WOW. i never even realised that they sell Alfas in Mexico!
Surely there must be ways to get it legalized. I've seen or heard about street legal Nissan Skylines in California, and a few Renault Spyders, and all sorts of other Eurocars that get brought into the US.
A friend of mine said he saw a 'new-ish' TVR floating around San Francisco.
When GM and Fiat were kissing cousins, there were two Alfa dealerships in Mexico - in Monterrey and Mexico City. Once the two broke their ties, the dealerships were closed. This left many new Alfa's running around Mexico with little support. I have seen a 166 and 156 in Texas with Mexican plates. Because of NAFTA, you can legally cross the border with for several months at a time without problems.
I have received several calls in the last year from late model 156,166, and 147 owners asking if we worked on these models. I told them we would try, but since these models were never brought into the US, technical and parts availability are hard to come by.
We had a customer who wanted a 156GTA. We spoke with a big ICI here in Houston. After much research and many phone calls overseas, a late model Alfa would be every expensive if not impossible to legally convert for acceptance here in the US by the EPA and DOT. The biggest problem was the glass, and lights. Major changes would be required to meet the crash standards. The shop guesstimated a cost of around $50K if possible to get the lights and glass to meet the US standards. The customer balked when you figure the cost of a new 156GTA, shipping costs, and conversion costs.
Hopefully in 2009 the 159 will be available in a Q4 configuration. I will be in line to get one of those.
glass and lights? REALLY? why is it $50k to get the glass and lights to meet us standards? couldn't you just take glass from another car, and trim it to fit?
I have purchased a 1997 Alfa Spider and it is here in the US sadly sitting in my garage. It may never get DOT approved and allowed to be driven. The conversion to federal standards is actually not to expensive, $3500-10,000, but without crash test results the NHTSA will not allow the alfa to be imported.
The Skyline importer in Torrance, CA is a RI (a NHTSA registered importer) actually crash tested the cars to provide safety results. They are now able to import those and resell legally to US. If anyone out there has an extra 1/4 mil, we can partner up and become a RI and crash a few alfa's to start our own import business.
I am pretty sure the Italian consulate here in NYC has a few new Alfas that they cruise around in. Maybe I will take a walk over there in the near future...
hmmm....that get new car titles website is pretty interesting.
are there people who've tried it with newer European cars? does anybody know of anyone who HAS succeeded?
Just last week, i saw a guy on VW Vortex who has a 2001 Audi S3 in Colorado. A car which was NEVER sold in the USA. He has registered its insurance as an S4.
ANYTHING is possible...it just takes alot of dedication to get it going...
There are certain cars that have had crash tests done in their home country but have not imported to the U.S. The 1997 GTV Spider was not one of those. Think about this, Bill Gates, you know the MicroSoft guy had a Porsche 959 sitting in customs, then his warehouse for a dozen years because of no crash test documentation. Don't you think Bill Gates and his small stash of change could have found a way to drive his car on U.S. roads. I'm sure ole Bill just was not dedicated enough to find a way and he got lazy
actually that's not true. Bill Gates drives his Porsche 959 to work...actually he had his 959 reposessed by the government a few years ago, because he was driving it MORE than the government said he could. They'd given him a certain mileage he could drive it, and he exceeded it! I guess that's what money got him, a limited ability to drive it. I have a cousin who lives near him, and has seen him driving it around many times.
BTW, 2 weeks ago, i saw a Porsche 959 sitting in the Porsche dealership here in NY. Turns out the owner has 2 of them!
IMHO the big kicker is that if you did get the car in here on the shakey legal grounds like the title thing and registering with your insurance as a different car (Audi S4 vs. S3), you are opening yourself up to every abulance chaser in the country. Imagine if someone hit you in your 'legal car', and was injured. The other party's lawyer/insurance co (as well as your own insurance co) is going to make life difficult for you even if it isn't your fault. Welcome to the USA - Land of Lawyers.
this just happened over the weekend at an Audi/VW GTG in Maryland. This is the S3 i was talking about....the owner got drunk, arrested, and now the car is probably gonna be destroyed!
the tests MUST be done here, under their own rules/equipment/regulations/and monitoring.
lame...but true.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Alfa Romeo Forums
2.1M posts
88.6K members
Since 2002
A forum community dedicated to Alfa Romeo owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, parts, modifications, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!