Quote:
Originally Posted by Win
As a Canadian who went through the experience of importing a CDN car to the state of California during the late 90's, I've told my friends NEVER to f'n do it again. So not worth the hassle but this is for Cali - a nanny state, not sure how other states deal with out of country imports. It was for my Integra Type-R at the time. After all said and done, I wouldn't do it again.... so as a 1M owner now, as I read this thread... I have doubts if it's worth it (including falling in love with a 1M)... it's about patience I guess to find "the one" but even in my case the chase for 1M is a big part of an owners story.
Yes it's relatively ok to import a car from Canada but it's "work"
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Yes, it took patience and I agree that importing a Canadian car to California merits a badge of honor! : )
With that said, in the 90s cars were different in 49 states from California. What makes the 1M a little easier is that it comes from the factory with a US EPA AND CALIFORNIA AIR RESOURCES BOARD certification under the hood! Canadian 1Ms have them, which really helps. When I crossed into the US and Customs was inspecting the car, they were looking for a bit then all of sudden a guy yells out..."Joe, it has an US EPA sticker....ALL GOOD!"
Same when registering at DMV, the guy noticed the decal too.
The SMOG test was a non-event and the hardest part was that they took close to 3 months to issue me plates. They did give me a temporary permit, but I couldn't get a bank loan on it until it was registered with tags.