be certified by the manufacturer to meet the state emissions
requirements or you have to pay a lab to test it and give a
certification if it's a "direct import" - a foreign car not sold in the US (your Skyline for example).
Unfortunately
we're not talking here about a simple smog check at your corner
emissions testing place, it's done by a specialist lab and costs
about $1500 a pop, pass or fail. The RB26 was designed before current
stricter emissions standards so without modification, it will fail
(emissions are one big reason Nissan changed to the VR38 motor for
the R35). If you do fail and you modify the car to try and pass, it's
another 1500 smackers to retest. The modifications themselves add a
large amount to the bill since it means adding additional catalytic
converters to the exhaust system – that all has to be custom
fabricated since there's no existing bolt-on solution.
If you can modify
your car to pass the initial emissions test then you still have to do a regular smog check every
2 years or else you can't maintain a valid registration (unless you live in a smog exempt locality).
So, for Califonia,
registering a newer-model JDM Skyline is potentially doable but at a
large expense – in Hawaii, the state regulations put up a roadblock
that prevents it entirely.
Hawaii Two-Three
In the land of
leis, beaches, and active
volcanoes, the Nissan Skyline is one foreign visitor that the local
government doesn't say “Aloha!” to. That's because the state
regulations only allow for a car to be registered there if it has a
FMVSS label. That's the little sticker I've mentioned before in other
posts that's commonly referred to as the “Fed label”.
This
label basically gives the cars VIN number and specifications and
tells an inspector, buyer, or innocent bystanders that the car meets
current US government automobile standards. As you already know since
the Skyline is a JDM model that was never officially imported to the
US it doesn't have a little sticker that says “My name is Barrack
Obama, and I approve this mad-tyte vehicle”. Unfortunately,
section 567.4 of Hawaii's motor vehicle statutes say that any car to
be registered in the state has to have a label from the manufacturer
saying it meets all applicable FMVSS requirements - so without a Fed
label you're not getting your Skyline registered in the 50th
state.
If you want to read the actual statutes, Sean Morris posted them on one of his blogs here:
Well, Maybe You
CAN Have One...
Where does that leave the fan of fine Japanese automotive workmanship
then? If you live in California or Hawaii does that mean you have to
give up on your dream of JDM car ownership and suffer in your sad,
pathetic states that only have gorgeous scenery, good-looking
residents, and wonderful weather but no amazing Japanese machinery to
boast of?
Well, no. You do have potential solutions.
You could always move out. Okay, that's probably not the
popular option. I kid, I kid.
For California, you can of course wade through the convoluted
certification process and eventually own a properly emissions-legal
Skyline after considerable time and expense. The only other
alternative is what a lot of people do, register their cars in a
different state. Of course, that's not really on the up-and-up so
don't blame anyone else if the local constabulary happens to stop you
and in the process you earn a large hit to the wallet and the undying affection of your neighborhood police officers.
In Hawaii, the situation seems more bleak (you'd really stick out
like a sore thumb with an out-of-state plate on islands hundreds of
miles from the rest of the US) but there is one tiny spark of hope.
Since a car imported and certified by a registered importer has to
have a label affixed in the process, this meets the letter of the law
in Hawaii. What this means is that if you can find one, a Motorex
imported Skyline is technically legal to register in Hawaii. A
25-year old federally exempt car won't be an option but the handful
of Motorex cars could be. Of course, that's an expensive option given
their rarity but at least it's an option.
Lastly, there's always the chance that legislation can change. If you
live in either state, you could petition your local politicians to
amend the laws. There was one such petition for Hawaii before that
failed to gain traction. Now that more and more people are interested
in being JDM car owners the present time may be the right opportunity
to try again.
With that said, if you're a JDM car fan living in either of these two
states, I wish you the best of luck and hope someday you'll be able
to own a foreign import of your own. Or if you've found some LEGAL way to get your JDM car registered in either state feel free to post it in the comments for the benefit of other like-minded enthusiasts.
UPDATE (November 24, 2015) - International Vehicle Importers is now offering California-legal conversions for R32s and other JDM cars. More details in my post here
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